Pivotal Moment...

[Buzzcook]

I started working in Pioneer Square back in the seventies. I was often there after 2:00 am. Before starting there I had heard lots of stories about random violence.
So after getting a cwp, I carried a snubbie in my coat pocket. Got a shoulder holster later.
Never had even a mild disagreement while I worked there. Most of the nasty street people I encountered weren't very threatening. Even the thugs i met weren't particularly scary.
So I stopped carrying.

Several years later I lived in the Tenderloin and didn't have a license or carry. One night a guy sitting next to me in a bar, pulled out a small pistol and stuck it in my gut muzzle first.
If I had been carrying at the time I might have tried to wrestle with him and shoot him.
As it was the guy was just an idiot that wanted to show off his new toy.

After moving back North I carried a couple of times when I thought things might get scary. Nothing happened.

So I let my license lapse and that's all she wrote.

 

[johnwilliamson062]

Why would I need a "pivotal moment" to exercise my constitutional rights?

I would be surprised if daily carry has ever been the norm in US history outside of times of war. Certain people in certain jobs obviously carried, but it seems farmers, who were the majority of the population for a very long time did not, although they mostly had firearms and might on occasion.

 

[9ballbilly]

here's the nutshell version. Knee deep in a cold lake at dusk while a pack of eight( I counted ) wild dogs stood at the waterline snarling. quarter mile hike through the oh so dark woods back to the truck armed with a fishing pole. List of perfectly good handguns at home: Ruger single six .22/.22 mag., S&W model 19 .357 mag., Dan Wesson .44 mag., S&W model 659 9mm.. The lesson of that long ago night has not been forgotten.