I've been involved with the Right to Keep and Bear Arms group here on DailyKos for months now, and one thing about our diaries -- or, more accurately, the response to our diaries -- has me a bit baffled.
The main goal of our Tuesday morning diaries is to increase awareness that gun rights are not a Republican issue, and that so-called "gun control" laws have little effect other than helping the NRA and their pet Republicans win elections.
We get some surprisingly angry responses. Evil intentions, violent tendencies, and downright perversions are ascribed to us. There is anger that we dare to discuss the issue. We are even accused of being right-wing sock puppets... despite the fact that many Democrats own guns, and agree with us (and current legal opinion) that the Bill of Rights guarantees an individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
In this diary, I ask how your lives would change if you carried a gun. Would you behave more aggressively? Take more risks? Be less fearful of crime? Or, would you behave like all the gun owners we know, carefully avoiding situations in which a gun might be needed?
Before I ask for your help, and present a poll, let me throw in the legalese after the jump:
RKBA is a DKos group of second amendment supporters who also have progressive and liberal values. We don't think that being a liberal means one has to be anti-gun. Some of us are extreme in our second amendment views (no licensing, no restrictions on small arms) and some of us are more moderate (licensing, restrictions on small arms.) Moderate or extreme, we hold one common belief: more gun control equals lost elections. We don't want a repeat of 1994. We are an inclusive group: if you see the Second Amendment as safeguarding our right to keep and bear arms individually, then come join us in our conversation. If you are against the right to keep and bear arms, come join our conversation. We look forward to seeing you.
(I repeat my invitation to fellow Kossacks: if you're within a reasonable drive of this shooting range, and you would like to go shooting, drop me a line and I'll meet you there sometime. For once, I won't be the only liberal in the building. Other RKBA Kossacks might be willing to extend a similar offer in other parts of the country; let us know where you are, and we'll try to hook you up).
The reaction I described above shows up in almost every RKBA diary, and half of our comments are wasted arguing against it. Here's an example from last week:
The bottom line is that the goal of the concealed weapons enthusiastics [sic] is to instill fear into everyone - ala "gee, that person over there may very well be a bat shit crazy concealed weapons carrier, therefore I had better toe the line . . ."
This is an all too common reaction to many of our diaries; it transcends logic and reason. By supporting the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, we open ourselves up to personal attacks of all kinds... and from all sorts of people: a Contributing Editor recently exploded with angry profanity when someone dared to disagree with the basic premise that all guns are evil.
Those of us who do carry don't want to instill fear. In fact, our goal is much closer to indifference. We don't want to be noticed, we don't want to intimidate, and we don't want anyone to even suspect that we might be armed. In the 37 "shall-issue" states where concealed carry permits are issued to anyone not disqualified by their background check, the application process weeds out the "bat shit crazy" even more effectively than the state & federal checks attendant to most gun purchases. (In many of those states, our common belief that "concealed means concealed" is written into the law: in Oklahoma, where my father lives, it is illegal to carry in such a way that anyone might glimpse the weapon, or even suspect that you have a gun).
Many people believe that guns always increase crime, and that issuing concealed carry permits will obviously lead to an increase in violence. Florida became a "shall-issue" state in 1987, freely issuing permits to anyone who meets the legal requirements. The widely anticipated bloodbath never happened; in fact, gun crime decreased in Florida. Other states followed their example... and nothing bad happened there, either.
In fact, crime has decreased all over America, including in those states:
I do not claim that the decrease in crime has been the result of freely-issued carry permits, but more than two decades of experience have shown that giving concealed carry permits to hundreds of thousands of qualified applicants has not increased violent crime. Other than rare individual anecdotes, nobody can present a single statistic that shows otherwise. Not a single state has repealed its "shall-issue" permit laws; in fact, many have lessened restrictions on concealed carry that were initially enacted with the new laws... again, without increasing violence in the slightest. It turns out that law-abiding gun owners are not a threat to anyone.
In one of my previous diaries, in which I spoke of practicing often because I carry a concealed firearm, and stated that "[m]y job takes me to strangers' homes in unfamiliar neighborhoods," I got this response:
More would have to be known about this scenario for me not to think you are a reactionist running around with an itchy trigger finger. People who afraid of strangers and things that are unfamiliar are the very ones, I'd be willing to bet, that end up doing the most damage with guns. I can just imagine BEING that stranger, with you standing in my living room, sizing me up, judging me, constantly calculating whether or not the moment to draw is nigh.
Well, I've been carrying for five years now, and the "moment to draw" has never been "nigh." Rather than the usual protestations of peaceful intent -- the background check on my palmprints went back 44 years, making sure I've never displayed an "itchy trigger finger" -- I want to turn this question around:
Think about your daily routine. You get up, get dressed, drive to work, do your job, go to lunch, return to your desk, drive home, have dinner... or whatever your day entails.
Now, imagine that you have the same life, and the same job... but you own a handgun, and carry it concealed wherever you go. How would this change your day?
Would you suddenly become more prone to violence? Would you find yourself sizing up other commuters, your co-workers, or random strangers, hoping that "the moment to draw is nigh?" Would you suddenly want to inflict grievous bodily harm upon others?
I can't speak for others, but I will tell the truth about my own feelings: I hope and pray that I never use my gun against any living thing. I have been the victim of violent crimes, and I have seen violent death up close and personal... neither experience left me wanting more.
I carry a gun because I have a duty to my family to protect myself (and possibly others). When my wife found out how potentially dangerous my job could be, she gave me this choice: carry a gun, or get a different job. I chose the former, because I really love my job. I love the people I meet... I delight in the opportunity to bring high-speed Internet to a nice old lady, and show her a YouTube video of the first car she ever owned... I take great pride in having saved more than one small business from certain failure, by recovering crucial data from wounded hard drives... I even enjoy the times when I don't make money, such as by telling someone how to get their computer repaired under warranty rather than paying me to fix it.
To do this job safely, I must acknowledge the small but cumulative risks involved in my daily routine. I take phone calls from strangers -- often when I'm already out on the road, so I have only the information in my tattered paper street maps -- and go to their homes and businesses. I never knowingly drive into a dangerous situation, but I often find myself in scary neighborhoods where a Delaware native would refuse to go; being from Atlantic City, mere addresses don't serve as a warning to me. Just this weekend, I fixed a virus-infested PC on Saturday morning, and there was a shooting a block from that house on Sunday night.
This diary isn't about me, though: it's about you. Those of you who do not own guns, and/or believe that I am completely wrong about legal gun ownership and concealed carry not increasing violent crime, are asked to eschew the usual accusations that I am some sort of violent pervert, and honestly answer this question:
Would you behave differently if you carried a gun every day? If so, how?
Even if you strongly oppose what we stand for, I ask you to work with us here, answer the question, and help us understand. Calling me "bat-shit crazy" can wait until another Tuesday morning... we'll be back!