Aug 25
Concealed Handgun Carry Course
This weekend I took the Concealed Carry course required by the State of New Mexico to obtain a permit to carry concealed. I must say it was an eye-opening experience. Before I went into the class, I thought 16 hours of instruction time was going to be too much. I now know that it was not nearly enough.
Now what exactly do I mean by not nearly enough time? Is it because people who pursue concealed carry licenses are stealthy, devious criminal types who want to find a way to carry handguns concealed just so they can go on a rampage and fill the streets with blood? No. It is because the cause of protecting yourself and those you love from great bodily harm, injury, or death is such a complex one, that 16 hours can barely do it justice. People who pursue licenses to carry firearms are not crazy, and they are not “gun nuts” as portrayed by the gun control freaks. They are law-abiding citizens who will not be victims, who will not just go quietly into the night, who will not just “do whatever the criminal says and you will live” types. They are people who are taking responsibility for theirs and their family’s protection, because the police can’t be everywhere all the time.
“I carry a gun, ’cause a Cop is too heavy.”
Bruce J. Emmott NYPD Ret.
People who take responsibility for their own safety and protection? When was the last time you ever heard of anyone taking responsibility for anything in the news? Everyone in this country sues someone else because it is never their fault. All of a sudden inanimate objects become living things with independent will, and a human being with true independent will submits themselves to the will of an inanimate object. Ridiculous. If you stole, you stole. If you maimed, you maimed. If you killed, you killed. And if you shot, you shot. No one else. Nothing else.
The Concealed Carry course teaches you everything you need to know about how NOT to get into a fight. You should avoid confrontation as much as possible. A firearm is one of the most deadly weapons ever invented by man. As such, using one carries great responsibility. I for one don’t think anyone should be allowed to use a firearm unless they have gotten some training. That training should start in the home when a person is a child, and should continue as an adult from trained experts. It’s easy to shoot a gun and this makes it even easier to hurt or destroy something you love. If you find yourself in a street fight, it’s even more important to know how to handle a gun.
There are a few people in this world who believe they are better than you are, and know better than you do. These are the “philosopher-kings” that Plato talks about in the Republic, those all-knowing, we-know-whats-best-for-you types that would never take it upon themselves to wield the tools of a person that can best defend you from the horrors of the world we live in. These are the types of people who cry to the heavens “get rid of all the guns!” yet go nowhere in this world without armed bodyguards. Hypocrites like Rosie O’Donnell (who believe YOU aren’t allowed to own a gun but she is), Senator Chuck Schumer (who can carry a handgun concealed in New York but campaigns for the ban of private citizen’s ownership of handguns), and Senator Diane Feinstein (who possesses a rare unrestricted concealed carry license in California, led a “turn in your guns for meltdown” campaign, and herself turned in a cheap model gun for show but kept a good .357 magnum for her own protection). These people believe they are all better than you are. And their behavior is the best indicator of where their hearts truly lie.
This is why I find it amazing that with all of these loud gun control voices blathering on about how guns kill people (like McDonald’s makes you fat) that concealed carry licenses ever get past any left-leaning state legislature. New Mexico has long been a Democratic stronghold as far as the state legislature goes, but even we got a concealed carry statute in 2003. I thought this was an amazing insight by liberal thinkers that it is possible for a law-abiding citizen to protect themselves in a legal manner. They were probably confronted with the hard facts that concealed carry laws actually reduce crime, not increase it. After all, the criminal’s mentality is all about themselves: what I need, how do I get it, and how do I not get caught. When people have lived their entire lives stealing, hurting, or killing to get what they want, and when what they want makes them feel better than anything else in the world, they don’t make life decisions like you and me do. They make “right-now” decisions, as in “I need that truck.” And it just happens to be your truck. Can you persuade him that what he’s about to do is a bad life decision? No. He just needs a truck, and he needs it now. You are in the way.
The victim mentality as generally taught today MAKES people into victims. It doesn’t prevent them from harm, it allows a criminal to do MORE harm than he normally would have had that same citizen defended himself. It is a question of dignity. Life is precious, but if you want to extinguish mine or my family’s just you can have my car, my dignity and life must be preserved. And contrary to popular belief, the police are not your personal guardians. They do not keep you safe. You keep you safe. The police will analyze your crime scene very well for you AFTER you are dead and maybe even catch the guy who killed you, but you will still be DEAD. They will not (nor can they) protect you when a crime is in progress. Police catch bank robbers AFTER they rob the bank, murderers AFTER they have committed murder, and rapists AFTER they have raped. Otherwise, they would have to read minds a la Minority Report, and no one can do that. It is your responsibility to protect you and yours. No one elses.
Concealed carry is a step in the right direction; a GIANT step. It is a known fact that criminals buy guns from their homies or steal them from law-abiding citizens. They don’t walk into the Sportsman’s Warehouse down the street, fill out the Federal background check paperwork like a good law-abiding criminal and get their guns the way the law says will prevent handgun violence. They just don’t. They meet in the desert or back alley, dole out cash for the Glock their homie just stole from a $400K house, and start shooting gangsta! The absolute fear of these pissant little people is that a potential victim may fight back, or, worse yet, fight back with a handgun. They want your truck, but they don’t want to get hurt doing it. They want easy targets. They don’t want to go back to jail.
“Do everything they say and you’ll live through it” is a dream come true for violent offenders. Read the article “On Sheep, Sheepdogs and Wolves” by Dave Grossman. It eloquently illustrates how much denial people are in about the world around them, and how shocking it is to their system when violence does enter their own little world. It’s a violent world out there, and as much as we would like to think we are not animals, we are. There are predators out there who are stalking the weak, the easy-to-pick-off, just like a lionness would a pack of antelope. The weakest or smallest are usually good eating for the predator. But if anytime during their stalking the antelope perk up, look around and see a predator, the predator usually walks away saying “Dammit! They saw me.” “Do everything they say and you’ll live through it” is a philosophy where the antelope would just show a lionness it’s belly under attack: not only am I submitting to you, I am submitting to you TOTALLY. What do you think would happen to the antelope? CHOMP! This is wrong. Law-abiding citizens need to defend themselves.
It’s better to have some chance at surviving rather than none at all. Don’t count on the incompetence of your attacker to save you or the ones you love from dying.
