Where Do You Draw The Line Between Prepared and Paranoid?

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It's a fine line for sure, but it can only truly be determined AFTER you are dead and buried and the events of your life have passed unto judgement of others. The builders of the Great Wall of China. Was the ruler paranoid or prepared? Read your history books. ;)
 
If you won't go out of the house without being armed with two guns then or any gun then i think you have an irrational fear of being shot.
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Not true. You have a fear of being undergunned or mechanical failure. If you wore two vests, then one could make the assumption you have a fear of being shot. Having guns doesn't mean you won't be shot :D .
 
i believe this to be more of a philosophical question, i believe the line to be after you make your preperations or preventative measures... do you feel safe or confident, or are you still afraid...
 
*While wearing tinfoil hat and typing from a sub-terrain bunker*

"YOU'RE PARANOID! I'M PREPARED!"

Now, if you'll excuse me? I need to go check my Sterno inventory.
 
I personally don't think there is a line - more of a zone of considered responses, and zones of excess on each side. Many problems in life have reasonable solutions when one searches for a middle ground.

Personally, I appreciate Dr. Meyer's comments regarding paranoia; it is a word that is misused a great deal and should not, IMO, be used as a synonym for mere excess. The dictionary definition that was offered reflects common usage, not necessarily appropriate usage, and I personally join Dr. Meyer in respecting the term as one most correctly attached to a clinical diagnosis of mental illness.
 
I agree largely with Lost Sheep. Being prepared is taking reasonable steps to give yourself an edge in an emergency without going so far that it impedes your everyday activities. Sure, if the zombie hordes attacked while I was on a run to Home Depot it would be nice to have a AR, 20 magazines and maybe a couple of Glocks win extended magazines on me, but I feel comfortable with a small auto with 6 rounds. I don't expect any gunfights. The gun is there if someone is actually pointing a gun at me and threatening my life, and as bird hunting taught me, if you miss with the first shot, you're going to miss with the next four, too ;-) Otherwise my first weapon is a cell phone.

Now if your work regularly takes you into dangerous situations, that's a different story. But I have a friend who was a PI back when getting a carry permit was an involved and difficult process. One year when his permit came up for renewal, he told he decided instead to simply stop taking jobs where he needed a gun. I carry on a daily basis, but my first defense is staying away for places where I might need to actually draw a gun. Who wants to actually have to shoot someone? As Mas Ayoob has pointed out, even a justified shooting is going to cost you at least $20,000 in legal fees.
 
Glenn, are trying to convince us that you're not paranoid? :)

Big P,,,seems like I need to carry a bible more then a gun. ;)


If you want to build a bunker and live there so be it, this is American, pull out your money have at it.

If you want to carry six guns and 23 mags, pull out your money and have it.

I use to live in a city that had some questionable characters I'd pass paths with at times. I decided to carry.

Now I live in a place where I feel no need to carry. So I don't.

To each his own.

Who decides what paranoia is?
 
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I haven't really come to grips with this whole Zombie craze. I'm not sure if it is supposed to be some kind of a metaphor for some unspeakable (meaning not politically correct) hazard that people feel they need to process obliquely. While Zombie targets and special Zombie ammo are cute marketing gimmicks, they are a waste of time.
If our society is so vapid that we need to entertain ourselves with fantasy scenarios to occupy our minds while the actual real world falls apart around us, then we are in big trouble.
I'd like to know who really started this Zombie business and why they feel we need to be distracted in such a manner.
I know, you will say it's just fun and I'm a big party pooper. Well, I'll start having fun again when we have adults running the country and my investments are up 30% instead of down.
I will confess that I enjoyed the visual of the purple zombies on last weeks Sons of Guns...
 
"where do you draw the line between someone who is prepared and someone who is paranoid? More specifically as it relates to CCW and firearm ownership.

Some people carry a single stack 9mm or a 5-6 shot revolver while others may carry a full sized pistol with 2-3 extra mags and another pistol or two on their person. Is the latter more prepared or is it overkill and they are paranoid? "

I think the first factor in being prepared is money. The greater amount you can spend the greater the resources you buy. Some people feel that because they can afford to buy more firearms and accessories that they need to carry as much as they can afford to buy on them at all times. These are usually newcomers or people who like to make a statement like.....look at me i can afford to be more prepared than you. I believe fashion and making an economic statement have more to do with what you carry than paranoia. After all, no one can see your new suit if it's hanging in the closet.

The second factor in being prepared is experience. Even those who can afford to carry multiple guns and all the accessories figure out pretty quick that trying to be fasionably prepared is not only expensive but heavy and uncomfortable too. With that experience people usually figure out they don't need 3 guns and 10 magazines an extra box of bullets and a bullet proof vest to go to the store. The usually come to terms that 1 gun and 1 or 2 reloads will usually be enuff to get them through 95% of situations that will likely arise.

