You never know when you’ll have to defend yourself

A lot of people are carrying concealed these days. But many don’t carry all the time.

One thing you’ll hear many of these gun owners say is “Oh, I really don’t have to carry when I’m going to the grocery store or safe places like that. I only carry when I’m going to be in an unfamiliar place.”

Here are results from a survey we did earlier this year on concealed carry. When ask how often they carry, respondents said:

  • Virtually 24 hours a day – 22.9%
  • Every time I leave the house – 31.0%
  • Occasionally when I leave the house – 32.4%
  • Never – 6.9%
  • Other – 6.1%
  • No Responses – < 1%

“Other” responses included:

When I go into a threat area.
When I leave town.
Only when going to the range.
On work days.

These are pretty good numbers, though they’re from a hardcore group of gun owners. Answers from the general public wouldn’t look so good.

The question is do bad things happen only when you’re in an “unfamiliar” place or a location you consider dangerous? Of course not.

Here’s a news story about a women who had only recently acquired her concealed carry license and had to draw her weapon in a very familiar place:

An Ohio woman who is licensed to carry a gun but had only recently started carrying one for protection put it to good use earlier this week.

Dinah Burns was out walking her dog, Gracie, on a path near an elementary school in Lancaster on Monday when two men approached her with a baseball bat and threatened to abduct her.

“Two gentlemen came out of the woods, one holding a baseball bat, and said ‘You’re coming with us,'” Burns told WBNS, adding that Gracie was little help in deterring the men.

Thankfully, Burns had something else for protection.

“I said, ‘Well, what do you want?,’ and as I was saying that I reached in to my pocket and slipped my gun out, slipped the safety off as I pulled it out,” Burns said.

“As I was doing that the other gentleman came toward me and raised the baseball bat. And, I pointed the gun at them and said, ‘I have this and I’m not afraid to use it.'”

Okay, her warning to the would-be abductors sounds a little cliché, but the point is that she was in a familiar place just walking her dog like she had probably done a hundred times. And if she had decided to leave her gun at home because she felt safe, this may have been a very different story!

Most of the time, we’re warning people about the risks of using a firearm for self defense. However, there can be much worse risks if you don’t. Members of Second Call Defense can depend on us to come to their defense after they’re forced to use a gun. But even if you’re not a member, remember this quote from Col. Jeff Cooper, known as
known as father of the “Modern Technique” of handgun shooting:

“Remember the first rule of gunfighting … have a gun.”