Why are so many gun owners scared?

[Boboclown]

I'm not scared. I have a gun and training.

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

And why is there so much passion in the idea of personal defense in such a civilized country?

Maybe we are so civilized because bad guys are aware you may be armed.

I know that there are victims of violent crime right here in my own neighborhood. But I cannot see anything that would justify taking a life.

Violent or even petty crimes can lead to a victims death in no time.
A guy asking for your wallet might get nervous and stab or shoot you as you fumble to get it for him.
A guy breaks into your house at night? Maybe he just wants your TV but if he gets surprised by you he might try and kill you to avoid being caught. If he's already running out the door it's his, but if he's in the middle of stealing it I think drawing a weapon is prudent.

Depending where you live and how you conduct yourself can decrease your chances but what's wrong with a little insurance?

 

[Flopsweat]

Damn, if I could type and spell worth a darn I would have beat you.

LOL

 

[captqc]

Not scared one bit, it all comes down to the fact that there are bad people out there that could care less about your life and when seconds count the cops are only ten minutes away! Every month in American Rifleman there are stories of how good guys with guns stopped bad guys. Check it out.

 

[clearconscience]

And even though I've had a CPL since 2001 I very rarely carried my pistol other than going in the woods.
I always had confidence I could get away or talk out of bad situations. I did many times, but now that I have kids making a quick egress is not possible so I think about them and the best way to defend them. I don't care so much about myself, but I would move a mountain to protect my babies.

Even if it angers a liberal fool.

 

[Ura-Ki]

The Ol saying, S&^^%Happens applies, and brother Murph is a real Bubblegummer! The point every one here has made to good effect is that if you are prepared (remember the Boy Scout Motto?) chances are still SOMETHING can happen, its how you deal with that something that counts. Having had to fight for your life really puts this into perspective! I dont look for trouble, I avoid it if I can, but fate can rear up on you at any time and strike you down, the Big question I have to ask you, Ca you get up off your knees and do something about your predicament? Most of the Sheeple out there in this great big world cannot, are you any different? A gun dosn't make me feel safe, a gun dosn't give me power over other's, a gun dosn't empower me to use force on/over some one, a gun dosnt give me any more rights then any one else, a gun is a tool, nothing more, nothing less! Taking a life is a unbearable thing, but it is the way of the world and all living things! You have to make a choice, you fight, or you lie down and submit!

 

[erudne]

Looking back upon my life I realize one common factor: Everyone that has tried to kill me AWA everyone I tried to kill, every instance of intended homicide has occurred under the influence of a Progressive government. No one tried to kill me under Eisenhower or Regan but in between and after that Bleep started to roll down hill and get down-right frisky

 

[Koda]

Not trying to stir the pot here. But why is it that so many gun owners talk about personal defense situations with a given firearm? In my 40 years on this planet, I've never been in a situation where a firearm would even have been a consideration to use against another human being. I realize most media outlets sell fear, and a great majority of the weapons that people carry and own are for person assault of sorts. But I'm not at war, nor are they. And my wallet or $3000 car is not worth taking a life over, no matter what kind of scum the perp may be. Hell, legal fees would be much more substantial for the use of deadly force to protect anything I own than the item itself is worth.
I understand then the last thing (IMO) to protect is my person. Or those that I care for. But when? Where? Why? These things just don't happen. Am I really that lucky? That a situation that would truly justify killing another human being has never happened to me, or anyone I have ever talked to? It seems the majority of violent crime happens to those who are involved in that level of crime itself.
Why do so many gun owners invest so much thought and practice into the idea that they may have to someday "defend themselves"? I know this idea I spin will set off lots of fire on this forum. But it's just a discussion, an opinion I am curious about.
I am a gun owner, by the way. Yes, I have a CCP. Lots of "black guns" in my safe.
They are fun to shoot.

just a few points from my own opinion. I think you have a reasonable question btw...

• the fire extinguisher is the best analogy and response to why.
  
• the reason gun owners invest so much thought and practice into the idea ... its a really complex topic to consider using deadly force and shouldn't be taken lightly. The fact that so much discussion over this is in some ways very prudent. Its complicated and a new person might not know where to go but a forum like this... it will always be a topic of discussion
• The rest of the guns... that's just because most on a gun forum just simply like guns and want to talk about them or own different ones for hobbyist interests. Its true, you only really need one to defend yourself and it almost really doesn't matter what kind.

 

[Boboclown]

Its true, you only really need one to defend yourself and it almost really doesn't matter what kind.

But what if you're in the mood to pick up a surplus rifle with bayonet to charge at the intruder while yelling your battle cry? Gotta have multiple rifles to suit the mood.

Okay not really but you know... Never hurts to have more than one anyways... >.>

 

[Member 5605]

I do look around. I do see things that make me slightly nervous, sometimes even situations that I would actively avoid based on a perceived possible threat. And I know that there are victims of violent crime right here in my own neighborhood. But I cannot see anything that would justify taking a life.
.....

