Gun control advocates talk a lot about feelings. They use emotion-based rhetoric to appeal to voters’ desire for peace and security. Gun rights advocates counter this anti-gun agitprop by marshaling an array of facts and common sense arguments; correctly arguing that feeling safe is an illusory goal. I want to pause a moment, set aside the stats and point out that keeping and bearing arms is a wonderful feeling . . .
When I carry a gun — which I do virtually every waking moment of my life — I do so with tremendous satisfaction. I’m comforted by the thought that I’m prepared to defend myself, my loved ones and other innocent life. My gun gives me a sense of personal responsibility that I wear with pride . . . and humility.
I know that a gun isn’t a magic talisman. Even though I both home and open carry, I understand that my gun will not necessarily ward-off bad guys. I also know that I can do everything right in a gunfight — a remote possibility — and still fail in my duty to protect myself and others.
In short, the sense of safety I get from wearing a gun is not absolute, but it’s not illusory. I have a realistic chance, however small, of defending everything that’s near and dear to my heart. A better chance than someone who doesn’t carry a gun.
But that’s not the point. As a Jew whose father survived the Holocaust, as a Jew whose grandparents and relatives did not, the words “never again” mean something to me. I used to think about having those words tattooed on my arm. But I now realize I don’t have to. I carry a gun.
How does carrying a gun, or having one, make you feel?
I’ve only been a gun owner for 5 years RF. I like warm women. Guns are just tools to me…but hey whatever floats yer boat.
What about warm woman with a gun?
Yeah that works!
What about hot women with hot guns??
I feel normal when I carry. After this long, (30ish years), I feel a bit off if I don’t.
Yeah, I feel that way after only three years. I never felt vulnerable before carrying and I have been in some shady parts of shady cities at shady hours. I just feel more aware of my environment since carrying. You might say I was more confident before owning a gun and now I am just more aware. Now, if I am not in the same room with a gun, I feel like I’m not prepared.
Nope, no happiness. Maybe a little more fear of being hassled or worse by the police.
It’s all about having options. Having more options is a good thing; having less options is usually bad.
If I carry a gun, I still have all the options that non-carriers have when facing a lethal threat; I can run away, cry, beg for mercy, use my body as a shield for my family, etc. But I have one more option that non-carriers DON’T have, one that can be used as a last resort, one that can make all the difference in certain circumstances.
I like having more options.
I feel that guns are a physical manifestation of a self sufficiency mindset, an idea that ultimately we may not be able to control our destiny 100% but we certainly can try to stack the deck in our favor.
As a woman who WAS able to prevent an attacker from raping and killing me… because I had a gun, these tools are very important to me now, 32 years later. The guns I carry and train with give me a feeling of confidence, right along with the pride AND humility. I’m a better, more level headed person now, being ever mindful of the awesome responsibility I accept when I am ready and willing to defend myself and others.
Of course, anyone can carry a gun without feeling those things or accepting responsibility for themselves and their actions. That’s their problem.
Well said.
I’m very happy you were able to defend yourself and I hope you never have to again, but glad you can if you need to. I want people . . . all good people to be able to defend themselves from the parasites and predators in this world.
Is happiness a warm gun? Yes. Yes, it is.
Far from the only happiness-inducing thing in life, but there’s comfort in knowing that I have the most effective means to defend the people I love and the necessities of life.
Plus, guns are freaking awesome. I can’t think of any other tool that combines such serious practicality with such sheer fun. That might be our best weapon against the anti-rights crowd: we have all the fun on our side.
Carrying makes me more alert, careful, aware and mindful of the need to act responsibly and wise when at all possible.
And when you think about it, isn’t that what everyone should do, always?
Happiness is a cot. Ask any soldier.
When my dad was in ‘Nam, he told me happiness was a dry fart. 🙂
It’s all relative.
I think it was Socrates that said when you see two men walking you can always tell which one is the free man and which one is the slave – the free man is armed. So I carry because I’m a free man and it’s a good way to stick a metaphorical middle finger out to those who would prefer that I wasn’t.
As an American citizen first, and a Jewish person second, I am amazed that so many Jews are for gun control.
With the example of the holocaust and the few who did take to the forest and fought back, all Jews should be armed
How can there be a ” never again” if we are defenseless?
