by Pops » Sat 05 May 2007, 14:25:37
I don’t usually get involved in these type conversations because I am not a dyed-in-the-wool anything and it seems I see more grays than most folks. So for the record, I believe ownership is an obligation and not just a right. But I also believe there should be restrictions on ownership just like on driving.
Having said that here are a couple of things that might clarify my views.
I was once the guy the alarm company called when the alarm went off where I worked in CA. This location would have made a bad boy drool and what they could have realized in robbing or burglarizing the place would have justified using very drastic measures, luckily it has since been made much more secure. I would show up at whatever time of night I was called and wait for the police and unlock the door. They would take a look around and I would reset the alarm. Several times they actually wanted ME, the unarmed citizen, to go in first!
Long story short, the PD turned down my request for a CC license because I couldn’t show sufficient need, so every time I went, I broke the law.
We lived on the outskirts of a medium size town. Across several orchards were some railroad sidings where kids would go sometimes and ride 4-wheelers, drink beer and shoot cans and whatever. No biggie until one afternoon someone let rip on full auto – and it wasn’t a 22 either. Hey, if I can’t have one they shouldn’t either so I called the Sheriff – I watched the canal bank where he would have to drive to get to the spot all afternoon; no show.
Finally, I’ll second what Aaron said a page or two back. As pointed out above, in CA only the outlaws carry – and even those that don’t, wear the oversized 9er coat in 100-degree weather to make you think they are carrying. And it works, my wife got mad at me more than once because I guess I’m just to stupid to be buffaloed and would tell the pimple faced punk just what I thought when they decided they should get a free pass to the front of the line, talk trash in front of my grandkids or someone else’s or whatever - they probably though I was carrying because most angelos/whitieys or whatever just suck it up and stare at the ground.
It’s not that I am all that tough and not that I have the illusion that there aren’t bad boys out there; I have had the displeasure of knowing a few that are either in for a long stint as Bubbas wife or are pushing up daisies. I guess I just don’t like the feeling that they think they have the upper hand - it makes my hair stand up.
But you know what? Like A. said, it just ain’t that way here in Missouri. I don’t know how it is in the bigger towns and cities but around here there is more yes sir in one trip to town than in a year in CA. Shall Issue was not a big factor in our decision to move here but I’ll tell you it didn’t hurt!
I have considered getting a cc permit and may eventually. It isn’t high on the list as I rarely go to town and don’t feel the need to carry at this time. But a question for the LEOs out there (or anyone else with experience) on the off chance I ever need to use force at home, would a permit be a benefit in any way?
And I guess for the folks who think taking away or severely restricting legal weapons will make you not feel the need to cross the street when you see that oversize team coat coming toward you, I think you should reconsider – I lived there and it don’t work.
I like it here better.
The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities.
-- Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on Government (July 1, 1854)