Safety Through Guns: Are You Crazy... Or Am I?

One out of 100 adults in my Rocky Mountain town has a permit to carry a concealed gun. This news has me scared senseless. But my friends' reactions scares me even more. My new West friends are super-smart, extremely savvy Western activists, environmentalists and scholars - all of whom have an astounding Cumbaya attitude toward guns.

"You have to take a three day course to carry concealed here," my friend, Anne, http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/dec/15/from-the-editorial-advisory-board/ an environmentalist, told me when I confessed how freaked out I was to learn that the same seemingly Cumbaya folks around town who named their kids Bikram and Quinoa also might be embracing Colt and Winchester.

"You didn't grow up with guns at home, did you?" she asked. She was right.

The idea of guns as safety-enhancement tools makes no sense to me at all. And my understanding of this issue was formed at home. I grew up in the suburbs of Philly, a place where guns were carried by G.I. Joe dolls, police and bad guys, if at all.

As a girl whose first accessory was a POW bracelet, my firsthand experience of G.I. Joe dolls was extremely limited. Police didn't patrol our streets. But if a bad guy had wandered hrough the street, pillowcase over shoulder at high noon, a host of adults would have called the local precinct for action. This was, clearly, what a concerned citizen should do. Taking the law into your own hands made as much sense as performing your own tonsillectomy.

My first personal experience with a gun came in college. It was a glue gun. But I was a costume designer. As I fitted my actors, I learned a rule of stage drama called, "Chekhov's gun," that shed light on the issues of guns themselves. If there's a gun on the mantelpiece of the set when the curtain rises, Chekhov dictates, it must go off before the curtain comes down. The lack of a bang would be an affront to human nature; a tease with no release.

This, in classic essence, summed up by visceral opposition to firearms. On December 7, 1993, I was living in New York, working for a cable TV network. That night, a man named Colin Furgeson shot six commuters on a rush-hour train headed to the suburbs from New York City's Grand Central Station. One of the dead was a female colleague. Also among the dead was the husband of Carolyn McCarthy, who turned the hole in her soul in a quest for gun control, and a seat in the US House of Representatives.

"You see?" I told my gun-OK friends here in the West. Guns = death.
"But if everyone on the train had a gun --" my friends countered.
"An eye for an eye makes everyone blind."
"But in the right hands."
We were speaking in English but speaking different tongues entirely.

My friend Mary, a native Texan, and I explored this impasse recently. Mary's father, a doctor, used to carry concealed in case he had to "break up a robbery or shoot a rattlesnake...or a can," she told me.

"Why do you need a concealed gun to shoot a can?" I asked. "It's much more polite than wearing your gun out in the open," she said. A responsible, armed adult embodies the appealingly Western trait of self-reliance, my friend Anne added, during our discussion. Back East, where she came from originally, help may come when called. But here, in the land of open space, the professional law guys can take quite a while to arrive.

DIY trumps E Pluribus Unum, this line of argument goes. But I'm not convinced.

The East Coast native in me insists that safety through guns is a deadly oxymoron. The optimist in me believes there is a way to allay gun-owners' concerns while questioning the run on permits and guns in towns nationwide.

Back in New York, I knew one person who carried concealed - an ex-lingerie saleswoman turned bounty hunter from Trenton named Stephanie Plum. Stephanie was a reluctant gun-holder and an iffier shot. She was also a fictional character - the creation of author Janet Evanovich, whose mysteries were marked with compassion as well as crime.

In one of my favorite scenes, Stephanie races through Trenton on her way to work, dressed in a tight spandex outfit and a searing fit of rage. "It was an excellent outfit except it gave me no place to stick my .38," she says. "Which meant I was going to have to borrow a gun to shoot my cousin Vinnie."

In the end, Stephanie Plum doesn't borrow a gun, or shoot a thing. That non-shot, to me, is the mark of a heroine.

Comments

[Sneaky]

Three questions for you, Miss Glassman:

Is a woman shooting an attempted rapist taking the law into her own hands?

Which locations (generally speaking) have higher per-capita violent crime rates - areas with more firearms restrictions or less?

