Why I Carry a Gun

I carry a gun.  Everyday.  Everywhere.  At least everywhere not prohibited by law, which is, as of June 8, 2010, a much larger list, and much easier to determine in Georgia, where I live.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I did not enter into this practice of everyday carry lightly.  I can’t pinpoint the exact date I began to seriously consider purchasing my first gun, nor the impetus for that consideration.  It was sometime in the latter third of 2008.  My daughter left for college.  Barack Obama won the presidential election.  My car was broken into while parked in the lot at work.  And it seemed that several times a week there were stories in the local news of home invasions, carjackings, bank robberies and drug busts, not just in Atlanta proper, but in my county and the surrounding communities.  It could have been any one or a combination of those things that started me thinking about getting a gun.  Maybe I just started paying closer attention.

Whatever the reason, I began to research gun ownership, carry and use.  Several years prior, upon discovering that a friend carried a gun, I asked if you needed a license to carry in Georgia.  This person told me that all you needed was a driver’s license.  They were wrong.  During my research I discovered that Georgia is a “shall issue” state, one of 38 states that, by state law, must issue a license to carry if the applicant meets the requirements of the state, allowing no discretion on the part of the issuing agency.  Most, 27 in fact, shall issue states do not require a license to carry openly, so what they are issuing are concealed carry licenses.  And three states (which I’ve included in the 38 shall issue states), Alaska, Arizona and Vermont, do not require any permit to carry a concealed weapon. So if I were going to carry a gun in Georgia¹ I would need to get a Georgia Firearms License² (GFL).

I also learned that Georgia has a “Stand Your Ground” statute.  Stand Your Ground or Castle Doctrine laws generally state that an individual has no duty to retreat and has the right to use force, up to and including deadly force, when confronted with an attack or threat of an attack that causes the individual to have a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm to himself or others.  Under Georgia law “Stand Your Ground” encompasses any place an individual has the legal right to be.  The use of force, even deadly force, under Georgia law renders the individual immune from criminal and civil prosecution.

The more I learned the more I came to appreciate the gravity of my decision.  And so I bought a gun³ and got my GFL.  Which, finally, brings me to the “why”.   I always understood that owning and carrying a firearm was a right.  A right enunciated in the second amendment, but also a right that pre-dates the constitution or any form of government for that matter.  The right to defend oneself and others is inherent in the right to life itself. 

What I learned through my months of research is that being armed with an instrument of deadly force is more than a right; it’s a responsibility.  Ultimately I alone am responsible for my own well being and that of my family.  As a Christian I have a responsibility to be prepared to come to the aid of someone who is not able to defend himself.  As a citizen I have a responsibility to defend the rights afforded by the constitution and my creator.

I take these responsibilities very seriously.  So in addition to getting licensed and carrying a gun, I took a firearms course through my local sheriff’s office.  I joined Georgia Carry (GCO), a citizen’s advocacy group that has been instrumental in much of the recent legislation in Georgia to revise and loosen gun laws.  I practice regularly and have even participated in several shooting competitions though GSSF (Glock Sport Shooting Foundation), which I have joined, and IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Association).

I now regularly practice open carry in an effort to help make guns more ubiquitous in my community.  Oddly, the Glock on my hip generates very little attention.  Two people have asked me if I was a police officer and a cashier at the supermarket commented that when she got through with her shift she was going to the range for some target shooting.

Finally, I have purposed in my mind and heart that I am ready to act on these responsibilities even to point of using lethal force.  Not that I seek out an opportunity to do so, quite the contrary.  I now pay much more attention to my surroundings and do my best to avoid placing myself or loved ones in situations that may reasonably be unsafe.  Unfortunately we can’t always predict where or when violence may be visited upon us.  So I prepare for that which I pray never happens, ready to meet the challenge that I hope never comes.

Footnotes

¹Georgia law does allow you to carry a weapon in your own home, vehicle and place of business without a GWL, so long as you are eligible to be issued a GWL should you apply.

² As of 06/08/10 with the passage of SB308, the Common Sense Lawful Carry Act, the GFL became a Georgia Weapons License (GWL).  SB308 also eliminated Georgia’s nebulous “Public Gathering” law (a holdover from Jim Crow days) and replaced it with a short and exhaustive list of places off limits and clarified all laws dealing with weapons.

³In addition to researching the law, I also did quite a bit of research on guns.  Handguns vs. rifles vs.
shotguns, caliber, brands, etc.  I wound up buying a Taurus Millennium Pro PT111 9mm semi-automatic pistol.  I have since purchased a Glock Gen 4 G17 9mm semi-automatic pistol and a Mossberg 500 12 gauge shotgun.