Last night I got home from a long vacation in Utah. My plane left at 5:40pm and arrived at Baltimore Washington International airport at 1:00am. By the time I got home, unpacked, and got in bed it was 3:30am. Usually, I get up at 5:00am every morning but today I didn’t have to get up until 7:00am.
So why in the world am I telling you about my late flight? Because I’m running on three and a half hours of sleep and I feel like death. When I was in college I could get two hours of sleep a night and feel fine. But these days, when I get little sleep, I often have a headache for the entire day, my allergies kick in and I can barely concentrate on what’s going on around me.
And for this very reason, I chose not to carry concealed today. You see, once you get your concealed carry permit you are held to a higher standard than the rest of society. And you should be because you’re walking around with a tool that could take someone’s life.
For instance, if you’re walking to a restaurant and you see a shortcut down an alley with three thugs hanging around I would advise you not to go down that alley and just take a longer way. Because if you go down that alley and get in a gun fight I imagine our legal system is not going to look very favorably upon you if you tell the jury “I knew I had a gun on me and could take care of those guys so that’s why I decided to go down that alley and not walk a longer route.”
But let me get back to why I’m not carrying concealed today…
Like I mentioned, my allergies severely affect me from lack of sleep. And I’m sure some of you are reading this thinking “Jason’s a wimp, I’m going to carry my gun no matter what, I don’t care how sick I am.” And if you are thinking this I encourage you to re-read my paragraph about being held to a higher standard. If you’ve got a killer case of the flu or if your allergies are so bad that one of your eyes is swollen shut, you need to do the responsible thing and not carry your gun.
As a firearms instructor, you’re rarely going to hear me say that. I always believe in carrying my gun as long as I can do so responsibly. But if I’m sick, or can’t see, or on medicine that’s made me groggy then obviously I shouldn’t be walking around with a firearm on me. After all, can you imagine what would happen if I got in a self-defense situation and shot an innocent bystander and the prosecutor found out I was full of Benadryl and Nyquil? Or the police reported that my eyes were bloodshot and I looked like I was on drugs when they tried to interview me?
It obviously wouldn’t look very good…
However, I don’t like to be unarmed and I know people who refuse to leave their house without a gun on them, so that’s why you need to have your wife and your children (over 21) get their permits too.
If you’re wife (or husband) is like mine then they’re not always going to carry concealed. And that’s fine, that’s their choice. However, if they do have their permit at least they have the option to carry on the days you’re not well enough to carry or the days you’re all hopped up on medicine.
Plus, not only does this apply to carrying concealed, but it applies to home defense as well. If you’re flat on your back, barely able to move with sickness, and someone breaks into your house, do your wife and children know how to manipulate your self-defense firearm so they can protect themselves and your sickly self? My wife certainly does.
The bottom line is this: If your family members don’t have their permits and don’t know how to use a firearm then I would try and change that ASAP. I realize the chances of needing them to protect you while you’re sick are one in a million, but it may be that one time that saves your life and theirs.
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