Do you think that because I’m arguing this point on a message board that I’m actually walking around with an illegal concealed weapon?
Go see the other thread. . .
I asked a completely innocent (believe it or not) question:
Nothing trollish at all.
Some douche answered with a rolleyes, so I dug my heels in a little, and then **Gabe ** started this thread.
I don’t really even care about the issue. It just seems really bizarre to me that people are going places where they feel the need to carry, but the lack of a PERMIT is stopping them.
Trunk, I’m a gun owner and I support your right to carry a gun. And although I’m a bit of an anti-establishment kinda guy myself, even I think you might want to reconsider your position, albeit for different reasons.
The decision to shoot someone is usually made in a split second, and under extreme stress. In that split second you are having to calculate and weigh the consequences of many things, and you can’t afford your judgement to be clouded by the knowledge that you are already offsides.
When faced with that life or death situation, you need to be absolutely clear in your own mind that all your ducks are in a row. The subconscious is a powerful thing, and it tends to bubble to the surface at the most inopportune of times.
There was no need for you to espouse and expound upon your irresponsible views in the original thread, either. But you did. One good turn deserves another.
I interrupted a burglary, got blindsided and was left for dead. For quite some time afterward I was afeared they’d be coming back to finish the job so I carried my Glock in a waistband holster.
Eight years on I don’t carry and I probably won’t until I feel the need to get a permit. In Colorado it’s ridiculously easy to get a CCW, but can take up to six months. If you feel threatened enough that you need to carry a weapon, that’s a long damn time to wait.
Permit or not, I do believe that had I been carrying the night of the attack I would not be around to post here today.
CCW is not a magic wand. A weapon is a tool - a powerful tool, but still only a tool. Nothing more, nothing less. OTOH, without CCW, you’ve got one tool less than you might.
If you felt unsafe and had applied for a CCW and decided that you couldn’t wait for the red tape to clear and chose to carry in the interim, I doubt if many people here would condemn you for it.
What seems to be lost on all of you is that I’m arguing from a completely hypothetical point of view.
I’m getting called a gun nut and an irresponsible gun owner, when I’m neither. I was simply inquiring as to why people felt a need to get a permit, and presented it as I saw it.
I think that what I’ve written in this thread could more easily be read as “why do people ever have to carry at all” as opposed to “I think we should get rid of carry permits”.
You all are just too wrapped up in the issue to see it at face value.
The only people who have given thoughtful answers to what I asked were Mellivora above and Bobo in the other thread.
I’m not sure an apology is really due, but I’ll accept it anyway. We have different opinons on what constitutes necessary training and knowledge for publically carrying a firearm, and I’ll freely admit that I’m very particular on the issue, based on my experience and prejudices about people. (For what it’s worth, I have similiar views on the issuance of driver’s licenses and SCUBA certification, among others.) Anyway, no harm, no foul; let’s agree to disagree, and leave it at that. I think we both agree that carrying a concealed firearm in violation of the law when an easy, nondiscretionary process exists just because one thinks it’s “a hassle” is an absurd arguement.
I see it the other way (apparently), that evidence supports data. Data being factual information, evidence being an indication of something. Not in a legal sense, of course.
As far as I can tell, the more common usage is “isn’t data” (got something like 1000 Google hits for the “evidence” quote, and 36000 for “data” - which is in no way meant to imply that it’s incorrect, Google being a poor replacement for actual research and all)
The plural of anecdote is “anecdotes”, but that doesn’t really sound all pompous ‘n’ stuff.
From a statistical point of view, stuff like “My father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate scared off a burglar with a .45” isn’t a valid data point. That is what is meant by the saying, “The plural of anecdote is not data.”
Now, see - I had no idea that marijuana propelled pieces of lead at high velocity, causing injury when striking living tissue. Learn something new every day.