I used to teach CPR, though not for the past couple of years. There is the off chance that somebody MAY track down my private residence with intent to steal my firearms. Mostly, it's an un-needed and un-wanted imposition into my private life. I have a job that pushes me into the public light, as such I try very hard to preserve my private time and shield my family from the public side of what I do. My time off duty is mine, and I want no extra public intrusion into it. The other reason it bothers me is that the state requires people with CCW's to maintain a certain level of secrecy about the fact that we are carrying. Now, if somebody recognizes me they know I am carrying. Essentially, Heidi has brandished my weapon for me without even asking. Quite simply, it wasn't polite.
OK robash. My name is Allen Gillespie, yep it was on the front cover. Hank Sims, the editor of the North Coast Journal remembered me as having performed crowd control when Bill Clinton came to town and mentioned that in an email he sent me this morning. Yep, I'm a government employee. So who are you robash141? How about you put your money where your mouth is. What's your real name?
Jim, how am I the problem? Can you even define what problem I am? I am not the reason for school violence, inner city shootings, rapes, murders, or anything of that nature. I've never done anything like that to anybody else. In fact, I'm in the business of saving lives and property. So I ask again, how am I the problem? I've never shot anybody, I'm just prepared to if (God forbid) I need to to protect my wife and/or children. BTW, I'd do my best protect yours too, if the situation required it.
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed"
It's an individual right to own weapons. The job of the militia was to provide security in national, state and local affairs. That required members to be able to move about with their weapons. At that time, there was no taboo about being armed in public. I am a Humboldt native, guns used to be normal here. We had gunsmithing class at highschool. Over the years the demographics have changed, I feel for the worse.
We have a right to own guns and the legal ability to have them in public. I choose to exercise my right, just as I vote and call members of Congress. Some may not like it. I don't care, I won't quit.
When you read the 2nd Amendment, one thing is clear; the People have the right to guns for defense, that's what the Militia did.
Perhaps a few quotes from the Founding Fathers are in order:
"Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and the keystone under independence... When firearms go, all goes- we need them every hour."
-George Washington, addressing the first session of Congress
"He who willingly surrenders rights for percieved security deserves neither rights nor security"
-Benjamin Franklin
And the court:
"To prohibit a citizen from wearing or carrying a war arm is an unwarranted restriction upon the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege."
-The Supreme Court, 1878
The argument has been made here that this is not a debate about gun ownership. It IS, however, very much an argument about being able to actually use a gun for self defense ANYWHERE it may be needed. There are evil people in the world, and I usually don't meet them in my home. I keep better company than that. If I can't carry a gun in public, then I can't defend myself by arms (my unquestioned right according to the Supreme Court and the Founding Fathers) while in public.
Guns have also been considered the last line of defense against overbearing government:
"This country, with it's institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise the Constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it."
-Abraham Lincoln
There is, to me, every reason to carry guns, and no good reason not to.
As for Not A Native and Robash 141, they have their opinion. I disagree strongly with them. I'd much rather have a gun I don't need, than need a gun I don't have. An armed society is a polite society, don't tread on me.
Yes, I carry a concealed weapon. Yes, I have pulled it. No, I have never shot it at anybody. At first, this article and it's shock-jock mentality bothered me, but then I understood that the Journal had done me a favor. So now I wish to say thank you North Coast Journal. Thank you for showing all of Humboldt County just how many men and women there are here who actually choose to exercise their rights. Thank you for showing all of the county that we are NOT surrounded by sheeple, but by citizens willing and able to protect themselves. Not only are they ready to protect themselves, but also those people too afraid to take a stand for their own lives or the lives of their family or neighbors. So again, thank you North Coast Journal, and thank you to all of you whose names appeared on the front cover with mine. I'm in good company. As for The North Coast Journal printing our names without our consent (I was never asked for permission to have my name published), perhaps we should all charge royalties... BTW NCJ, we are required to carry concealed so that nobody knows we are carrying (it's the law). You kinda blew the intent of the law, don't you think? Or perhaps the staff of your esteemed paper would like to help us change the law to allow open carry in all locals. Then you wouldn't need to waste your time and ink publishing our names, you could just see whom is armed.
Re: “Pistol Packing People”
WHY CARRY A GUN? My old grandpa said to me son, 'there comes a time in every mans life when he stops bustin' knuckles and starts bustin' caps and usually it's when he becomes too old to take an ass whupin'. I don't carry a gun to kill people. I carry a gun to keep from being killed. I don't carry a gun to scare people. I carry a gun because sometimes this world can be a scary place. I don't carry a gun because I'm paranoid. I carry a gun because there are real threats in the world. I don't carry a gun because I'm evil. I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the world. I don't carry a gun because I hate the government. I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government. I don't carry a gun because I'm angry. I carry a gun so that I don't have to spend the rest of my life hating myself for failing to be prepared. I don't carry a gun because I want to shoot someone. I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed, and not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon. I don't carry a gun to make me feel like a man. I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves and the ones they love. I don't carry a gun because I feel inadequate. I carry a gun because unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I AM inadequate. I don't carry a gun because I love it. I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful to me. Police Protection is an oxymoron. Free citizens must protect themselves. Police do not protect you from crime, they usually just investigate the crime after it happens and then call someone in to clean up the mess. Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take an ass whupin' !!