Why do You Need a Gun at the Outlet Mall

I have returned to Stately PolyKahr Estates.  We traveled yesterday.  This morning, I am catching up today on e-mails and any gun news that might have escaped my attention during our brief vacation.  However, I did want to recount something that happened Sunday, while we were still in the Atlanta area.

Mrs. PolyKahr and her friend wanted to visit the outlet mall for some shopping.  I went along to carry bags and generally be useful.  At one point, they went into a Wedgewood store.  Wedgewood is known for having lots of very expensive glass objects on its shelves.  Now, on such extended excursions as the trip to the outlet mall, Mrs. PolyKahr drives around on an electric scooter.  However, she wasn't sure she could maneuver said scooter with enough precision so as not to knock some very expensive glass off the shelf and break it.  So, she left me sitting outside on a bench, guarding the scooter and her purse.

At such times, I watch people, and their reactions to various stimuli.  Some were so intent on what they were immediately doing that they barely noticed anyone else around them.  Some almost tripped over me as if I wasn't there.  Others, especially mothers with small children, usually gave me a wide birth, which practice I heartily applauded.  After all, for all they know, I might be a child snatcher!  I also deduced that a bus had deposited a load of tourist at the mall, because I saw quite a few walk by in foreign dress speaking a language I didn't understand.

At one point, I spotted a man coming towards me, whose behavior seemed off somehow.  He wasn't moving as a man going from one point to another, but ambling along and stopping frequently.  I took note of the fact that he was a Latino wearing a dark blue jacket, but I couldn't make out the logo on the jacket at that distance.  I kept my eye on him.  As he approached, he noticed that he had been noticed, and turned toward the parking lot, turned again and stopped.  Realizing that he might be making a spectacle of himself, he went and stood by the Ked's shoe store, perhaps 50 feet away.  After a few moments, he went inside, though he had no child in tow.  After a few more minutes, he came back out, walked around me, and stood by the Wedgewood door.  He didn't look like a typical Wedgewood shopper either.  Of course, I kept my eye on him, and at some point reached my right hand under my coat in case I might need to get my gun out quickly.  He seemed to take note of this action, and moved off looking for an easier target.  I didn't even have to have my hand on the gun, much less brandish it.  While I believe that his target was the purse, he might well have had a knife, and might have used it to get what he wanted.  Now, I would not have shot him merely to save my wife's purse, but if he had pulled a knife, that would have changed the situation considerably.

There are several lessons to this story.  First, you need to be alert to anything out of order in your environment.  Despite news reports that the economy is growing, the facts say otherwise.  I can not tell you how many boarded up businesses we saw on the trip.  In such times, more people may become more desperate.  Outlet malls and other places where people gather may attract unwanted attention from pick pockets and petty thieves.  Since you must sometimes be in such places, have you thought about what you would do?  If you don't carry a gun, what other means of defense do you have?  Personally, I am thinking about additionally carrying a cane, and learning how to use it as well.

"You have a gun?? You can't take a gun in there!!"

I have explained this many times, but it still keeps popping up. Why do I carry a concealed gun? Guns.com has a well written article explaining Why do Concealed Carriers Carry Concealed?. Go check it out.   A hat tip to the Gun Blog Black List, a great aggregation of gun bloggers around the world.

A quote:

Don’t believe me? Just ask yourself this, why would anybody go through the three-ring circus of getting a permit, forfeit their fingerprints over to Uncle Sam in the process and then spend the rest of their days becoming an armchair attorney just so they can navigate the labyrinthine system of state-to-state carry laws, if they didn’t have a well-thought out reason for concealed carrying? Just to waste time?

It’s my informed opinion that most folks who carry firearms do not do so because they are looking for altercations or because they’re afraid or exasperated by life, as Obama insinuated when he said people “cling to guns… as a way to explain their frustrations” while on the campaign trail in ‘08. They do so simply because they do not feel safe in 2012 America and no amount of data is going to change that. They know that a violent criminal isn’t going to be convinced to abort his felonious mission because of a bunch of statistics that show the crime rate he’s contributing to is actually going down; instead they take every individual story they hear about these horrible acts of violence seriously.

And no wonder—does it hurt any less to get shot during a downswing in crime? Do you think some eloquently delivered rhetoric about fewer robberies will convince your attacker you don’t have to hand over your wallet to him? Does a plummet in statewide gun crime change the fact a man was murdered down your block? Of course not.

