Topic: The Ethics of Going Armed

[Pandora]

You know how it is, you bring up a familiar site and then follow the links, one after another, until you don't know where you started (unless you're keeping careful track).  I went click by click to the beginning and present it from the beginning to the end.

Here first; I'd read it already, so play catch-up.

Now here:

Here’s my own story. In the fall of 2009 I got injured on duty and ended up hobbling around with a cane for a few months. I was under doctor’s orders to limit my walking and after a few months I had cabin fever pretty hardcore. I was so tired of having to ask my husband to do the simplest tasks for me. I just wanted to Get Out!

On December 6, 2009, I decided I wanted to do one thing – go shopping. I had been unable to stay on my feet long enough to comfortably shop for more than an hour since August. I almost didn’t take a gun. I knew I’d likely be trying on clothes, and it’s such a hassle either keeping up with my Safepacker purse, or ensuring my traditional carry Glock 19 wouldn’t freak out the Christmas shoppers, or constantly clipping and unclipping my IWB Keltec P32 holster. But I settled on the Keltec, and just slipped it into a jacket pocket. At the last moment, I also grabbed my camera, remembering I wanted to snap some photos of the river with ice forming.

I didn’t leave the house until after 2pm, so I knew I should do the pictures first because it would be dark by five, when I’d no doubt be done shopping. I didn’t want to walk too far to get to the best river photo spots, but I remembered there was a road hardly anyone but police and maintenance workers knew about that ran behind our local minor league baseball field that would take me nearly to the waterfront.

When I pulled in, I noticed there was a newer model Honda-style car parked a little farther down, by the stadium dumpsters, and a guy not really dressed for the weather (it was 6 degrees and windy with CRAZY windchill) was moving around by the car. I figured he was either with maintenance, or raiding the dumpster, and I instinctually kept an eye on him.

Sure enough, I barely got 50 feet from my pickup when he started heading over the rise toward me. The hair stood up on the back of my neck.

In Gavin Debecker’s book, The Gift of Fear, he talks about how victims interviewed after being victimized start out saying “I don’t know why, but something felt wrong…” but if you drill down and get them to go into sharp detail, they can eventually name the series of details that led them to that intuition that told them FEAR THIS.

At the time, I was thin slicing based on my prior experience predicting confrontational behavior, but now I can look back and point out all those details that sent my brain into red alert mode. I had my camera in my hands at waist-height and quickly held down the shutter while aiming in his direction.

Read the rest and be sure to check out the link on "thin slicing".

Now the last, which was the first:

You’re not the better human by not fighting back. You’re not the better human for choosing to have no claws or teeth. You’re not the better human for delegating responsibility your personal safety to some underpaid guy or girl with a tin badge. And you damn sure don’t get to claim a halo for your attitude.

Look, threatening to end someone else’s life for the contents of their wallet or access to their body is the worst kind of social contract violation. Responding to that kind of violation with passivity and compliance only enables and propagates the act. If enough people meekly hand over their possessions, the violator not only has no reason to stop doing what he’s doing, he has a strong incentive to keep doing it. If you could have stopped him but didn’t, then you’re at least partially responsible when he finishes with you and then goes down the street to do the same thing to someone who would have stopped him but couldn’t.

No, carrying a gun is not a guarantee that you’ll be free from harm. But I carry one because it gives me options that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I can use it or leave it in its holster, but the choice is mine. We all take a path every day that’s occasionally frequented by mountain lions, and I choose to walk that path with my own set of teeth and claws just in case. There’s nothing noble or moral about walking that path unarmed and making yourself easier prey. You may respect the mountain lion’s right to live more than you do your own, but he will have forgotten you as soon as you’ve passed through his digestive tract. I’ll still have friendly words for anyone I meet along the road, and I’ll be a happy man if I take all my walks on that path without ever having to use my gun, but I won’t be an easy meal, and I don’t think it’s morally superior to intentionally make yourself one. And I’m amused by people telling me that I am paranoid, because don’t you know how rare mountain lion attacks really are? It’s all just statistics and stuff that happens to other people…until you’re the one that ends up on the menu by chance.

If you don’t like guns, and you don’t want to carry one, that is your choice, and I respect it. If you don’t like the fact that I carry one, it’s your prerogative to judge me according to your system of ethics. But if your dislike extends to supporting laws that would make it illegal for me to carry that gun, understand this: if I mean you harm, trying to disarm me is pointless…and if I don’t mean you harm, disarming me won’t make you any safer.

The conventional joke is to ask the armed what they're afraid of, and the punchline is "not a damned thing".

