Why Did You?

[TGO David]

Hope I didn't ruffle too many feathers (from previous posts).

Share your story. Why did you or what motivated you to get your permit. Why do you or don't you carry?

I carry for my own protection and that of my family. Carrying a firearm is an act of self-sufficiency and is congruent with my belief that I and mine should be able to take care of ourselves. It is impossible for the police to be everywhere that you need them, and frankly I don't feel that it is their job to be in the first place.

Owning a firearm is likewise an act of self-sufficiency but also is an act of patriotism regardless of what the hand-wringers and governing-elite want you to believe. Our forefathers understood clearly the difference between citizen and subject and it is something that resonates at my core and should at the core of every other American as well. Sadly, it doesn't for many.

[Glock30]

I share the sentiments of many here that a man should take care of himself and his own. My workplace is in an isolated area and I can not rely on law enforcement to bail me out of a bad situation.

I choose not to be a victim, but rather a liberator of them.

[Guest Michael.G]

The reason for why I carry and why I got my permit is the same. I watch the news and read newspapers.

[Guest Sgt. Joe]

I have been carring since I went into the Marines in 1960 and have had one close at hand ever since . I have had a carry permit since 1986 ( Florida CWP ) and when I moved back to Tn, got my HCP.

It's ALL his^^^^^ fault, every bit of it:D................ But seriously.....Thanks Bro:)

I started martial arts training as an AF brat in Japan taking Judo. I continued as a child taking Karate here and there as we moved around from base to base but never making it very far up in the belt rankings. While in HS I had some friends that were taking some kind of Kung-Fu stuff and they would teach me what they had learned and we all sparred together.

Over time I developed my own style of martial arts using all that I had learned and became quite proficient at what I did. I have no idea of what to call what I did other than maybe generic martial arts. I continued this while being in the military and part of the infantry as my first actual military job. I even entered a competition at Ft. Hood after being stationed there after going through Signal training and got promptly whooped by some little dude who ended up winning the thing.

Since I had made it through the first 3 rounds and the guy who beat me happened to be Asian and ended up winning the whole thing, me knowing that I had no real formal training but had lasted longer with him than anyone else had I left that competition thinking that I was some sort of tough guy. I actually did come closer to beating him than anyone else had but he had hurt me early on and I could not play MY game against him, I had to react rather than act. At any rate I still felt tough enough.

I had fired a shotgun when I was about 12 and it knocked me down which was very entertaining for my older cousins but I did hit the trash can lid target. While in basic training I fired a weapon more than I ever had before and found that I was pretty good at shooting, both in basic and more so during infantry school which was my first military job, I have never qualified anything other than expert in the military. Still the thought of carrying a gun never entered my mind.

I spent most of my life thinking that I was some sort of tough guy. On two occasions some fool with a knife tried to take my money, I kept my money, kept the knifes and still wear some of the scars to remind me of those encounters. Those situations only served to reinforce in me that I was indeed a tough guy. I even on one occasion took a gun away from some drunken fool who thought I was after his ugly girlfriend, I gave him a good whooping and the gun to a friend. I sure didnt need it....I was a tough guy after all.

After volunteering to reenlist into the TN Army Guard and go to Iraq in 2004 at age 46 (again qualifying expert after not even touching an M-16 for a bit over 18 years) I ended up twisting the fire out of my upper and lower back and totally blew out both knees. It was later determined that it was nerve damage in my spine and not something that could be fixed by surgery and would only get worse over time. It was getting harder and harder for me to even walk on some days, I started to wonder if I was still a tough guy or not and the answer was NO.

I had over the years owned a handgun or two but they were simply things I got in re-payment of debts, parts of trades of whatever or won in card games and they all had left the same way. The mother-of-pearl gripped 45 that I let go haunts me now that I am into guns, at the time I sold it all it meant to me was I got it for about 50 bucks in a trade involving a car and I was selling it for 150 bucks, it only represented a 100 dollar profit.

It was after I was told that they could not fix me and I knew for certain that I could no longer do the things that I once could that I came to the conclusion that I needed a gun to protect myself and my family and I actually started learning about handguns. I have never looked back.

