I guess I should explain my position a bit better.
I'm 71 years old and partially disabled. My heart occasioanlly marches to a different drummer and my knees can't march anymore at all. back in '96 (I think that was the year) I had a losing encounter with three young men of Latin persuasion. They very nearly killed me and it was several years before I'd even venture out of the house at night. Eventually though, I decided I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in prison, even though it looked like my own home. So I started carrying a .380 in my belt.
In 2002 I got caught. I was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a loaded firearm inside the city limits. My attorney pointed out that the "concealed" part wouldn't fly because the gun was in plain sight. There wasn't much I could do about the other charge though except plead guilty and tell the judge about my run-in with the Mexican Militia and point out that he lived in a part of town where things like that were rare while in my neighborhood, they were increasingly frequent.
He sentenced me to attend a gun safety course and confiscated my gun. In the court order that dictated all this, he specifically stated that I AM permitted to possess firearms.
As I said earlier, I don't carry very often anymore, but then, I don't get out much anymore either. There are a few places I have to go from time to time that pretty well dictate I should be armed. If I never have to use my gun no one will know it's there. If the cousins of my earlier attackers should come around, they'll probably go away if I just show them the gun and it's extremely unlikely they'll make a complaint to the police. If merely showing the gun isn't enough to disuade them and I have to shoot someone it would be a good thing that I had it. Remember: Better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6.
If, after the dust settles, the authorities want to haul me off to protect society from me, they get to pay for my medicines, my special bed and soon, my wheelchair. Either that or they get to explain to the bleeding-heart liberal media why I'm getting such poor medical treatment. I might even hit them up for an abortion while I'm at it, and we all know I have a "right" to that.
I'm not saying everybody should carry without a permit. Let's face it, some people shouldn't even have a gun. My personal opinion of the CCW laws isn't good. We all cringe at the thought of gun registration yet too many of us cheer wildly when they get the 'opportunity' to register as a gun owner. I may be paranoid, but one form of registration looks entirely too much like the other. Sure, your permit may not have a space for the serial number of the gun you're carrying, but if worse comes to worse and the Sheriff wants to pick up all the guns in the county, it just makes sense that he'd start with the people he knows have guns.
At my age it isn't likely I'll have to worry about that sort of thing. But some of you guys are much younger than I and the Sheriff now knows you have at least one gun... I'm taking a chance with a slap on the wrist. What kind of chances are you taking?
I'm 71 years old and partially disabled. My heart occasioanlly marches to a different drummer and my knees can't march anymore at all. back in '96 (I think that was the year) I had a losing encounter with three young men of Latin persuasion. They very nearly killed me and it was several years before I'd even venture out of the house at night. Eventually though, I decided I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in prison, even though it looked like my own home. So I started carrying a .380 in my belt.
In 2002 I got caught. I was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of a loaded firearm inside the city limits. My attorney pointed out that the "concealed" part wouldn't fly because the gun was in plain sight. There wasn't much I could do about the other charge though except plead guilty and tell the judge about my run-in with the Mexican Militia and point out that he lived in a part of town where things like that were rare while in my neighborhood, they were increasingly frequent.
He sentenced me to attend a gun safety course and confiscated my gun. In the court order that dictated all this, he specifically stated that I AM permitted to possess firearms.
As I said earlier, I don't carry very often anymore, but then, I don't get out much anymore either. There are a few places I have to go from time to time that pretty well dictate I should be armed. If I never have to use my gun no one will know it's there. If the cousins of my earlier attackers should come around, they'll probably go away if I just show them the gun and it's extremely unlikely they'll make a complaint to the police. If merely showing the gun isn't enough to disuade them and I have to shoot someone it would be a good thing that I had it. Remember: Better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6.
If, after the dust settles, the authorities want to haul me off to protect society from me, they get to pay for my medicines, my special bed and soon, my wheelchair. Either that or they get to explain to the bleeding-heart liberal media why I'm getting such poor medical treatment. I might even hit them up for an abortion while I'm at it, and we all know I have a "right" to that.
I'm not saying everybody should carry without a permit. Let's face it, some people shouldn't even have a gun. My personal opinion of the CCW laws isn't good. We all cringe at the thought of gun registration yet too many of us cheer wildly when they get the 'opportunity' to register as a gun owner. I may be paranoid, but one form of registration looks entirely too much like the other. Sure, your permit may not have a space for the serial number of the gun you're carrying, but if worse comes to worse and the Sheriff wants to pick up all the guns in the county, it just makes sense that he'd start with the people he knows have guns.
At my age it isn't likely I'll have to worry about that sort of thing. But some of you guys are much younger than I and the Sheriff now knows you have at least one gun... I'm taking a chance with a slap on the wrist. What kind of chances are you taking?