Gun Rant
This will be a long, unedited rant about how I feel carrying a firearm.
As a gun owner I realize that one day I might find myself explaining my actions to a jury of my peers. When you decide to carry a firearm, you have to understand that you're carrying a life-changing tool. It's kind of like driving a car in the sense that you're responsible for all the lives on the road. All life is precious.
The most cautious and caring people I know are gun owners. There are people in this world who think that gun owners are angry and irrational. Imagine carrying a firearm all day, every day for most of your adult life without ever harming anyone and then having to face the negative stereotypes of being a gun owner. I don't have the statistics for this (you can Google it if you care) but I think most gun crimes are commited by people who unlawfully possess firearms. The only people I've ever heard say "I'm too angry to carry a gun" are people who don't own a gun or have never shot before. Squeezing a trigger with intent to defend yourself with deadly force seems really easy before you actually need to do it.
Everyday, I wake up hoping that I won't have to use my firearm to defend myself. I never want to have to take a life. Again, all life is precious. I'd like to think I'm one of the good guys. I carry my firearm just in case I ever encounter one of the bad guys with firearms. I think about all of the lives lost in mass shootings. I always think if there was just one armed good guy there then they could have stopped the bad guy before so many lives were lost. I mean for the anti-gun people.....what do you do when someone starts a mass shooting? You call police.....who have guns.....to come and stop the bad guy. How long does that take? How many protocols do they have in place before they can enter a building with an active gunman? When the cops get there, the gunman usually commits suicide or gives up. The gunman isn't usually looking for a fight. That's why they target schools and other places where people aren't usually carrying firearms.
I actually don't have an issue with states that require classes to get a carry permit. I think it should be mandatory in every state. I'm also not opposed to having a waiting period before being able to get a firearm. Most of my gun purchases are planned out months in advance so waiting a few days won't kill me. I think California's gun laws are ridiculous. I think their lawmakers watch too much t.v. and they should have to take an actual firearms class before they can vote on firearms laws. They need to realize that criminals don't care about gun laws. If they outlaw guns in this country, guess who's still gonna have them? Criminals. Yea, that's all I got for now.