Carrying a gun doesn't make you safe, no more than wearing a seat belt prevents an auto accident. It's your Plan B. Plan A is to NOT get into an auto accident (violent confrontation). It is when we gain this false sense of security or safety, and at times — ignorant sense of invincibility — that we allow ourselves to become complacent. Complacency is dangerous.
The complacent driver doesn't check their blind spots, doesn't yield at an intersection, and doesn't know what's going on on the roadway around them.
The complacent victim will enter the gas station that their gut tells them not to, will not notice the man who is keyed in on him/her, and will verbally engage and argue with the hostile guy in the parking lot. The complacent victim listens to his/her ego over his or her intuition and ignorantly believes that they are safe because they have their handgun within an arm's reach.
These are all dangerous beliefs and patterns of thought. If we thought seat belts prevented auto accidents, we would all drive twice as fast and make twice as many poor driving decisions. We would never use our blinker or check our blind spots. We would do this because our seat belts were magical and would keep us from getting into an accident, so why bother with that responsible and safe driving stuff?!
The truth is we don't count on the seat belt to prevent an accident, we realize that it is our last ditch hope at increasing our odds of surviving an accident with the understanding that a seat belt won't necessarily save our life.
How Do We Stay Safe While Carrying?
For starters, pretend that you don't have it on your person — if you wouldn't go there unarmed, don't go there. If you wouldn't argue with the guy in the parking lot unarmed, don't argue with him — especially if you're armed. We do our best to avoid an auto accident. The key is that we are an active participant in this avoidance.
We are aware of the remote possibility and plan its prevention through safe driving practices. Do we practice this same level of alertness and awareness in our day-to-day lives? Are we aware of those potential risks when we are not driving? Do you truly know what normal looks like in your day-to-day life and are you able to recognize when something is not normal? Have you considered how you would react and what you would do if you became the victim of a violent confrontation?
Your concealed handgun is not a force-field. Like the seat belt, it is there as a means to increase your odds of survival should you ever find yourself in a life-threatening, self-defense encounter. There are no guarantees of life or death and there is no better or more sobering testament to this than the many lives of good men and women who have fallen to evil's hand.
All we can do is prepare for the rare dance with evil that we may one day face and do our best to avoid it at all costs. We can increase our chances of winning and making it home to our loved ones, while never completely eliminating the risk of death. That is the harsh reality — carrying a gun does not make you safe.
The truth of the matter is, our safety and protection, and the safety and protection of our loved ones, is our responsibility. We must recognize that a handgun is a great self-defense tool, but that it will not guarantee our survival in a life-threatening, self-defense encounter. Similar to always wearing your seat belt, you must always carry your handgun — we do not get to choose if or when we will become the victim of a violent attack — only whether or not we will be prepared to fight and survive.
Carry all the time, and all the time, carry.
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