Then there are those people that finally develop situational awareness. These are the people that understand situations change like the weather. If there is a threat of rain you might bring an umbrella, if snow is forcast you would probably wear a warm coat. The same with protection, if you were heading into a war zone most people would carry more than a 5 shot revolver if they could. These people also know that war zones don't happen everyday...at least not yet.
 
If you have two brake pedals, two seat belts, even two guns, have you doubled your margin of safety or doubled the possibility of failure? It's like spouses taking two different airplanes.
 
I pretty much draw the line when conversations refer to having a back up gun on one's kitchen table while your regular carry is disassembled for cleaning...just in case, or making a water tight cabinet in your shower stall so you have a weapon handy while bathing. Then again what others want to do is their own business. :)
 
since 9/11 we have been told we need to be prepared for and other attack, and since Katrina we are told to keep 3-5 days of food and water and medication and supply's for our pets. Having a firearm is part of the plan you are prepared. IF you have the food and water thing taken care of and no weapon are any less prepared? That is really up to the individual. I do have a weapon in case I have to defend me and mine. preping for an emergency is smart, not a mental health issue. obsessive behavior and thinking can be paranoia.
 
I don't know about everyone else, but a lot of the stuff I do because it's fun. I don't think of going to a training class as something out of fear. It's fun to handle guns, it's fun to shoot guns, it's fun to prepare for zombies hords or any thing else real or preceived.

Give a little boy a toy gun and a barbie and I bet he reaches for the shiney gun over the stupid doll. It's just something in most of us.

Even if there were 0% chance of ever needing a gun I'd still like to walk around with one.
 
I just think the people who have a special room filled with ammo and supplies are just that much more prepared. I, on the otherhand, am not prepared in that sense. I don't believe in that. I have what I have, and that's it. I believe it's all I need.
 
For one being prepared can seem like being obsessively over board to another. I keep a fire extinguisher, a first aid kit, and jack, tire tool, spare tire, an emergency gas can, and booster box in the truck at all times. I also keep a bag with a shaving kit, a change of clothes, pair of shoes, and clean towel as well. I have been stuck on the road before. I learned to keep those things for the less likely things that happen at the worst possible time, while the farthest away from home.

As for CCW most times I carry two guns. Sometimes I only carry one if I can not dress to cover the larger gun then I go with just the pocket gun. For mindset I try to avoid going to areas, at times that if I had not been armed I would have avoided anyway.
 
I do honestly believe that when it's my time to go its my time to go. That relieves alot of my paranoia. I don't carry a huge gun or even two guns. I feel that being paranoid can be a very dangerous thing. I mainly carry and even own guns because I have a daughter.
 
This is really a discussion that should take a million scholars on a million computers to get a good answer, and what you would have would be more complicated than the sourse coude for windows.

takiing it from the beginning, I think that prepared is when a person recognizes realistic risks and takes measures to meet those risks. Is there anything realistic about expecting to see a rampaging bull elephant downtown? not really. Does one need to keep a safari grade rifle on hand in case that happens? No.That is not a realistic worry, and it's an unreasonable precaution.

Is it realistic to expect a 300 lb biker to stop your car on main street and kick your kidneys out of your ears because you accidentally cut him off? Somewhat. it is realistic and reasonable to prepare for that event, or the hundreds of thousands of other criminal actions that may happen. being prepared has no boundaries. it can happen anywhere, and it can be anyone, and carrying a 5 shot revolver is no more irrational than carrying 45 rounds. If a 5 shot revolver is what makes a person feel safe, and that person doesn't have any expectations of a massive onslaught of gangsters in his office, that's rational.

Weigh the situations you find yourself in, and prepare in accordance. In afghanistan wear armor. in the desert, carry water. In alaska, carry a .44, in your office, a .38 will almost certainly be appropriate to any event that may happen.

What does paranoid mean, psychiatrically? it means irrational. not in accordance with reality. Thinking outside of the limits of actual probability.

Carrying an AR with 3 mags to work at your job at an ice cream parlor at disney land is completely irrational. The probability against such need is absolutely astronomical, and the degree of over preparedness is irrational. Yep, that meets the clinical definition of paranoid.

Is it irrational to prepare for catastrophe?

NO. IT ISN'T.

Preparation that has no serious value is irrational and "paranoid." owning a bunker full of food is rational, as long as it isn't in new orleans under the levies. Owning a bunker full of guns and ammunition with no food is irrational anywhere. stashing a years supply of food and ammo even in your basement, and ignoring the fundamentals such as storing water and some matches is irrational.

Rational preparedness is not paranoid.

Realistically assessing your personal risks, assessing what you need to counter those threats realistically, and preparing adequately and realistically to meet those threats is not paranoid. In fact, it is the most intelligent thing that most people will ever do.

A bunker of spam and $50,000 worth of 9mm ammunition to use for trade goods is irrational and not smart.
 
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