Why I carry.

I've been asked before and I've blogged about it before. Why do I carry. What am I compensating for. Usually I answer that I'm compensating for being old and slow. That's the easy answer.

This past week, two people were shot in my apartment complex. That's the second shooting and, I've lost count of the number of home invasions and violent crimes in my complex. Now I'm not saying that my carrying would have stopped me from being a victim of one of these types of crimes, but it does give me an opportunity to not be. I'm sorry if that's confusing. Let me try to explain. Without a defensive arm, and by that I mean a gun, a knife, a kubota, something, I have no other choice then to meekly pray that the goblins at my heels don't just kill me for whatever reason. I'm not saying that that's what will necessarily happen. But do you want to depend on mercy or compassion from someone that just looks at you as some sort commodity to be used for money or drugs? Without a means of self defense I've already decided to be the victim, with no ability to mitigate how much of a victim I become.

Also, Lawdog had a excellent post on not just our right, but our duty to defend ourselves. By being a sheep and laying down to be slaughtered, we're telling the bad guys out there that there is very little risk to what they've chosen to do. And since they see reward outweighing risk, they continue to do it. If the risk outweighed the reward, they'd turn to something else, that just basic human nature. It's sort of like house breaking a dog. Reward him for good behavior and punish him for bad. And unfortunately much like a dog, the reward or punishment has to be immediate for it to be connected to the activity. So, defenseless, high reward, low risk, happy thief, continued behavior. Defended, high risk, lower reward, unhappy thief, modifying behavior. Lawdog does a much better job of explaining it.

Why do I carry? Why don't you?