While here in an undisclosed location in the Atlanta metro area, Mrs. PolyKahr wanted to visit the Atlanta Aquarium, having heard how fabulous it was. As we approached the ticket counter, Mrs. PolyKahr said "They won't let you take your gun inside," whereupon her friend blurted out "You have a gun?? You can't take a gun in there!!" I approached the unarmed guard, explained the situation, and was told I would have to leave it in the car. Now, I have become pretty expert at slipping it out of the holster and securing it in the car. North Carolina has a list of places you can't carry that would make any gun grabber's heart swell with pride. But her reaction disturbed me none the less. In all fairness, I could have simply not gone into the aquarium, but didn't want the hassle of hearing Mrs. PolyKahr complaining that I had ruined the day for them.

Yesterday evening, I attempted to engage her friend in "reasoned discourse" on the issue. She said "Well, I don't like guns." "Fair enough," I pointed out, "but I never said you had to have one if you don't like them." I pointed out that concealed carriers are among the most law abiding citizens, exceeding even police officers. I don't think she believed me, but statistics show it to be true. "I just think that if some criminal decides to shoot me, then my time is up," she said. "But what do I do, if I am disarmed because of some policy, and I feel just as surely that it is my duty to defend my life, and that of Mrs. PolyKahr?"  I asked. She pointed out that you can't take a gun to a hockey game, as if that non sequitur should settle the matter.  I pointed out that I did not attend hockey games, but the principle holds that while I am being disarmed, a criminal would find a way to get a weapon into pretty much any venue he wanted.  I pointed out that they didn't check my ankles, so that someone could very well have been carrying in an ankle holster.  I also pointed out that the guards were not armed, so they would be very little help in saving her.  Eventually, she returned to "Well, I just don't like guns."

Unfortunately, that is the attitude of a typical gun grabber and gun bigot. If she had been brutally honest, she would have blurted "Tough! Because I don't like them, you can't have them!" Also, unfortunately, no amount of evidence is likely to change her mind.

The Message the TEA party is Trying to Send

I don't have much time today, as I report from an undisclosed location near Atlanta, Georgia. But an article in the American Thinker today caught my eye. The article, by Joseph M Koenig is titled It's Not About Newt. Check it out.

What "Radicalized" Me

My wife, the lovely Ms. PolyKahr (who married me anyway) sometimes makes the comment that I have changed. I formerly didn't have what she considers "politics" on my mind all the time. I didn't used to listen to Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh all the time.  I used to play music on the radio, like "normal" folks.  I have to admit to having become "radical" about guns and the Constitution. She asks why that happened?

Arctic Patriot provides an answer in his post Having the Courage to Look in the Mirror. Please read the whole thing, and a hat tip to David Codrea at the blog War on Guns for pointing to it.

I fit the description they paint to a tee (except of course for obtaining explosives.)   I speak out on the Internet about abuses of people by the TSA, the police, the EPA, and other government entities. I feel I do not speak out enough. Every day there are stories all over the news of people whose Constitutionally protected rights are violated. Just today we learn that the Federal Government is forcing Catholics to purchase insurance against their religious objections, that Senator Rand Paul was detained by TSA for refusing a pat down, that another citizen, a Navy SEAL team member was arrested in New York City for possessing a 9 mm handgun and ammunition. All of these things violate Constitutionally protected natural rights of citizens.  Of course, I have guns and ammunition, and I am a small time "prepper" as well. Does this make me a domestic terrorist?  Since when is evaluating risks and taking steps to protect oneself and one's family illegal, or cause for extra scrutiny?

Arctic Patriot seems to be offering the Government an extremely good deal. He asks only that they keep him in Coca Cola while he teaches them to ask, "why?" But if you really want to know why, look in the mirror. Then re-read the Constitution. It should become obvious to you.

The War on Guns: Now for the Bad News...

The War on Guns: Now for the Bad News...

Go to the link for David Codrea's comments, then go to the Gun Owners of America link and read that. I'll wait. I will have my own comments after you do.

Read it? Good.

The GOA writes:

Well, this past Friday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a setback to gun owners. The issue involved a lawsuit challenging Barack Obama’s illegal multiple sales regulations. [NSSF v. Jones, Acting Director, BATFE.]

Through those regulations, Obama has demanded, by regulatory fiat, that firearms licensees in four southwestern states report multiple sales of certain long guns to the federal government.

The GOA is absolutely right on both counts. This ruling upholds the violation of both the Constitution and explicit statutory law, and thus exposes the danger we face as gun owners in relying on the Courts as the only line of defense in these matters. The Courts have proven to be fickle on the matter. But then the GOA says we have another line of defense:

But the larger issue is this: Congress can block these regulations by simply cutting off the money to implement them. Last fall, we demanded that the House include such a prohibition in its giant money bill. But congressional leaders ignored the Second Amendment community on this and a variety of other pro-gun issues, including defunding ObamaCare.

