exercise your rights

as a libertarian, i've always believed in gun rights. it has always shocked me when i hear stories of mass shootings. i always wonder, why didn't any of those innocent bystanders have a gun? the answer isn't always "because it's illegal" (i.e. school campuses). people have been brainwashed to believe that it's acceptable to farm out our personal security to the police. i respect and admire the police. i have friends and relatives who are police officers. but realistically, the job of the police is to get there as soon as they can, clean up the mess, maybe do a little detective work, and every now and then, catch a bad guy (or girl).

i'd never even actually fired a gun until a couple months ago. i've been taking classes and learning how to use guns safely in preparation for getting my own gun.

today i did.

living in the "blue states" for so long might have had something to do with my inexperience with guns. the more-democratic states on the coasts are much less gun-friendly than the more-republican states in the middle. our country has an important history with guns, and that's why it's written right into the constitution that our right to own guns "shall not be infringed". what's been happening over the past few decades, however, has been that gun rights have been infringed--er, "regulated"--more and more, bit by bit.

nevertheless, out west, it's still perfectly legal to carry a gun on your hip, with no special permits or anything. to me, an easterner, this seems like an overtly political act. all the employees at the gun store (who are also the teachers of my gun classes) carry guns on their hips. they tell stories of being harassed by law enforcement and confronted by concerned strangers. one of my teachers said that if he's not allowed to carry a gun into an establishment, he stops visiting that establishment. places he's been kicked out of include the local mall and the county fair. he says he hasn't been to either in a decade. after hearing those stories, i realized that it is a very political act to carry a gun, especially openly, and i admire them for it.

next is the question of concealed-carry. i will have a concealed carry permit as soon as the AZ department of public safety gets around to mailing it to me.

the problem with concealed-carry is that criminals are not deterred by the sight of a gun on your hip, so you may be mugged even though you're carrying. then you have to decide what to do. that's a tough decision to make, and it's an even tougher one to execute properly if your plan involves actually pulling out your gun. usually, the best thing to do, carrying or not, is throw your money on the ground and run.

the advantage to concealed carry is you'll be harassed less by people who don't realize that guns are legal and safe when used correctly (or not used at all, which is usually the correct thing to do). sadly, it's often the police themselves that don't even realize it's legal for regular citizens to carry guns on their hips!

the next thing to rant a bit about is the drug war. i've never used or sold drugs and never will. nevertheless, i think the drug war is absurd. one of the most frightening aspects of it is that police have abandoned the "knock and announce" procedure they used to follow when serving warrants. nowadays, if you're suspected of a drug crime, they will simply throw small bombs into your house and break in through windows and doors while shouting "police!" they do this because it is very easy to flush a large amount of drugs down a toilet in a small amount of time.

the problem with this is, what if they have the wrong house? it happens fairly often. what if they're acting on bad information? that also happens fairly often. these situations occasionally lead to police officers being shot while the shooters (who didn't hear the shouts of "police") only thought they were defending their homes against invading criminals.

what a mess.

i promise to think twice before ever using it. i just like the security i feel from knowing that it's there if i need it.

UPDATE:

i went grocery shopping while exercising my right to "open carry" last night. that is to say, i had a gun on my hip. i felt three distinct things:

1. safer
2. like everyone was looking at me
3. like i needed to be extra nice to everyone so as not to give them the wrong idea

UPDATE 2008-12-03:

since this is my most-viewed photo, I thought I'd write some more.

i carry concealed all the time now. it has become quite routine and it no longer feels like a big deal at all. i don't carry it chambered. that means that it can't go off until you rack the slide or "cock" it. that makes for much slower draws but also makes accidents less likely. this gun doesn't have much of a safety. if your hand is on the grip safety and your finger is on the trigger safety (easy to do, even accidentally), it could go off (if it were chambered).

the biggest hassle is dealing with all the places you're not allowed to carry a weapon. it's absurd that i'm not considered a threat outside the post office, but inside it i am. 1001 feet from a school, i am not a threat. 999 feet, i am. outside of lovin' spoonfuls (a delicious vegetarian restaurant that happens to serve alcohol) i am not a threat, but inside i am (even though i do not drink). there are so many silly gun laws that almost every gun owner is forced to accidentally violate one or more of them occasionally. this is one reason why people often prefer to carry concealed. if you have no way to be sure you're not violating a law without hiring a lawyer to follow you around everywhere, it's easier to avoid scrutiny by concealing your weapon.

another thing i've come to understand is why "gun nuts" stockpile weapons.

in researching all of these arcane gun laws, i've discovered that one trick they use to "chip away" at gun rights rather than take them away altogether is that they will outlaw some kind of gun, but only if you don't own a gun like that already. automatic weapons were outlawed in the 80s (i approve of this law, since i don't think they are necessary for self-defense), but only if you didn't own one already. in washington dc, handguns were outlawed in the home in the 70s, but if you already had one you were exempt. this pattern is repeated time and time again.

imagine yourself as a gun owner, wanting to preserve your rights. wouldn't it make sense to buy as many guns and as much ammunition as you could? tomorrow they might outlaw revolvers or semiautomatics. perhaps they will outlaw guns of a certain caliber. perhaps they will outlaw hollow-point ammunition (it is more likely to kill, which of course makes it more useful for both crimes and self-defense). but you can rest assured that, if you own that stuff already, you'll be exempt.

no, i'm not stockpiling guns or ammo. and no, i'm not turning into a gun nut. if i could wish every gun off the face of the earth, i would. but since guns exist, i believe that i should be able to have one in case i need it. i see it as a tool. i have no emotional attachment to the hammer in my toolbox, and i have no emotional attachment to my gun.