Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Do you carry religiously? You may not be as safe as you believe.

I recently came across this blog post linked on another forum. I thought it to be a very interesting read for those of us who choose to carry. I post it here for the consumption of all and any discussion you may desire. It is a very good read. To give credit where it is due, this is from Grant Cunningham's Blog (Link at bottom to original article and Blog).

Do you carry religiously? You may not be as safe as you believe.

Posted by: Grant Cunningham

Do you carry religiously? You may not be as safe as you believe.
I know that most of the people reading this blog are here to learn about defensive shooting, concealed carry, firearms training, and related topics. The rest are interested in things like rifles, revolvers, reloading, and other technical issues. In other words, regardless of the group into which you fit, if you’re reading this you’re probably a “gun person” — and despite what the media might try to tell you, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. It can, however, limit your perspective.

As I’ve said many times, your lawfully carried defensive handgun is a very efficient tool to use against a low-probability but high-consequence event. That means, with a small outlay of effort in using that tool, you can prevail in the kinds of incidents that don’t happen very often but have the potential to be life-altering or even life-ending. The firearm is a very limited-application device in the totality of self defense situations and, being a reactive tool of restricted application, doesn’t keep you safe because it doesn’t prevent an incident from unfolding. It simply gives you a tool to defend yourself once a very specific type of event has occurred.

Lack of understanding

This is apparently a new concept for a lot of people, even (maybe especially) for those who have been in this field for a while! With such limited application there is no way the gun can really keep you safe — it’s all the other stuff you do that keeps you safe; the gun simply gives you a way out when things go horrendously bad. The gun has often been compared to a fire extinguisher: does a fire extinguisher prevent fires? Of course not. It’s just a tool to allow immediate response in case one breaks out.

Why do I bring this up? Because I’ve run into more than a few people over the years who express great trepidation over being in circumstances where they aren’t able to carry a gun. Some take it to the extreme of never traveling or visiting any place where they can’t have a gun on their person. They indicate, explicitly or implicitly, that they’re more cautious, more careful when they’re not carrying; although they’d never use the word, they’re more fearful. They behave differently.

I submit that if you find yourself acting differently, more cautious or fearful, when you can’t carry a gun you have a problem that results in you not being truly prepared for violence. The gun has blinded you to both its proper use and what actually keeps violence from being visited upon you.

What really keeps you safe?

If your goal is truly to keep you and your family safe, you’ll exercise the same level of care when you carry a gun as when you don’t — because it’s that very care which prevents things from happening to you, gun or no gun. To use John Farnam’s great saying, you don’t go to stupid places and do stupid things with stupid people regardless of whether you have a gun or you don’t. Yet, to hear some people talk, that would seem to be precisely what they do: “I wouldn’t go there if I couldn’t carry a gun.” That’s a sign you probably shouldn’t be going there at all, gun or no gun! If you feel so unsafe that only the presence of your gun makes you feel better, that’s your intuition telling you it’s a stupid place, or you’ll be doing stupid things, or you’ll be with stupid people — or all three. How about just not doing it?

One well-known trainer has said that carrying a gun should be “comforting”, an idea I reject on its face: if it’s comforting, it will make you complacent — which is the antithesis of staying safe. That comfort can lead you to making bad choices and doing things that have inherently higher risk, like playing with gasoline and matches in your bedroom because you know there’s a fire extinguisher in the house.

An unorthodox drill

How do you internalize the idea that it’s the other stuff you do that really keeps you safe? How do you get over the irrational notion that it’s your CCW that does this? As I’ve told more than one class, I think a valuable drill is to occasionally practice NOT carrying your gun. I know it sounds odd, and I know the overly-shooting-oriented defensive training community will excoriate me for saying that, but I believe there are benefits to be had by occasionally doing such an exercise.

First, it helps break that mindset that your gun is keeping you safe. No matter how much anyone protests, I think every person with a CCW develops some degree of that mindset over time. I know I do, and I’m probably one of the most immune to doing so! Intentionally not carrying opens your eyes to the things that you should always be paying attention to, but don’t because you’ve been “comforted” by the presence of the gun.

Second, unless you plan on living an intentionally limited life, you’ll at times find yourself going to wonderful places where you simply can’t or aren’t allowed to carry a gun. Practicing and preparing for those situations ahead of time is no less important than practicing and preparing to use your gun before you need to. This kind of practice might including learning to pay more attention to managing your distractions; learning the local gestures and body language differences to pick up on aggression cues; practicing with improvised or low-profile weapons; it might even mean learning and practicing some unarmed skills or employing a less-than-lethal tool. Whatever it is, it needs to be learned and practiced if it’s going to be effective.