Are you familiar with the number of defensive uses of firearms compared to the number of criminal uses?

This east-coast native thinks your appeal to emotion is awfully juvenile and is a result of a lack of concrete information on the subject at hand. Professional researchers have done about-faces when they discovered, to their dismay, that statistics does not support the notion that increased presence of guns increases incidence/rate of violence and sometimes even has the reverse effect. Average street cops, especially in PDs where the Chief knows how to back off and let cops do their jobs, seem quite supportive of citizens carrying firearms (I work with them almost daily; ask me how I know). Heck, that gun control is a political loser (read: those who support it vocally most often lose election races) should be pretty clear indication that America as a whole seems to disagree with your position.

I asked you the questions that I did because I really want you to answer them. Not for me (or readers), but for you. Put down your biases for fifteen minutes and search out answers for those questions above and I think you'll find your appeal to emotion to be without merit.

[Tencfan]

Then please tell us what the ratio is for law enforcement in homicide prevention to homicide invstigation? Your opinion in regards to firearms is going to differ greatly in the environment that you keep. The reason for concealed carry is because society has been spoon fed that firearms have mind control and make good people do bad things and as usual, the only excuse you have are "what if`s and strawmen". The political correctness injected in today`s society will not address the real problem. Why is it acceptable and not an issue to carry a firearm in Butte, Montana but the opposite in Camden, New Jersey? Could it be demographics? poverty? drugs? If so, why then is the focus of attention on the firearm? This is what bothers most of us gun owners who are law abiding but are continually assaulted by people who think that removing the tool and creating more restrictions and laws are going to cure the violence problem.

[djkrlsn]

Ms Glassman--I have lived much of my life in Los Angeles County. I worked at a pharmacy in South Central Los Angeles (about 10 minute walk from Crenshaw and Martin Luther King Blvd) from 1989 to 2002, so I was working there in 1992 when the Rodney King riots hit. Much of Los Angeles and surrounding communities were badly damaged by fire because the police holed up at headquarters and did not protect the community. The areas like Koreatown that survived did so because people took their AKs, ARs, SKSs, hunting rifles, shotguns and handguns and took charge of protecting their communities

[EmilyU]

Sharon,

For much of my life, I was anti-gun. I disliked them. I did not understand why people wanted them. I saw them as more of a danger than a benefit.

Then one day I met a new neighbor. Over many cups of coffee and discussions, I learned a great deal from him about firearms. He was incredibly patient and answered all my questions honestly, presented both sides of the arguments, and even pointed out mistakes on both sides.

I can now say I have been shooting. I still don't own a firearm, but i actually enjoyed shooting quite a bit.

[truthandvalues]

The problem with gun control laws are that only the law abiding citizens obey the laws. As, the naive president-elect so foolishly believes, if guns are banned then there will be no more guns to hurt people. WRONG! The criminals don't care about the laws, that's what a criminal is by definition. The only people who will be without guns are the law abiding citizens and the criminals will just continue carrying guns. To them it is easy pick ins because no one can defend themselves because they have the guns and no one else.

You want to know what happens when guns are banned, look at Australia. Guns were banned and consequently violent gun crimes escalated 300%.

The bad guys don't care about concealed carry permits or assault weapons bans. They do it anyway.

[Badbone]

I'm a Colorado resident and have a concealed carry permit. Thank the gods I do, because about four years ago, it saved my life.

Out with my girlfriend, out walking in downtown Denver. A guy approaches us asking for money. I turn him down. He insists that since I look so rich (yeah right), I must have some money. I don't. But what was a simple interaction with a street person suddenly turned into a dangerous situation when a friend of his came out from the shadows behind us.

What were these two guys going to do? Steal my wallet? Rape my girlfriend (at 100 pounds, 5'3", she'd have a hard time fighting them off). I didn't know what they were going to do.

But I did know what I could do. I put my hand on my weapon. Didn't say anything, didn't act like Rambo, didn't say some cool action hero line. Didn't even draw. Just put my hand on my weapon and stared at them.

I'm sure you can guess the reaction. They ran away, fast.

