I’m from Colorado. The front range. Loveland, to be exact. That’s my “home turf,” above, and I miss it. Well, I miss the breathtaking beauty and majestic moods of the Rocky Mountains, not Colorado’s demographics. In the course of my short life, I watched the liberal influx of Californians transform a free state — as Western as they come — into one with unconstitutional gun laws and a punitive tax regime. Anyway, after a short stay in Alpine, Wyoming to visit my husband, I motored into my home state for the holidays. And I was happy . . .
I arrived at my parents’ house and my father was carrying. The next day, my sister and her husband came by to visit. Although he was concealing, I knew he was locked and loaded. My brother-in-law’s a security guard at the VA hospital, so he always carries. Once my brother arrived, there were four of us armed.
It was so much more relaxing than social events in California, where I know for a fact, without a shadow of a doubt, that I’m the only person who’s armed. In fact, unless I’m at the annual NRA banquet in Susanville, I’m the only one carrying a defensive firearm during my day-to-day chores. At the grocery store. The pharmacy. The bank. Walmart. Picking the kids up from school. At the playground. In my friends’ houses. Everywhere. Think about that.
The Golden State limits citizens to ten-round ammunition magazines. Ten. So if something life-threatening happens, if I’m forced into a defensive gun use, it’s up to me. With ten rounds. Alone. I’d do my best to survive and protect innocent life, but I’m more Callahan than McClane. I know my limitations. TTAG’s Charlie Hebdo simulation showed that one girl and with one gun (and ten rounds) might not even slow down the bad guys’ slaughter.
Gun rights people forget that it takes a village to protect a village. While the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right, it’s most effective when it’s practiced in a group of like-minded people. That’s one of the reasons I feel so relaxed around my gun-toting family: they have my back. It’s one of the reasons I can’t wait to move to Wyoming. I know I’ll be among friends as I go about my daily life. Armed friends. The best kind.