[charlesoakwood]

World's Shortest Slasher Flick

[trapeze]

Lately I have taken to carrying a gun in my vehicle. I don't know why. I live in an area that is relatively crime free. I need to get one that I can actually carry on my person. I love my SW Sigma 40 but it's too big to carry casually.

I guess I need to work on that.

Good post. I read every bit of it.

[Libertas]

Good post Pan.  Another fine example of being prepared, being aware of your environment and looking to your own protection above anything else.

And I guess that intuition and instinct stuff can also be called thin-slicing.  Whatever it is called, it is a means to assist in our self preservation, so don't ignore it.

[trapeze]

Libertas...I will take this opportunity to congratulate you on reaching 10,000 posts. As I write this you are at 9999. That's quite an achievement and we are all happy that you are such a good member here at IAL.

[Libertas]

Yer makin' me blush!  I better cover myself...

 

[Glock32]

Lately I have taken to carrying a gun in my vehicle. I don't know why. I live in an area that is relatively crime free. I need to get one that I can actually carry on my person. I love my SW Sigma 40 but it's too big to carry casually.

I guess I need to work on that.

Good post. I read every bit of it.

That echoes another point in the article: a .22 pocket pistol on you is better than a .44 Magnum at home.  My casual carry is a Bersa .380 that fits comfortably in my front pocket (in a DeSantis Nemesis pocket holster).  It doesn't have the power of my 357 SIG or 45 or 9mm, but 7+1 Gold Dots in 380 beats fingernails hands down.

[Alphabet Soup]

Back when I had liberal friends I was friendly with a couple who lived in downtown Seattle. They loved the "atmosphere" and "energy" of city living. One evening I met up with them to go pub crawling. As we made our way down towards Pioneer Square (where there is a concentration of nightlife) my buddy remarked on how "nervous" I was.

"Whatcha talkin 'bout?" I replied.

"The way you're always looking around, it's like you're expecting trouble" he says.

"No, I'm looking around because I want to avoid trouble"

After we made our way to one of the bars and got drinks in hand we talked about it some more. He had noticed the constant scanning of the street but hadn't seen how I positioned myself so that I wouldn't be stepping blindly out from corners or between buildings or how I applied my own primitive form of thin-slicing to make risk assessments on the various degenerates we encountered. Or how I always kept my draw hand free and unencumbered.

They enjoyed my company because I was funny and irreverent, but disliked how "uptight" I was. It was a curious relationship because of the disparities. They knew I carried and (naturally and reflexively) she disapproved. I considered them interesting people but terribly naive.

Ultimately they got robbed. Fortunately they only lost wallets. A while afterward they (he) approached me with gun questions. I did a bunch of soft-sell and actually got both of them to go to the range with me. I took a variety of handguns so that they wouldn't be overwhelmed by my carry piece. He was able to talk her into letting him purchase a .22 pistol for "home protection".

[Pandora]

Glad y'all enjoyed it.  I found the explanation of "thin-slicing" very interesting.  I believe it's something a lot of people do without even thinking about it, and that it IS instinct.  For others, it's instinct enhanced by experience or training.

I have found myself considerably more attentive since I've been carrying.

Oh, and congratulations from me too, Libertas!

[Libertas]

Is that Pan being nice again?  OK, who took the real Pan away?!   

[Libertas]

Lately I have taken to carrying a gun in my vehicle. I don't know why. I live in an area that is relatively crime free. I need to get one that I can actually carry on my person. I love my SW Sigma 40 but it's too big to carry casually.

I guess I need to work on that.

Good post. I read every bit of it.

That echoes another point in the article: a .22 pocket pistol on you is better than a .44 Magnum at home.  My casual carry is a Bersa .380 that fits comfortably in my front pocket (in a DeSantis Nemesis pocket holster).  It doesn't have the power of my 357 SIG or 45 or 9mm, but 7+1 Gold Dots in 380 beats fingernails hands down.

Like the Bersa!   

With our warming temps I've been carrying the Bersa now.  My father & BIL liked mine so much they went and got one too.

[Pandora]

Is that Pan being nice again?  OK, who took the real Pan away?!   

 

 

 

[Glock32]

Like the Bersa!   

With our warming temps I've been carrying the Bersa now.  My father & BIL liked mine so much they went and got one too.

I love the Bersa.  I haven't kept up with the going rate on them, but when I got mine (2000 or 2001) they were right around $200. One of the best deals in firearms IMO.

[Libertas]

Like the Bersa!   

With our warming temps I've been carrying the Bersa now.  My father & BIL liked mine so much they went and got one too.

I love the Bersa.  I haven't kept up with the going rate on them, but when I got mine (2000 or 2001) they were right around $200. One of the best deals in firearms IMO.

Fleet Farm had a recent sale, I think my BIL got one for around $260, not bad for a reliable handgun.