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Why did you first start carrying?

8K views 108 replies 95 participants last post by  broknindarkagain 
#1 · (Edited)
I started carrying not long after the VA Tech shooting. I think the more I thought about what happened there, the more I realized we're only as protected as we make ourselves. Thoses students , disarmed because of politicians unwilling to allow citizens to excercise there second admendment rights , never stood a chance against that maniac. I thought about what I would do in a similiar situation, at the time , without a concealed carry permit, I realized I would have most likely ended up a victim, and I decided that just wasn't an acceptable way to be living my life. After some serious thought , research, and discussion with my wife, I applied for my permit. I know carrying doesn't make me invincible, but it does give me a fighting chance , and in the end , that's all I can really ask for. Now , that I've told you what prompted me to start carrying, tell me your story, why did you decide to start carrying?
 
#4 ·
Not *technically* carrying, since I don't have my gun yet, but in my mind, I'm there. I hope to have it in the next two weeks or so. Does that count? I will be carrying for basic self protection. I feel it is my duty as a mother to protect my children. We originally took a basic pistol course and joined a range after 9/11. Both my husband and I shot before that, but after 9/11 is when we got serious. We learned through a lot of pain and suffering through others that we were responsible first and foremost for the safety of our family. (as opposed to the gov!) After moving to a ccw state, carrying is only the natural thing to do.
 
#5 ·
Got my permit (required for mere possession in MA) back in 1976. Said permit allowed me to CCW, I spent a lot of time in Downtown Boston, often picking my Wife up from graduate school on a public road across from a field/park that was well-known for rapes and attacks and never patrolled by Boston PD.
 
#8 ·
Because I can. There are a lot of bad people out there and you need to protect yourselves from them. I have hauled some of these folks to jail and they are out doing the same old crap that ended them in jail to begin with. :comeandgetsome:
 
#10 ·
I, like the rest of you carry to protect those that I love and hold close to my heart. When Mo. finely got their act together and started allowing its citizens to legally carry. I was in line.
Mike
 
#11 ·
Being able to carry as a LEO and then not be able to carry when I left the force was very frustrating to me. A soon as it became legal to CCW I immediately applied for my permit and have been carrying ever since. :danceban:
 
#14 ·
Well, being from and working in the hot spots of the NE(NYC, Newark, NJ, etc.) I have often been in positions that having a CCW would have been very comforting if the situation went (further)south.
Now living in a gun friendly part of the country I've embraced having THE option for the gravest situation.

Sam.
 
#16 ·
Why I began carrying. Partly, I lived in California at the time, so ensuring I wouldn't be arrested for a simple mistake going to/from legitimate hunting or range sessions was a motivation. The rest of the story was because I saw the changing criminal landscape and didn't like what I saw. Thought it through and realized that being without a firearm effectively amounts to being undefended, in these times ... and that I couldn't accept any longer.
 
#17 ·
I've been jonesing for a pistol since high school. I learned that I couldn't get one until I turned 21. After 21 rolled by I got lazy and just never took care of getting a permit and weapon. With the rise in crime in our small town... my father-n-law got his ccp and that spurred me (now 24) and wife to get it done. The week after applying we went and charged 2 Xd's to my credit card and when we received our permits, I've tried to carry as many places as possible but I'm limited b/c I work at a college. My wife carries almost everywhere she goes.
 
#19 ·
My original thought for getting "the permit" was more to do with hunting, and getting caught with a pistol under a coat while out **** hunting (to keep it out of the elements), or quite often I would place a pistol in my glove box and forget about it. But after taking the class, and starting to understand some of the teachings about situational awareness, and reading the paper, it became real apparent as why we need to carry on us as much as possible.


