"I know lots of people who don’t like guns, or feel uneasy about them…but they’re fine with ME and guns, and like having ME around because they know as a friend I would do all I could to protect them. That’s fine and awesome….its the people who don’t like guns and think I shouldn’t either that are the problem."
-Weer'd Beer'd
I know plenty of folks who fit into that first category as well. These are people who, even if they don't support my rights, know me as a "good guy" are are thus OK with my carrying.
I know a family friend who is quite weirded out by guns. When I loaned my mother my laptop and she had it while visiting, said friend gasped upon seeing that the background on my computer was a big picture of a Sig P228. Here's a woman who is visibly agitated by a picture of a gun and yet she's OK with my OC'ing in her home, while out walking the dogs etc. She's gotten used to it and even though guns weird her out she's pro-carry.
I find that for the most part any trepidation people might have about my being armed around them has little to do with me. It's the reaction of others (cops specifically) that they are worried about. A friends daughter asked me why I had the gun on my hip like that and not under my shirt. She found it ridiculous that the law said I could carry like that but need a permit to hide it. "Aren't you worried someone will freak out and call the cops?", she asked
My roommate, although not weirded out by guns, is much the same way. He's perfectly OK with my carrying. Hell, I carry around the apartment all the time. It's when you start talking to him that it becomes clear he doesn't feel the same way about society at large. It's a "I trust you but......all those other people are scary and we need to make it harder for them to get guns." This of course conveniently ignores the fact that doing so imposes those same restrictions upon me, but I digress.
Hell, even someone like my father, who is pretty solidly anti-gun, has at times responded favorably to my owning & carrying one. Despite his personal aversion to guns I dare say he was comforted to know that I was carrying the entire way to Ohio last month. Even at my age he worries when his son goes on solo road trips. It's cute.
That's part of why we win. Even people like my dad can soften their views somewhat. Even he will begrudgingly trust me with a gun, despite the fact that he wouldn't trust himself. Even folks like him, while anti-gun, are not politically motivated anti's who will spend time and resources pushing for new gun control measures. There will always be people who just plain don't like guns. While I'd prefer they were firmly on our side, most of them don't care enough to be a real threat to my rights.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
My mother-in-law is one of those people who gets the willies around guns. She has said outright that she doesn't like them and doesn't want to have anything to do with them. But, she still believes in the right to own them and carry them. It's not for her, but she knows that it is for others.
Unfortunately I find folks like that are the exception. Most who get the willies from guns are more than happy to restrict my rights while choosing not to exercise theirs.
Post a Comment