By Sheriff Jim Wilson, Shooting Illustrated
As some of you may know, I enjoy picking a guitar and playing music. Recently, we were touting an upcoming music festival on social media and I got a question from one of the readers. He wanted to know if I carried a gun while I was on stage performing. As a rule, I make every effort to answer questions from my readers, but I ignored this one. If, when, & where I carry a gun is nobody’s business but mine.
Now I don’t say that to try to be elitist or rude. I say it because it is something best not discussed in a public forum. People who don’t have guns for their personal defense often don’t understand why we do and why we carry most of the time, if not all of the time. It is certainly a topic that can be discussed with non-gun people with an idea of informing them and helping them to understand the need for personal protection. But whether or not you are carrying a gun at the moment is a fact best shared only with family members or very close personal friends.
Armed citizens have to react to an attack, which puts them at a disadvantage. Therefore, they have to play catch up in order to overcome that disadvantage. The last thing I want criminals to know is that I have a gun, because they can simply plan to deal with that, too. The fact that I have a gun should come as a complete surprise to them and, thereby, possibly give me some advantage.
Now, I am not knocking open carry. There are times when that is appropriate and times that I make use of it. Each of us has to decide that for ourselves. But most of the time, I want to simply blend with polite society and go about my business without the whole world knowing that I am packing.
So I choose to not answer questions about when I am carrying concealed. People like to talk, and that information just might get to the wrong ears. I want the advantage of surprise when under attack. Who knows? It just might give me the opportunity to really ruin a crook’s day. More especially, it just might give me the chance to survive.
Thanks to Shooting Illustrated for this post. Click here to visit ShootingIllustrated.com.
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