That realization did not happen until just a few years ago and I told myself that all I would ever need would be one gun and I knew I could fire a 380 without hurting myself but that I could not shoot and handle a 45 without causing myself pain, because of that pain I also could not shoot one well as I would anticipate the pain on the first shot and it took forever to line up for the next, I would have been safer with no gun than with a 45. It was hard for me to admit that to myself after spending so much of my life being that tough guy. But it is still true today, I can shoot a 1911 OK but I dont own one and then there is the capacity thing.

Those were a friends guns that I learned that with so I started out buying a 380 from him, an unfired PPK for 300 bucks on the pay when you can plan. Well sure enough I quickly realized that it was an expensive round to practice with and at the time 380 was darn near impossible to even find so I had to have a 22 to practice with = gun number two.

It wasnt much longer before I got to rent and shoot a 9mm and realized that I could handle those just fine. Based on the advice by our above member TnRebel I bought a PPS-9 which I really did like other than the capacity. Spare mags for those were as rare as a cheap box of 380 at the time and I was lucky enough to be one of the first to buy one new that only shipped with one mag. Then one day I picked up a Ruger SR9 and it felt like a match made in heaven....10 more rounds than the PPS and not much bigger so I ordered one in OD green still carry it or its little brother the SR9c everyday with a 380 for a BUG.

I have since traded away the used PPS for a new Sig 238 in a great deal with Hero Gear. Excellent folks to deal with BTW.

I do want another PPS at some point but it isnt on top of the want list at the moment. I have learned a ton of stuff the past few years, one of the biggest things being that won knife fights and all....that I never was the tough guy that I thought that I was. I was very fast and hard hitting but Boo-Lits are much faster and even harder hitting. I had been darn lucky was all.

So I went from someone who did not feel the need for a gun for protection to someone who really believed that one would forever be enough...to someone who will not even admit how many handguns I now own as it is a bit embarrassing in a way, yet there are still some on the "must have" list.

I now carry every day everywhere that it is legal and have even gone from disarming to get a postal money order to paying 5 bucks for a cashiers check at my Credit Union instead.

Of course once I had a few handguns I felt the need to have a long one too and I have acquired a few of those also.

This whole thing is a disease but it is one that I am glad that I caught, TnRebel was very contagious when I met him. I have not yet caught the 1911 strain or the AK strain as I am an AR (America's Rifle;)) guy. I do only have the one wheel gun at the moment and I am having symptoms of not enough revolver syndrome at the moment.

Guns also gave me the "hobby" that my wife always insisted that I needed.

I fully expected to get a lot of static from her over it all but she shocked me by not giving me any. She had watched me go through my workouts and knew that I could no longer do those things so she pretty much understood why I was doing what I was doing. She asked a few questions about storage and what and how to explain it to the kids and that was it.

I really was surprised. Of course being a typical wife there are at times when I get the mention of "all those guns" but for the most part she has been very supportive. She did freak a bit as the collection went from pistols to an AR and then another one and.....well you know:rolleyes:

She also does seem a bit perturbed at times when a new one comes here to live but I explain its particular role and she is OK again. She was VERY happy when I bought a real safe because she can put her Pearls and few pieces of expensive jewelry in it, so all has worked out well. And the family is well protected if Heaven Forbid we ever need to be.

I have also met and become lifelong friends with a few folks on this board and expect that will continue as time goes on.

My wife isnt however yet to the point of wanting her own permit and gun. I push her all the time, making her handle everything and showing her new stuff on the interwebz but I dont push hard because I have learned from fine folks like you people that isnt the way to go about it.

And REB.....Thanks Bro, you helped me in many many more ways than you will ever know and I will forever be in your debt. Now if you could get me to quit making such long posts I am sure some here would appreciate that tremendously, but good luck with that.

[Guest biohazardmatthew]

I always wanted to get my HCP from a young age and used to say I would get it as soon as I turned 21 because I have a love for guns and don't want to ever be the helpless victim but in reality I ended up waiting till I was 26. What finally made me get it was due to the line of work I'm in I have naturally gotten my fair share of death threats. When an inmate with an extensive felony record told me he knew where I lived and that he will come murder my entire family upon his release it got my attention.