If you find yourself feeling different, more careful or less confident without the gun, that’s your cue that you haven’t been paying nearly enough attention to your real safety. It means that you’ve assigned too much of your well being to a device of very limited utility. Your gun has become a talisman, not a tool. It also means that you need to devote some of your training resources to those other skills I listed above and integrate them into your life.

If, however, you feel completely confident and change nothing about your routine or your habits, then you probably have a good understanding of your concealed gun’s real place in your personal security planning. That’s how you know you’re at a point of balance, which means you’re safer overall than someone who isn’t.

Strive for balance.

http://www.grantcunningham.com/2016...rce=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Over the years I have taken a lot of flack for suggesting one can limit the chances of an unwanted event by controlling their own activities. The author says "don’t go to stupid places and do stupid things with stupid people", and that is a good start.

Amen Brother!


I have told my kids,

No one ever got, beat up, shot, stabbed or robbed in a bar fight.


If they were in Sunday School that night!


So many bad things happen to "innocent" people, that decided to go to bad places or hang with bad people.

went to town today......

just took my 40 XD off........

You've never received flack here for that. You've taken flack for pretending you know when you'll need a gun and when you won't, like in the thread where you advocated carrying with an empty chamber. Big difference.

Ironically, if anything, I'm even more cautious when carrying.

Interesting read. I'm one of those that hates going anywhere where I have to disarm. He makes some interesting points.

Panguitch is a pretty rough place on a Sunday night.

A lot of people report that. I remember noticing that when I first started carrying, too. You are more likely to take pains to avoid possible trouble.

I carry where I can, and don't patronize places that bar people who are carrying a firearm despite, as a group, citizens that have a CHL are the least likely social demographic to commit a crime. The most likely social demographic to commit a crime are people who are not CHL holders and are not Peace Officers. Then the next group - Peace Officers! The final group as already noted - CHL holders. CHL holders commit less crimes than Peace Officers! I found that statistic stunning, but, I certainly have not been privy to the behaviors and habits of all American Peace Officers. Finally, I agree with avoiding trouble. It's easy to find, but easier to avoid. The best fight is to not fight. With all that acknowledged, I still believe my very life is safer if I'm carrying a firearm.

Same here. I’m much more cautious when carrying. Also, my thinking is that situational awareness and avoiding “bad” places is almost as important as carrying a handgun for self defense. And I generally try to avoid places where I can’t carry like the plague.

You know,
If you are carrying, and you get into a tussel, there is now a gun involved in a normal old fist fight.
It might be your gun,, but it is there, and it's possible it could come into play.
You all who are more cautious, you know that.


Just like the police/bad guy fights where Dindu wasn't armed.
If there is a cop, there is a gun, if Dindu gets that gun................

Or the Cops just shoot old "Dindu" anyway and say they thought he was reaching for a gun. It works everytime. Police are half the reason I feel the need to be armed.

then there is the fact that so many shootings take place in 'gun free zones'..........................

Things can go bad really fast sometimes and I was thinking about an incident that could have gone badly a couple weeks back. I'm a big believer of staying out of potentially dangerous situations, but road rage is all too common down here in Florida with a lot of really bad drivers. The wife and I were caught in about a mile long, bumper to bumper rush our traffic pattern on a two lane road. I look in my rear view mirror and see this single male individual in a pos car speeding past probably 50 cars in the left oncoming lane forcing those cars off the road only to pull his car into our lane right ahead of my car. Talk about a total lack of empathy for anyone. I hit the horn like a lot of people might do in that situation. Then I got to thinking what if that guy took offence for being stupid and chastised and got out of his car to confront me and there I am armed with a handgun? Thankfully he didn't and just pulled out again and passed another bunch of right lane cars. Where is a cop where there should be? Things can escalate pretty quickly out there on the street.

you just never know what/who you can bump into.......even in some Podunk town


skim through this news story......one sic SOB........

remember the saying.......better to be judged by 12......than carried by 6

https://www.ksl.com/?sid=46290219&a...dumped-their-bodies-in-a-mine-police-say

Yep!
Be polite, be vigilant, be ready.

Always..

About the time you're not, you wish you were.

Exactly.

Get your facts straight. I have never stated I know when I'll need a gun or won't, not pretended to do so. I do believe a person can strongly influence the chances of unwanted events and have stated as much. Some environments are inherently much more dangerous than others and that difference is often very obvious. Even with a loaded chamber it behooves one to pay extra attention and modify their behavior in environments known or suspected of being more dangerous. If you think otherwise, I guess you sleep with a loaded chamber,gun in hand, safety off, eyes open? Do you drive 75mph in the dark with the lights off?

I still carry empty chamber more than 99% of the time and will continue to do so. And, as in the past, I'll load a round I think the environment calls for doing so.