What Incident Led You Or Significant Other To Obtain A Permit.

I was offered a position in executive protection with the stipulation that I have a license to carry a pistol. The year was 1968.
 
My wife and I made the decision to start carrying after all the shootings started happening in unexpected areas. By unexpected areas, I mean places one would think they're safe going to. Movie theaters, Amish schools, malls, etc. The world's getting worse by the day, and we'd like to be somewhat prepared if we happen to be in the wrong place at the the wrong time. It used to be if you stayed away from seedy places you'd be OK. It appears that's a thing of the past. It can happen anytime, anywhere. So to answer the question, it wasn't one single event that prompted us to carry, but more of a build up of awful events with no apparent end in sight.

Mike
 
I had a death threat.

I had also been thinking about getting a gun or two anyway, because I'm getting older, and I have a family to protect.
 
Soon after Florida passed the legislation that made CWPs readily available (1987?), I had a break-in at my veterinary clinic. They ransacked the place, apparently looking for drugs. By being armed, I could protect myself and my employees during hours and defend myself when called in for emergencies. The scenario of being called in for an after-hours emergency and surprising a burglar was discussed. As soon as I finished the process and received the license, I started carrying full time wherever legal, and I still do.

I spent several years volunteering as a pianist for a highly regarded and very active school chorus program, and I traveled extensively with them and with the band of the same high school. I resented being more vulnerable and unable to protect the kids that I loved because of the laws against having firearms at school functions.

My wife got a CWP more recently. She was completely comfortable with firearms, but also completely comfortable relying on me, until we had an incident at our church in which a creepy fellow came in to a choir rehearsal and made a bit of scene. It turns out he stole some equipment on his way out. She decided then that she wanted her own pistol and permit, and she is fairly regular about carrying.
 
Probably getting jumped by a rather large, complete stranger from behind and nose busted up while walking down the street minding my own business for no reason when a junior in high school - that probably "helped" a bit anyway to plant a seed, even though it would be 7 more years before getting a CCW license. Never did find out why that happened. I just got away from the scene. Oh, and also, two of my friends and I getting accosted by an ethnic street gang and a knife pulled on us, and my friend's dad's car bashed up as we left (to the tune of several thousand dollars in damage), also for no apparent reason at all, while minding our own business, sitting around talking by the car in a park where teens hung out.

Maybe it's like they say - a "conservative" on gun ownership is just a "liberal" who's been mugged.
 
I have always driven a lot for a living and can be traveling in unfamiliar surroundings not in the safest areas.

Also, I feel that someday its possible that one will have to have the equivalent just to own a firearm.

Finally, if I am stopped in my vehicle, I don't want there to be any question.
 
The only incident that lead me to it a was finally having enough ambition and money to complete the ridiculous process required in NY, besides enough money to buy the gun. More importantly, the quest for my first handgun was what lead me to The Firing Line. I was one of those obnoxious, know-nothing newbies.

At least I'm not a newbie any more.:D
 
gun carry

In the state of ms. we have the open carry law,you don't need a permit.If you want to be slick an hide your weapon concealed then you need a permit,all you have to do is fill out a state police form,get finger printed give them $ 140.00 and three weeks later you get your permit good for four years.Then you renew it by internet for $ 50.00 fit another four years.There are no classes or test to see if you can shoot ,just your money.
 
The Wife's ex was (is) a stalker, and it was recommended by the PoPo and our attorney.

They're never really an ex stalker until they are dead.
 
I grew up in Texas, coming along a long time ago, now. I’ve been carrying a gun, off and on (mostly on) since I was in High School. Many of my friends did, as well. As far as I know, most of that time, we were legal to do so. I remember walking along the road with a .22 rifle over my shouder and a .22 revolver on my belt and being waved at by a local deputy as he went by or maybe even stopped to chat and see if I was having any luck.

During most of those days, for better or worse, our LEOs were allowed a great deal more latitude in application of the law than they are now. I think we all, they included, felt we could count on their training, experience, and (most of all) good sense to make judgments about who was up to no good and who wasn’t.

Somewhere along the way, that changed.

When Texas passed the first concealed-carry laws, I very much felt it to be an affront: “Now I have to have a dang permit?”

My good friend the LEO advised me that it was indeed so. Prior to the stipulations of the new laws, I could probably have counted, to a certain extent, on the old ways. But no longer.

I resisted for a couple of years, but finally gave in and got my CHL. On balance, probably a good thing.

Makes it a lot easier when I want to buy a new tool or toy ;).

Will
 
I always was armed when camping in my home state of Michigan. Just so happens that I tired of the Byzantine BS firearm laws writtin by worthless, and usually antigun, politicians here. I mean why should it matter if the trailer I'm camping in is hooked to the car or not? Why do I need to carry a hunting license even if I'm not hunting? Bucha BS. I decided to get the CPL so it wouldn't take so much effort to stay legal. Seems like the politicians focus is hasseling legal owners instead of the criminals.
 
In 1982 I started working in a gun store, carrying cash and the fact that I had to have one to work there and last I didn’t know how easy they were to get in Indiana.
I have had one ever since and in the mid 2000’s Indiana went to life time permits.
 
2 instances convinced me to get my permit.

Broke down van,12 midnight on the side of the highway in Meridian, MS, with a wife, 2 kids, no cell phone, and no way to protect ourselves.

9 pm at a rest stop on the way home from Virginia. Guy looking for some "spare change" to get home, scared the hell out of the wife....she then realized that there was nothing she could do if this guy wanted something more....
 
I originally got my CCL when Kentucky first allowed concealed carry. I was traveling some, all in state, and wanted to be able to pack a gun concealed if I broke down on a lonely stretch of road. Cell phones were not common and I did not have one.

I let mine lapse for no really good reason (I wasn't traveling). Then my employer (a governmental entity) came out with a draconian policy that would not allow one to carry anywhere on public property. That was quickly and substantially modified but I decided to reapply because there was a specific provision in the state's CCL statute that prevented executive branch agencies from barring CCL holders from carrying on most state property.

I still did not regularly carry. Then two things happened. I had a "home invasion" while my teeangers were sleeping late in the summer. He was really a burglar but the news called it a home invasion. Second, at my place of employment, a thief managed to slip through a locking door before it closed, walk past what I'll call the "squad room" for the peace officers on staff. The guy stole a purse and left. Both of these incidents made me realize that crime can happen at anytime and you cannot rely upon police to be there.
 
I got mine to exercise my right and ability to carry. No reason other than that.

My wife got hers a few ago. Oddly enough, she works around some local Police many of them told her that it was a terrible idea for me to get my permit as it would "be taken away and turned on me" and I wasn't trained to carry a gun so it was an ongoing battle as I was going through the process.

Fast forward 5 years later and she now has hers. A couple of local police chiefs she works with told her she needed her permit because she was responsible for her own protection and suddenly she, my SIL and BIL got their permits.

My wife now carries daily.
 
For me, it was the escalating drug cartel violence in Mexico. I'm just a short distance from the border. A young couple was gunned down in a vehicle exactly like mine, and that was the last straw. I've been carrying for 6 years now.
 
The honest reason I got my carry permit, and Pop's too, was to alleviate the inconvenience of a background check from an FFL. Dear lord, for what ever reason, Pops and I both always got delayed. Always.

That being said, my girlfriend got her's after some subtle encouragement from me, reading Cornered Cat (Thanks Pax!), and one of her sorority sisters undergoing a robbery in her supposedly "safe" apartment complex.
 
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