By Martha Houle
Craigslist and Facebook deals are my guilty pleasure. I paid a whopping $20 for my most recent purchase: a wooden coffee table with plastic wheels. It was basically trash.
But one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. For those of you who think this story is about furniture, I’m not talking about tie-downs and bungee cords.
Every time I walk into a seller’s house, I’m strapped. As sweet and unassuming as I may look, I’m packing a gun underneath my torn jeans and an old t-shirt.
Over the years, I’ve concealed carried into strangers’ homes without anyone suspecting or asking. Thankfully, I haven’t had an incident or a moment where I felt I might be in danger. Even so, I’ve never second-guessed my decision to protect my life with a concealed firearm when venturing into any uncharted territory.
However, that got me thinking.
How would that play out if I had to shoot someone in their home in self-defense? What if a Craigslist or Facebook garage sale ad was a setup designed to lure unsuspecting women into a trap? What if a deal goes south and the seller suddenly flips out and attacks?
It could happen. Actually, it has happened. [Editor: We covered a first-person account of an attempted armed robbery a couple of years ago here.]
Let’s reverse the situation; would I feel safe if a Craigslist or Facebook buyer showed up at my door carrying concealed? I could unknowingly be inviting an armed criminal, sex offender, or thief into the sanctity of my own home.
I’d like to believe all gun owners are equal. Truth be told, they’re not. As Clint Eastwood put it, “I have a very strict gun control policy: if there’s a gun around, I want to be in control of it.”
When Craigslist and Facebook buyers come to look at my treasures, armed or not, I’m wary. I restrict them to the garage or front lawn. At the first sign of unease, I invite them to leave. I carry concealed as we negotiate (as I do throughout my day anyway) wherever it’s legal to do so.
You may call me paranoid. I prefer to call myself cautious. Sensible even. Then again, I did buy a coffee table with plastic wheels….