When a life is threatened by a person bound and determined to harm/kill for what another has... It becomes me or them. My life is valuable. When a line is crossed theirs becomes worthless to me.

As a Christian I'm called to love others, that does not mean I am to roll over when my life is threatened (exception being if I'm persecuted for my faith).

Let me list reasons I'm armed:

1. My wife
2. My kids
3. Myself
4. My extended family
5. The helpless
6. The weak (not thinking the PCC Hipsters idea of weak)

So no, I'm not scared. I spent yet another day coaching baseball with my 9 on my hip under a shirt.

Crazies are out there and they need to be stopped.

 

[albin25]

I'm a pretty big guy. Broad shoulders, young (ish), and very fit and definitely a mean look when provoked. I feel fortunate in this regard. I have no idea what it would feel like to be a person that walks in fear as such a timid woman might, or a smaller man, or just even me walking the wrong neighborhood, becomes I avoid those situations. But I do understand the fear.

Perhaps this is a good time to review this....

Why the Gun is Civilization.
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me, or causing me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gangbanger, and a lone gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat–it has no validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed. People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the physically strong, and the mob, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a "Monopoly of Force".

Some argue that a gun makes confrontations lethal that would otherwise only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes deadly force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level. The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weightlifter. It simply wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I will only be ruled by reason and agreement, not by force. I don't carry it because of fear, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation … and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

 

[Ura-Ki]

Best post yet!!! If that doesn't do the trick, nothing ever will!

 

[Hawaiian]

I am a gun owner, by the way. Yes, I have a CCP. Lots of "black guns" in my safe.
They are fun to shoot.

I am calling BS. If you are in Portland and have a Concealed Handgun License, you would know that it is a CHL, not a CCP.
I recall the news article where a mother and her ten year old daughter were carjacked leaving the mall. The mother was murdered and her child was raped. If that mother could have done things differently, she would have wished that she had the most powerful handgun made to blow the scum bag away and save her daughter from the horrific trauma she suffered. But I can tell that you are one of those who believe, "it will never happen to me". That is what the other mom thought also. If you wish to live in a fairy tell world and not be prepared to protect your children, then so be it. I, for one, will be prepared while I pray that I will never ever need to use my firearm to take anothers life.

 

[erudne]

I am calling BS. If you are in Portland and have a Concealed Handgun License, you would know that it is a CHL, not a CCP.
I recall the news article where a mother and her ten year old daughter were carjacked leaving the mall. The mother was murdered and her child was raped. If that mother could have done things differently, she would have wished that she had the most powerful handgun made to blow the scum bag away and save her daughter from the horrific trauma she suffered. But I can tell that you are one of those who believe, "it will never happen to me". That is what the other mom thought also. If you wish to live in a fairy tell world and not be prepared to protect your children, then so be it. I, for one, will be prepared while I pray that I will never ever need to use my firearm to take anothers life.

I think we all realized he was Prog Troll from the start
PS I'll be haunting his genderless toilet......

 

[DMax]

WOW that the question even had to be asked that alone is suspect after the last 8 yrs Duh.

 

[Sgt Nambu]

AGAIN!

 

[Ura-Ki]

Some people live in there own little Utopia I guess. The lawn is exactly 3" high, the 2.5 children are learning well in public school, the boss just gave a .13 cent raise for mediocre work, and the trophy wife has dinner on the table at exactly 6pm!

Troll Much! None the less, a good reminder to all of us what we are fighting for each and every day!

 

[erudne]

Troll Much! None the less, a good reminder to all of us what we are fighting for each and every day!

Every situation, no matter how negative, is a learning situation; it only took me 50 years to learn this!

40 years and two divorces after he was a US Marine in WW2, he plays an Army Sgt and becomes an icon

 

[OutlawHoss]

I guess an equally obtuse, assumptive, and impertinent question to the OP would be: "Why are you so naive?"

 

[NoLimePlease]

I think we all realized he was Prog Troll from the start
PS I'll be haunting his genderless toilet......

Wow I just figured out what a "troll" is, now I have to google "prog", too

I do have a license to carry a concealed handgun, BTW. I've had it for years, I believe almost 20. Although I let it expire a couple times, when I wasn't into shooting sports very much. I currently carry a license for the simple reason that I have much less chance to be hassled by law enforcement while exercising my right to own a firearm. Seems keeping one in a bag or a pocket is a big no no without the license.

Thank you all for taking the time to voice your ideas and opinions. I have read every one of them. There are some very valid points, and some very intelligent people on this forum. I appreciate the articulation of thoughts here.
I really didn't ask the question to argue individual ideas, more to understand the answer to the original question. I didn't ask it to judge anyone's opinions.
I asked the wrong question. I should not have used the word "scared", as that is a combative term in itself.
The thought behind the question was my amazement of how much energy and passion go into the idea that a person should need to protect himself or those around them. It seems more than "just a tool" when so much effort is put into protecting themselves. And so much passion! It almost seems like it gives identity of its own.