Why People Don’t Carry Guns

Why don't people carry guns? Well, obviously there's a lot of reasons why people don't carry guns. Some of them are illegal, some of them are moral, some of them really just have a lot to do with confidence and those are the three I wanna talk about. Three biggest excuses that I think we can easily overcome for people who aren't carrying guns. Now, if you carry a gun, don't tune out, what I want you to do is listen to these discussions, listen to these concepts and understand how we can refute them, how we can explain to people to overcome these excuses and maybe thinking about sharing this video with someone you care about that you think would be well-served by being trained and prepared to be armed for their own defense.

The first thing that I hear people talk about when they're explaining why they don't carry a gun or when they're saying they might but they're not sure they're ready is very simply a doubt in their ability to use a gun well enough to defend themselves or others in the public space. This doubt about their skill is probably very rational and very reasonable. In fact, I think it's a healthy attitude towards carrying a gun for the first time or considering whether or not you should carry a gun you own in the public space. We all know that it's very easy to get a concealed carry permit in almost the entire United States. Most States have what we call Shall Issue laws and some States even have rules in place where you can carry a gun without any formal training, and in some States even go as far as to not require a permit if you legally own the gun, you can legally carry it.

So it makes sense that people may think that they're not ready, even though they legally can carry a gun or they very easily could. They haven't trained, they haven't practiced, they haven't developed the skill. Well, obviously that's just about finding a good instructor, a good range to train at and putting in the time and effort. Now, that doesn't have to be thousands and thousands of rounds over the course of many years, it also doesn't have to cost thousands and thousands of dollars. You can get reasonable training in almost every part of the United States for a reasonable amount of money.

We're talking about a few hundred dollars after you purchase your gun, you can pay for classes on a one day basis, two, maybe three days. You can train once a month, you can train once in the spring and then practice during the summer and go back for refresher advanced training in the fall. This can be something that's done over the course of months for a few hundred dollars investment in the tuition, and a few hundred dollars investment in the ammunition for the classes. Now, of course, maintaining those skills and continuing to develop them over time is something you're going to have to do consistently. We always talked about front-loading your practice which means you're gonna have to practice more in the beginning of your skill development than you will for the rest of your life.

At some point, you'll establish a level of training that you're comfortable with, the level of scalability that you're comfortable with and you'll only need to maintain that skill. So the first one, doubting your own skill easily overcome with a minimal investment of time, some money and some effort. The next thing I hear people talk about is the responsibility. They don't wanna take on the responsibility either of their own defense, they don't wanna take on the responsibility of having a gun in the public space, or some people are concerned about having the gun in their home, introducing the gun at all, owning the gun maybe there's kids around, maybe they share the house with someone else, maybe they're just worried about someone breaking in taking the gun and doing something violent with it. Well, remember, your biggest responsibility is to protect yourself.

Your next responsibility that you feel is really important is probably protecting those you care about, your family, your friends, maybe your coworkers, maybe your kids, maybe your spouse, your partner. Think about that responsibility and how important that is. You're talking about a variable of multiple levels of failure, multiple levels of bad luck, multiple levels of negligence that would have to occur for your gun that you are owning responsibly, that you train with, and that you take seriously as a firearms owner, getting into the wrong hands or having something horrible and tragic happened with it. The responsibility you have to yourself I feel is much more important. Having the firearm in your home doesn't put you in more danger, having a firearm and being careless maybe.

Having a firearm and being reckless almost surely will put you in more danger. But being a responsible firearms owner that's well-trained and that takes that responsibility seriously is only gonna put you in a position to be safer in a worst case scenario. Think about that before you worry about what could happen with a gun, think about what could happen without the gun. The last thing we're gonna talk about is convenience. Now, those of us who carry guns regularly, those of us who are in the firearms community might scoff at this excuse, this idea that someone's going to not carry a gun because it's not convenient.

Well, let me assure you I definitely understand that as a real implausible excuse for people that haven't acclimated themselves to the idea of having a gun on them. Now, the reality is it can be very inconvenient, I know people inside of the firearms community who changed their lifestyle dramatically, who changed the way they dress, who changed the habits they have, the places they go in order to carry a firearm as often as possible or to carry a specific type of firearm. But that kind of commitment isn't necessary to have the training, to have the ability and to have the choice to carry a firearm. Now think about it, one of the things I always tell people is if you find yourself in a situation because of a domestic violence issue, because of a crime in your community issue, because of a workplace violence issue, where you decide tomorrow you want the option of carrying a gun, you wanna go get the training, you wanna buy the firearm, you wanna get the holster, you wanna be able to carry that gun in the public space. Well, tomorrow is too late to start that process if tomorrow is when you realize you need that convenience of being able to carry the gun.

So do that stuff today, take the opportunity to go out and get the training, get the concealed carry permit, get all the tools that you're going to need so that the day that you decide that you are gonna carry the gun, that you're going to go through those steps that you're not gonna go to the bank that day, that you're not gonna drink alcohol that day, that you might change the way you dress a little bit your prepared, but the reality is, once you get used to carry a gun, there really isn't much of an issue of convenience at all. In fact, even with this relatively tight fitting kind of athletic fit T-shirt and a pair of jeans, I'm carrying my everyday firearm right here, right now. I'm very comfortable carrying this firearm, it's relatively convenient. And if I need to take the firearm off this holster makes it relatively easy. I simply undo this clip, I take the entire holster off, I'm gonna put this in a lock box, I'm gonna put this somewhere secure, maybe I'm gonna unload it and put it away in storage.

It's very convenient for me to do whatever I needed to do without the gun on or go wherever I needed to go where I can't legally carry a gun, or I simply choose not to. Thinking about how you're gonna carry the gun and thinking about when and where you're gonna carry the gun is part of responsible firearms ownership. Obviously it's very easy to get this clip back in place, I'm gonna go ahead and snap that back down behind the belt, tuck my shirt back over it and you can see that once again, it's very convenient for me to carry this gun and go about my business. Getting used to carrying a gun, making it comfortable, making it convenient is part of the personal defense lifestyle when it comes to armed personal defense. Again, if you're someone who already carries a gun, think about these explanations, think about these arguments.

Don't dismiss these excuses as ones that don't apply or ones that are silly. They're not so silly to the people that hold them, they're not solely the people that may genuinely be interested in being able to protect themselves but don't exactly know how or think that there are significant obstacles in their way. Share this video with somebody you care about and if you're the person that's been sitting on the fence, I hope that these concepts, these ideas around these very common and very plausible excuses for not carrying a gun help you understand why it's something you should definitely seriously consider and not let simple obstacles stand in your way.