Don't Fear The CCW Permit Holder

As I discussed on my blog before, there is a lot of fear of the unknown and unfamiliar. Now that some of the politicians and media outlets have made firearms public enemy number one, people with concealed carry permits have been given a bad name.

I can see how someone without much knowledge on the subject could see the  average CCW Permit Holder as a person who has watched too many action movies. I can see why they would think a CCW Permit Holder would cause more harm than they could ever stop.

Someone could see the CCW Permit Holder as a one man vigilante looking to take the law into their own hands. Patrolling the streets late at night, like some Dirty Harry looking for a punk to "make his day." Or perhaps they see them as more of a "Barney Fife" type gun toting want-to-be-cop, more likely to shoot themselves in the leg than stop a mall shooting.

The reason I can see there concerns is simple. I have them too. There really is a bunch of "Barney Fife playing Dirty Harry" types out there. They scare the crap out of me and really piss me off. They scare me because they could make a bad situation worse. They piss me off because when they make a bad situation worse, or shoot themselves in the foot, they give the politicians and media outlets, who are against the 2nd Amendment, more ammunition for their fight. And more misinformation about the CCW Permit Holder is given to the public.

The reason that it is misinformation is this: those are not the average CCW Permit Holder. In fact, the majority of the time, its not a CCW Permit Holder at all. You see in all fifty states, and everywhere else in the world for that matter, you really don't need a CCW permit to carry a concealed weapon.

All you need is a weapon to conceal and the means to conceal it, and any jackass can do that.

No permission is needed and no "Gun Free Zone" sign or weapons ban can stop it from happening.

A person who is willing to go through the training, jump through the hoops, and pay the expense of receiving and maintaining a CCW permit, is more likely above average when it comes to personal responsibility. They take the time to find the right weapon for their needs andrequirments. They purchase expensive holsters to safely, properly secure and carry the weapon. They spend hours of training in classrooms and they spend many hours and lots of money practicing at the range. Instead of looking for trouble and an excuse to draw their weapon, they look to avoid trouble and hope they will only look at paper targets through their gun sights.

Unfortunately, the average CCW Permit Holder shares the world with the average idiot who will just grab a gun, tuck it into their wast band and head out into public. And the politicians and media outlets, who have now made firearms public enemy number one, see them all as one.

The below YouTube video shows that. It also shows that some people do understand the CCW Permit Holder.