have you ever needed your hcp?

[Guest oldslowchevy]

have you ever really been in a situation where you had to not only pull your weapon but you also had to pull the trigger?

i have had my doughts about getting my hcp because well i am 37 lived in both washington d.c. and baltimore for 20+ years and tampa fl for 3 years i now live here in east tennessee. i have never been in a situation where i felt that i wish i had a gun with me. the only time i can for see me really needing a gun while out might be if i was camping and need to defend my self aginsit a wild animal.

now i would like me wife to get her permit though i doubt she could pull a gun on anything other then a target.

please tell me if you ever really needed to pull the trigger on someone or thing to defend yourself. if you did what happened that lead up to the shooting and what happened afterwards. also how did this event effect your mind set?

if you want to respond but do not want to make this issue public then please pm me your reply.

thank you all in advance for your replies.

[dats82]

I have been in a couple of situations that I was glad I had a gun, but thankfully, I have never needed my gun. If you want the details that is fine, but for me to type it out, it would probably would not impress you much.

Usually when someone is sitting the fence like this, there are two things I tell them. (1) It only takes one time for you to need a gun a not have, and you will either be dead or wish for the rest of your life that you had been able to defend yourself or the ones you love. (2) It is like wearing your seatbelt. We don't need to debate over wearing a seatbelt; countless lives have been saved by them. I have never needed my seatbelt, but I wear it everytime I get in a vehicle. It only takes one time of not wearing it for your life to be completely shattered. In my humble opinion, that is as true for guns as it is seatbelts.

[bigwakes]

Me? No. I hope to God I never need it, but I bet these people wish they had theirs:

family killed by gunman - Google Search

I just got the American Rifleman Magazine and every month they list 8-10 stories of citizens defending themselves against armed robbery, car jacking, home invasion, and rape. The only thing every story has in common is a BG being shot, shot at, or held for police while having a gun pointed at them. It's too easy not to have a permit!

[LagerHead]

The news is filled with the obituaries of people who never needed a gun until the day they died. Some were younger than you, and some older. I'd be willing to bet not a single one of them woke up that morning thinking they'd need a gun that day.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

I've never needed a gun for self defense in the past and hope not to in the future, but usually keep one around. It is extra trouble for a low-probability risk. Odds are that the average person in the USA will never need one. Ya pays yer money and takes yer chances.

I got to about age 50 never needing a fire extinguisher. Perhaps most people live their entire lives never needing a fire extinguisher, dunno. Maybe they need fire extinguishers more often than guns. One day the wife's fancy candle lit up the living room. The fire extinguisher came in real handy and probably saved the house. I hope to never need a fire extinguisher again, but after the house nearly burned down I got a fire extinguisher for every room so I don't have to go looking for a fire extinguisher if it happens again. After that I also tried to ban candles from the house but you know how wives can be sometimes.

[wcsc12]

have you ever really been in a situation where you had to not only pull your weapon but you also had to pull the trigger?

i have had my doughts about getting my hcp because well i am 37 lived in both washington d.c. and baltimore for 20+ years and tampa fl for 3 years i now live here in east tennessee. i have never been in a situation where i felt that i wish i had a gun with me. the only time i can for see me really needing a gun while out might be if i was camping and need to defend my self aginsit a wild animal.

now i would like me wife to get her permit though i doubt she could pull a gun on anything other then a target.

please tell me if you ever really needed to pull the trigger on someone or thing to defend yourself. if you did what happened that lead up to the shooting and what happened afterwards. also how did this event effect your mind set?

if you want to respond but do not want to make this issue public then please pm me your reply.

thank you all in advance for your replies.

I've never had to draw my gun before but I'm quite happy about that. I'll still have it with me everyday that I am able to carry but I hope I never have to draw it. However, should my life be placed in a position where I see an immediate life threatening action coming at me, I like knowing I can shoot back.

I was on the fence about it like you because I have honestly never been put in a situation to where I felt like I needed it. But I think that's the point of your HCP, you get it and you carry so you'll never need it.

[TMF]

Back in the '90s (in Florida) my uncle had to pull his weapon and shoot an aggressor. Long story short, the criminal mistook my uncle's green Ford Taurus station wagon for a green lowrider pickup truck of an individual he had gotten into a bar fight with earlier that evening (the criminal had a BAC over .2 at the hospital later that night). He followed my uncle back to his house and exited his truck with a golf club exclaiming "I'm going to kill you m'f'er" at which point my uncle produced his weapon and informed the criminal that he would shoot if he came any closer. The criminal advanced and was shot 3 times by my uncle. The criminal retreated back to his vehicle and drove himself to the hospital.

