Once again, TTAG’s been Instapundited. This time, Glenn’s sent us an Instalanch of extremely well-informed and passionate gun owners. I’m only saying that because it’s true. Check out the comments underneath that post Self-Defense Tip: Home Carry. While I was tempted to break-out the dog discussion, this one grabbed my editorial eye (ouch). Living in a state so blue I wonder when it’s going to pass out from hypoxia, I face the same steroetyping (the sound of two hands tapping). Here’s outnow’s dissection of another commentator’s derisive dismissal of home carry . . .
I appreciate that you acknowledge the incredibly low odds of being the victim of a home invasion.
Stereotype alert: Define “incredibly.” Or was that a term you have been imbued with as a result of the intellectuals’disdain of self-preparedness becoming infused into the popular culture.
“Gun people,” for lack of a better term
Are you KIDDING ? Need I SLAP YOU IN THE HEAD with the stereotype inherent in any statement that starts that way ?
If you are honest with yourself, you might ask two questions
1. How many armed citizens do I really know ?
2. How many of them can get past my stereotypes of them such that I really know a damned thing about them ?
I suspect the honest answers to both so far in your life is “few to zero.” Here’s hoping that can change.
I’m not trying to be hostile, but can you understand that the schism between firearms owners and other begins with you and others like you ? As long as you carry that attitude, the only place I’m likely to even communicate with you is here in anonymity land. And then only because I think there’s a chance you might realize that you, yourself, don’t exactly come across as (to paraphrase lending yourself to introspection.
What’s really important about this is that you recognize how that schism comes about. Most firearms owners are eager to share their hobby with others, even as are philatelists, art collectors, tea-cozy collectors, and others. It can even get annoying.
What turns us off is the barely-restrained or unrestrained contempt, condescencion, and stereotyping we undergo universally in the popular culture. Try telling a bunch of college professors in a liberal arts school that you hunt and enjoy shooting. It led me to create one of my tee-shirts — “Instant pariah, just add gun-ownership.”
This firearms enthusiast is not “Bubba,” doesn’t know any “Bubbas,” and has seldom met a “Bubba.” Which might let you know how rare Bubba is outside perhaps a few specific circles.
And if you think that’s because I’ve led a parochial life, you’re so very wrong. I was raised in the NE USA, lived for years in the deep South, spents several more years in the western USA, and have traveled internationally for business. As a former firearms instructor and competitive shooter, I suspect I met more “Gun people” face to face than most others will see on television and the movies. I have a doctorate, as does my “Gun people” wife (who’s working on her second).
Three thoughts:
1. If you own a firearm already, taking some measure of preparedness to use that arm in self-defense is an intelligent act of preparation, for certainl values of “taking some measure.” This is why many firearms owners who did not purchase a firearm for protection nonetheless take some steps to be able to use it in case it becomes needed.
2. As I have told various people in the past (some of whom have REALLY annoyed me with their attitudes), mankind has achieved primacy over the animals in large part thru preparation. Through the ability to recognize not only current threats but possible future ones, and by taking steps to eliminate or mitigate the effects of those threats. This philosophy in my case is why I carry a jump kit (think “first aid” — I’m a former paramedic), a flashlight, and a fire-extinguisher in my car.
It’s why I have smoke-detectors on each level of my house, and 2 CO detectors as well. It’s why I do 45 minutes of exercise each morning and several nights per week. To fail to prepare for credible adverse events is to accept personal extinction with the uncomprehending docility of a bovine (another T-shirt). And we each have our own definition of “credible.”
3. In my experience with hundreds of “gun people” over the years, I am not at all atypical — because there IS no “typical.” I have shot alongside or taught police officers (well, I was an instructor trainer), doctors, lawyers, teachers, housewives, teens, etc. Some have had a 9th-grade education, others are PhDs and MDs. One drove a beat-up pickup truck, another a Maserati. What I learned is “make no assumption who might come to class or show up on the range.”
Semper paratus is not just for the Coast Guard 