Ignoring for a moment that the Republicans have largely been gutless when it comes to denying this regime anything it seemingly wants, here we see the real danger cutting oneself loose from the Constitution: the sacrifice of the rule of law. The President can simply refuse to obey Congress's instructions regarding any funding by issuing a "signing statement." Why not? There are no rules other than what you can get away with. It's the Chicago Way.  The Courts are obviously willing to let him get away with anything he wants. And the Congress's hands are not exactly clean either. Even the Republicans, who had a new mandate after the 2010 elections to perform within the strict intent of the Constitution have continually violated that highest of all laws in the land.

I had thought previously that there was a small chance of avoiding the fight to come through political means and at the ballot box.  Mea culpa, but I did not believe the lengths the left would go to, to transform the founders country into a fascist hell hole. Unless there is a miracle...Today, I feel like a Spartan at the Battle of Thermopylae.

Molon Labe

I haven't been posting

No, it is not to protest SOPA, though that piece of legislation should go the way of so many bad ideas.  I have been sick for the last two days, and it doesn't appear to be going away soon.  As a result, I just have not been able to get up the gumption to read and think.  Posting takes a lot of the second item.

I will return to posting when I am feeling better.  In the meantime, please enjoy the other blog sites provided here.

Security Theatre

Kurt Hoffman has a St. Louis Gun Rights examiner piece entitled Honor Martin Luther King by Defeating Racism Inherent to Gun Control,which got me thinking. Check it out.   The truth about gun control can be found first in the South, where the white population was afraid of a slave rebellion.  After the war, they recognized the fundamental rights of their former slaves, to the point that they actively tried to deny them their rights.  Then there was Alan Korwin's piece on Diplomatic Carry. Go check that one out too.  Korwin points out that diplomats carry, and have significant body guards around them carrying, despite whatever laws may prevent them from doing so.  It is a sort of diplomatic exemption.  Korwin's point is that a diplomat's life isn't any more important than that of one of the "commoners."

Yesterday, a co-worker asked me how my weekend went, and we ended up discussing the Raleigh Gun Show put on by Dixie Gun and Knife shows, and the fact that Grass Roots North Carolina had done a land office business signing up new members (not, btw, due to anything I did. We had a new and enthusiastic member there.) He is from South Carolina, and was curious about the concealed carry permit system here in North Carolina. As I was explaining our shall issue system to him, suddenly, another person broke into the discussion to say that they had always been armed. "I would rather sit in jail than be dead," he said. He also pointed out that a concealed carry permit did not permit you to take it to very many places. I did not ask him if he were armed at that moment. Such would be a breach of etiquette among those who go armed. But good to know. Another says that "Hey, it's nobody's business if I am packin' or not." He is from New York, and he is correct. I have never advised anyone to do something illegal, and I did not do so this day either. Everyone needs to evaluate the risks according to their own lights, and act accordingly.

But all this got me to thinking about what is essentially Security Theatre, whether it is the TSA groping people, and finding your tube of toothpaste in your bag, or the Town of Garner posting "No Gun" signs on playgrounds. Crime can happen anywhere, at any time, to anyone, and it tends to happen where you least expect it. Coming out of your office at night, with no one else around, and suddenly there is some thug, and you hope all he wants is your money.  Wouldn't you wish you had a gun?

North Carolina doesn't want you to go into a place that charges you a price to go in, like a movie theatre, if you are carrying a gun. They don't want you to attend a parade if you are armed, or to run into a protest. They don't want you to take your family out to Ruby Tuesdays while armed, or to go to a hospital, or a financial institution (notice how broadly some of these things are defined.) All these victim disarmament zones are simply Security Theatre. The State will not guarantee your safety, and will not have anyone there to defend you. They also will not make the people who run these places have security on site to defend you. Instead, they depend on laws and signs to provide an illusion of safety. I know, from talking to a great many people that the illusion works on them, but I doubt it works on the criminal, and I know it doesn't work on the peaceably armed citizen who feels deeply the injustice of the State deciding for him where and when he can carry his self defense. I was in Ohio several years ago, right after the concealed carry law was passed in that State. I had gone to a range to get in a little practice. The range master and I struck up a conversation, and he mentioned that he had carried every day, everywhere he went, for 25 years.  He was another who believed it was better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6.