At the hospital the next day the criminal was unable to determine to police where the shooting even took place let alone who shot him or the circumstances surrounding how he was shot.

My uncle went into the house and called 911 immediately following the shooting. Police responded and conducted their investigation. They concluded the shoot was self-defense. Later the DA did try to press charges unrelated to the justification to use deadly force but those charges were later dropped.

[Guest SkinnyKTN]

I'm new to the forum and have never posted, but have been lurking for a while and felt I should post about this if it will help. My wife and I were at a Kristals one night and 3 hooded men with rifles came running in screaming and hollering for everyone to give them there money then get on the ground. One of the men came directly to my wife and I pointed the gun in my face and told us to give them our money. My wife was absolutely histerical. They got away with the money in the cash regiter and 3 other individuals money, but my wife could get her money out fast enough for them. Lukily the "leader" of their group called them out before my wife could get her money out and us get shot over it. I went and got my HCP the following week. I also was in Memphis TN that night which is reason enough to need an hcp. If I had had my hcp you better believe as soon as I saw them running through the door I would have been drawing my weapon.

[Guest cardcutter]

You never need a gun until you desperately need a gun!

[tnhawk]

You never need a gun until you desperately need a gun!

While working in TX years ago, one of my coworkers questioned my need to carry a gun. A few days later, he almost died from robber with a knife, while washing his car. He now carries a gun everyday.

[daddyo]

Gun haters love to use this argument: "Have YOU ever needed your gun? No? Then WHY do you carry one?"

As if the fact that I have never needed mine is somehow indicative of whether or not I may need it in the future. I hope I never need it. But what complete and utter crap to believe that one can predict the future. The countless number of real-life self-defense stories should wake us all up to the fact that our lives can change in the blink of an eye, and if we aren't prepared, then we're screwed.

Trouble doesn't make an appointment.

Edited December 22, 2011 by DaddyO

[tnhawk]

Gun haters love to use this argument: "Have YOU ever needed your gun? No? Then WHY do you carry one?"....The countless number of real-life self-defense stories should wake us all up to the fact that our lives can change in the blink of an eye, and if we aren't prepared, then we're screwed....Trouble doesn't make an appointment.

You don't need a spare tire until you have a flat.

[Gun Smith]

There has been a couple on instances where I came very close to needing one and I didn't have one. Nothing makes me feel more stupid than to not be prepared when I could have been so easily. That was the end of that.

[hornett22]

Ive pulled my weapon twice in the late 90s. Once in Chicago, once in Pontiac Michigan. Never pulled the trigger.

I can't count the times I never even touched it but was glad I had it.

[vontar]

Gun haters love to use this argument: "Have YOU ever needed your gun? No? Then WHY do you carry one?"

As if the fact that I have never needed mine is somehow indicative of whether or not I may need it in the future. I hope I never need it. But what complete and utter crap to believe that one can predict the future. The countless number of real-life self-defense stories should wake us all up to the fact that our lives can change in the blink of an eye, and if we aren't prepared, then we're screwed.

Trouble doesn't make an appointment.

kinda like asking someone to prove a negative. Those people have just been brain washed in guns are bad all the way around and that there is no good use for a gun. Since it is totally impossible to disarm the dishonest people those of us that follow the law need to make sure we fight to maintain our right to self defense. For if we lose that right it is over.

The BG is going to look for the easy target, (soft targets if you will). Remember the school yard, the bullies are they picked on the weak, it is the same for the BG's they look for the weak and the ones that they don't expect to put up a fight.

When we read about a person that defended themselves I often think to myself the BG thought I picked an easy target and he picked wrong and my next though follows with I am glad that person was able to defend them self.

[bigwakes]

I have told this story about 20 times on this board, but I think it's relavant once again. I was in LA during the riots from the Rodney King BS back in the early 90's. We lived in an apartment complex and we didn't go to school, dad didn't go to work, we just holed up in the house waiting for the cops to take control of the cities again. We heard some commotion in the alley behind the apartment and my dad started calling men in the building that he thought might have firearms. My dad had a .22 single shot bolt action rifle and a .25 auto pocket pistol. One neighbor had a Colt .22 ar15 and another guy had a rifle I think was a .22 as well. They went out the back door after we could see the glow of fire out the back window. I had my window open listening for gun shots or a fight and all I her was "don't shoot, don't shoot, we'll put it out." A group of guys set fire to a couch and a dumpster behind the building. They were so scared at the sight of a weapon they actually put out both fires before running of like children.