Z
 
#20 ·
Okay, here is one of the strangest replies you will see. As a retired Professional Tunnel Boat Racer, I do not believe in LUCK. My definition of LUCK is "when preparation meets opportunity". That definition holds true for "good" and "bad" LUCK. Which LUCK will you have when the SHTF? By remaining prepared for battle, I choose to attempt to have the better LUCK in the deal. As a husband, father, grandfather, and a moral citizen, I feel it is my duty to remain prepared to attempt to make the BG have bad luck on the day we have an encounter.
When I went to work for our local Sheriff, I was required to sign an oath. That oath was to protect and serve, I took that oath very seriously. Though retired from SO, I still take that oath seriously. In Louisiana, if you have gone through POST, you are able to obtain a CCW permit, great thinking. So, to condense the answer down, like others here, I made a few enemies working as an Investigator and on the SORT team. I would really like to remain prepared should some of those folks decide that I assisted in ruining their good times, and want to "get even". I love my family enough to not only worry about them, but, to take a pro-active stance in their protection.
Coulda, woulda, and shoulda, are the biggest killers to unprepared victims in this country.
D
 
#21 ·
I started carrying not long after the VA Tech shooting. I think the more I thought about what happened there, the more I realized we're only as protected as we make ourselves. Thoses students , disarmed because of politicians unwilling to allow citizens to excercise there second admendment rights , never stood a chance against that maniac. I thought about what I would do in a similiar situation, at the time , without a concealed carry permit, I realized I would have most likely ended up a victim, and I decided that just wasn't an acceptable way to be living my life.
That echoes my thoughts exactly. I thought about the holocaust-survivor professor who gave his life while his students escaped. Had he been armed, Mr. Cho could have been stopped. The more I read about the campus and local police's response, the sadder I got about those students dying needlessly.

I didn't want to be like that professor and wish I had a gun (and knew how to use it) at that life-defining moment. So I started reading, surfing and asking questions. I found out there are a bunch of "regular" people that are armed - not just the gun nuts that Hollywood portrays.

So now I take responsibility for my own personal protection, instead of praying for the police to show up.
 
#22 ·
I got started in 1951 when the company wanted me to carry a gun while driving a dynamite truck. Seems there was some concern that a pending strike might make the truck and its contents a good target. Now a days its for the protection of myself and my family. Of course there were 24 years in the military where a gun was just natural.
 
#24 ·
I started open carry when I worked on the families ranch in New Mexico. We had a wild dog problem and I kept S&W 586 with me (still have it today). It was just easier to run to town and back when required and leave it on. At least I felt that way. :smile:
 
#26 ·
I find it interesting that few of the responses have to do with a specific occurrence. It seems most of us understand we are living in a bad world and just want to level the playing field.
Mike
 
#28 ·
I refuse to become another crime statistic, and it is a right given to me by our founding fathers. Nobody will take that right away from me, and I mean NOBODY.
 
#30 ·
When the Clintons and their anti lackeys and cronies were in power, I did it as a political statement as much as anything.

They considered an armed citizen to be very naughty, so I became a legally armed citizen and joined the NRA.

When I get my Lifetime license next year, I will send a photocopy of it to the Brady group..........
 
#31 ·
Why carry

Although my gandfater took me hunting, and taught us gun safety, as a young child I never used a gun since. Then last christmas my mom gave the last of his guns to the kids that he didn't give a gun to.
I took the Marlin 336 and that got me thinking. That gun is good for killing large animals but dangerous for home protection and I wanted to complment it with something smaller.
So I bought a few gun magazines and after some more thought I decided that a handgun would be the ticket. At the gun store the saleman wanted to know if I wanted the gun for home defence, shooting at the range or for carrying.
Now I live in Delaware and had been told that to get a permit you had to be a cop, know a judge or be the son of a politician. Regular people couldn't get a permit and most people get the willies just talking about guns. The gun dealer told me that use to be the case but DE had eased up on that position and if you could junp through the hoops there was a good chance of getting a ccw.
That lead me to explore the world of ccw, forums like this one, 2nd admendment rights and coming to understand that this is a protected right, to be able to defend oneself.
The job that I transferred to is in a bad neighborhood and the people I work with were telling me that its a dangerous place. Now I've never been one to scare easily but all these things were coming together and I went about doing everthing the state required to get a permit.
Well I got the permit in the mail recently and still a little shocked that in a decretionary state like Delaware they couldn't find any reason not to allow me to carry a lethal weapon!
So now I carry. Every day, everyplace I go. Feels weird. And hurts some too.
Nobody has made me yet and I try not to give it away that I'm carrying. Everyone at work knows, I used several of them as refferences to get the permit.
I carry because I can and hope that I never have to use the gun. But I will if I end up in a situation that requires the use of lethal force, but only as a last resort.
 
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