I have no idea how often these situations happen. It only happened to me once my whole life. But if I didn't have my weapon? Would I even be here posting? Maybe they were ust aggressive panhandlers. Maybe something more. Glad I didn't have to find out.

All I know is, a gun saved my life and the life of someone I love. That's reason enough to carry, right there.

[EmilyU]

"I have no idea how often these situations happen."

Studies suggest roughly 2 million times a year.

[Topsailsman]

Badbone,
Same thing happened to me, 3:30 am in Manhattan. I just kept walking. They finally gave up on harassing me for money. Didn't have a gun. Didn't need a gun. I get harassed daily. Don't have a gun. Don't need a gun. By the way, it would have been fun if THEY had guns too, I'm sure it would have turned out great for you.

[djkrlsn]

Since the police bear ZERO RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR SAFETY--you are lucky the New York panhandlers are less aggressive than the Los Angeles panhandlers and gangbangers that I have had to deal with--but then again, the 1992 Rodney King riots destroyed several businesses within an easy walk of where I worked from 1989 to 2002.

[EmilyU]

"Taking the law into your own hands made as much sense as performing your own tonsillectomy."

Which has what to do with what? We aren't taking the law into our own hands.

I can give you the name of a very competent instructor in Colorado if you would like. He is patient, smart, and will answer any of your questions very honestly.

[GregJL]

That's not exactly true. It IS taking the law into your own hands. Which is a completely permissible thing to do, if you or someone else are being threatened with violence.

[EmilyU]

A defensive firearm use is not punitive, it is protective. It is not enforcing codified law.

[troy96]

Im sorry if this sounds crass, but he preconceived notion you have of gun owners is completely unfair. People with guns does not equal crazy.

I could liken it to calling someone a tart who lives with 3 men, but that would be unfair and Im sure you would protest such a statement.

[ZonaResident]

Would it scare you more to see people open carry? Odds are you have probably walked by or interacted with somone at the grocery store, hardware store, local park, etc. who was carrying concealed. No blood flowed in the streets. You should visit the Civilian Gun Self-Defense blog to see how often firearms are used to protect people on a daily basis.
I carry concealed for numerous reasons, not to be some vigilante or take the law into my own hands (a common misconception often made about those who carry), but for general protection. More than once my wife and I have been threatened due to our being an interracial couple. Since most racists are also cowards the threats only occur when there are groups of them together. I can't fight 5 or 6 guys who may decide that they should "teach me a lesson" because the don't like the fact that my wife is black. But I know I can pull a trigger 5 or 6 times if they ever crossed the line from verbal attacks to physical ones.
Not all of the Western States are as kumbaya as your Rocky Mountain town.

[Sharon Glassman - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks for writing, ZonaResident -- my pro-gun friends here in town have echoed your comment that folks carrying concealed are more common a daily (non)-sight that I've known til now. Their argument seems to be that what I can't see won't hurt me or anyone else...thank you again for sharing your story.

[djkrlsn]

As a general rule it is not your soccer mom/dad neighbor carrying a gun you have to worry about--it is the Cho (VT shooter) or the Colin Ferguson (Long Island train) that will never obey a gun law that will get you killed. I learned much of what I know about firearms in the army and more from a Korean war Marine vet/game warden/California state police friend of mine--and I assure you, more than once I was glad that he had a gun when I was leaving his house late at night.

[blueman55]

As an openly gay man, I know exactly how ZonaResident feels.

Bigots are just like any other criminal predator, cowardly and opportunistic to the core.

[Toonadude]

I was born and raised in the east but lived 6 years in a small town in the interior west. I am now back in the east. In that western town, I noticed that nearly every time I went into a convenience store, the clerk looked to see where my hands were as if scanning for a weapon ... something I never noticed in the east. Out west, I also noted general trust issues as well as a strong xenophobia among the natives where I lived.

Not saying I ever figured it all out --- just observing.

[EmilyU]

I have lived all over the US and have never seen that kind of behavior. Maybe your observations were tainted by your own preconceived notions.

[hopeless277]

Guns are the only path to real security. Once you have been shot and killed, no one will ever threaten you again. Problem solved!!