This was the one experience in my life to cause me to always have a firearm for defense. 2 weeks before my 21st birthday I took my permit class. The day I turned 21 my girlfriend (now my wife) bought me a Ruger P95 and I applied for my carry permit. I might also add I was living in Memphis at the time, so that was part of my urgency.

[Guest bkelm18]

Never needed my HCP nor have I ever been in a situation where I was glad I had it in case I needed it. Be aware of your surroundings and don't go to problem areas if you can avoid it. Should keep you safe 99.99% of the time. That being said, school is the only place I don't have a firearm on me.

[Guest uofmeet]

Never needed my HCP nor have I ever been in a situation where I was glad I had it in case I needed it. Be aware of your surroundings and don't go to problem areas if you can avoid it. Should keep you safe 99.99% of the time. That being said, school is the only place I don't have a firearm on me.

That .01% of the time is reason enough for me to get one. That could be the most critical .01% if you loose your life instead of being able to defend yourself.

[Guest Grubbah]

Thankfully, In my 32 years, I've not yet been in the situation where I thought I needed it. But that didnt stop me from getting my hcp recently. I have to presume that most of the innocent people who find themselves at the mercy of a lunatic would say that was the first time its happened to them. Some of them may have only been robbed, while others may have been shot, killed, raped, other bad stuff.

I dont want my first time (hopefully there isnt though) to be like their experience. Thats why I got mine.

To make another comparison. I have never won anything substantial in the lottery. But I still buy tickets every once in a while. Just because its never happened in the past, doesnt mean I wont be in that .01% group some day.

[daddyo]

That .01% of the time is reason enough for me to get one. That could be the most critical .01% if you loose your life instead of being able to defend yourself.

And that's the whole point. None of us ever know when we will instantaneously become part of that .01%. SA is important, but the simple fact is that we sometimes let our guard down because we are preoccupied.

And for the record, I don't give a about statistics. Ask anyone who's been robbed, raped or beaten if it mattered to them when they were being attacked.

[willis68]

I have not needed my Auto insurance in the last Ten years. Does this mean that I should not carry it?

Absoultely not!

[Glock30]

Never had a "live" self-defense situation, but I have had a couple of occasions I was extremely happy I had it. You don't buy insurance hoping that you're going to really use it, but you have it in case a bad day comes around.

One person, standing in the gap, can be the difference between good and evil prevailing.

[jimic]

I've never needed a gun for self defense in the past and hope not to in the future, but usually keep one around. It is extra trouble for a low-probability risk. Odds are that the average person in the USA will never need one. Ya pays yer money and takes yer chances.

I got to about age 50 never needing a fire extinguisher. Perhaps most people live their entire lives never needing a fire extinguisher, dunno. Maybe they need fire extinguishers more often than guns. One day the wife's fancy candle lit up the living room. The fire extinguisher came in real handy and probably saved the house. I hope to never need a fire extinguisher again, but after the house nearly burned down I got a fire extinguisher for every room so I don't have to go looking for a fire extinguisher if it happens again. After that I also tried to ban candles from the house but you know how wives can be sometimes.

well said

[shaftbass]

I have been in a couple of situations that I was glad I had a gun, but thankfully, I have never needed my gun. If you want the details that is fine, but for me to type it out, it would probably would not impress you much.

Usually when someone is sitting the fence like this, there are two things I tell them. (1) It only takes one time for you to need a gun a not have, and you will either be dead or wish for the rest of your life that you had been able to defend yourself or the ones you love. (2) It is like wearing your seatbelt. We don't need to debate over wearing a seatbelt; countless lives have been saved by them. I have never needed my seatbelt, but I wear it everytime I get in a vehicle. It only takes one time of not wearing it for your life to be completely shattered. In my humble opinion, that is as true for guns as it is seatbelts.

That sums it up pretty well. It's just another form of life insurance.

[Guest WyattEarp]

You don't need a spare tire until you have a flat.

exactly. it's kinda funny how people who hate cell phones have the same argument as anti-gun owners.

i have a home phone, why do I need a phone so someone can get a hold of me 24 hours a day?

uh, well when you're traveling that old lonesome highway and that tire goes flat, and you realize you can't find your spare tire jack...comes in real handy.