Yesterday, as I was relieved from range duty, I came around the corner to see one of my fellow employees talking to a man about concealed carry and obtaining ones license to carry a firearm in Pennsylvania.
The man asked my coworker if he carried a gun to which my friend nodded and said, "For many years now."
The customer saw me approaching and brought me into the conversation by asking, "Do you carry a gun?"
I smiled and said, "Yes, I do."
He looked at us both for a few minutes but concentrated more on me when he said, "Really? Even you?" He looked around and asked (again, more to me than to my coworker), "Does that really make you feel more safe?"
Without a moments hesitation I said, "Absolutely not."
His eyes widened in surprise at this statement. His brow wrinkled in confusion and he stammered, "Then I don't understand."
I said, "If I were carrying to feel safe I'd be carrying for the wrong reasons. I carry to be prepared. Do I feel more safe with a gun? No. Do I feel more prepared with it? Yes. Why? Because I know I've taken the time to prepare myself with it. Feelings are illusions, emotional responses to an environment, being prepared is real and something you can hold on to when the feelings change."
He stood up a little straighter and smiled then asked where he would have to go to get his license to carry a firearm.
My coworker said nothing, he just smiled.
Far too often I believe that people do things to induce a feeling: they get in bad relationships to feel loved, they buy expensive memberships to expensive places to feel important, they carry to feel safe.
That may work for a time, but one will see how quickly those feelings fade when the hard times come and they find they were not prepared.
I'm not a paranoid person. I don't balance a beer bottle on my doorknob at night or carry a mini-recorder to tape confrontations with people. I don't walk down the street with a feeling of foreboding just waiting for someone to attack me, but neither do I believe that having a gun makes me immune to the violence of this world.
I carry to be prepared for the worst, not feel safe from it.
Friday, July 27, 2007