Just look at Mexico to what happens to a disarmed populace
Plus, my wife and I enjoy target shooting
Having and bearing arms is so much a part of what it means to be an American. Most citizens of other countries are completely beholden to the powers that be and are held hostage by their civil masters. They are at the mercy of any criminal who may decide to break into their home or grab them on the street. With only the promise that the police might show up eventually and might actually investigate the crime against them. Of course if the criminal is a member of a protected class they may well ignore the crime.
If you were unlucky enough to be born in the UK you aren’t even allowed to bash the bad guy with a baseball bat by way of self defense. I guess over there you are just expected to meekly submit to what ever the criminal wants to do to you and hope you survive. Young women are clearly expected to submit to gang rape whenever a Muslim rape crew catches them out. The police will ignore what happened and advise the young lady to get tested for STDs and pregnancy at the free clinic, after all they are immigrants and just don’t know how impolite rape is. There will be a new adverting campaign in a few weeks to teach them that just isn’t acceptable behavior….and the powers that be are shocked that so many people want to brexit!
Yes, I am proud of my ancestors that fought in the American Revolution and nearly all of the conflicts that came after. Resistance to the any government seizing arms and ammunition from American citizens goes back to before there was an American government. Back then it was the king and his representatives that were interfering with the natural rights of the people, now it is our elected representatives, many of which are busy dishonestly trying to hide what they are doing or want to do. I urge caution on you all or soon it may be your daughter who is being told by the powers that be that those immigrants are just following the culture they brought with them and putting them in jail disrespects that culture. Besides you have free testing and treatment for STDs and pregnancy, so why are you complaining?
Yes, happiness is the ability to own firearms and all that confers to a free people
I don’t feel much of anything. Thank goodness – its about time!
Here is a bit of info for 99% of you folks out there: Carry all the time, carry comfortably, carry inconspicuously. The time will come when that gun in your pocket or purse will all but disappear from your thoughts. It’ll be there like the eyeglasses on your nose or the wedding ring on your finger. You won’t notice it and neither will anyone else.
That, my friends, is a warm gun that brings happiness, and a bit of peace.
Warm? Of course that makes me happy.
Ever have to go to a Federal building in January, and you wait for what seems like an eternity, for service, then by the time you can get back to your vehicle and re-holster your concealed firearm, that -5°F temperature has permeated the grip of your CCW and it is cold and freezing against your flank?
I find it peaceful. People who might bother me simply don’t. If a guy cuts me off when I’m driving, I don’t care. If I see three guys who seem shady approaching me, I cross the street to avoid them but there’s no undue concern on my part. And here in hoplophobic MA, people are very curious about firearms, which allows me to educate them.
Being able to fight keeps you out of a lot of fights.
“This is my rifle and this is my gun. This one’s for fighting and this one’s for fun, sound off!”
Hell yeah I always want the warmth my guns bring me, the hand held ones and the one that makes me identify as someone who uses the Men’s room.
Most if not all of today’s anti-individual liberty rhetoric is emotion based. The successful formula has been to dumb the average person down, and use the TV and mass media to manipulate their emotions to consensually giving up their rights.
Personally, for me, carrying a gun is just like carrying a hammer. It’s a tool with some specific uses.
Now that said, I collect guns in numbers and types that would cause Gavin Newsom to crap himself, have a heart attack then a stroke and then dig a hole, jump in it and pull the hole in after himself. I do this because I find their simple yet amazingly capable physical functioning to be fascinating. Like someone who pulls apart engines and puts them back together or picks locks as a hobby (I do both of these things too) I’m absolutely enthralled by the mechanical functioning of a firearm.
Yeah, happiness is a warm gun, if it’s warm from a good range session. Putting rounds on target is relaxing and satisfying, and that feeling makes me happy.
I feel safer, but not 100% safe. Nothing in this world can make you feel 100% secure. However, I know that if something goes down, the odds of me coming out of it alive increase substantially by being armed. And trained. Don’t forget the training.
From a political point of view, gun ownership does make a statement that you are taking responsibility for your own security. Yes, there’s a lot of other baggage that the media likes to attach to gun ownership, but most of it isn’t true.
I feel like something is missing if i am not carrying, and my work takes me to places where i can’t so it is a big deal to me. I like knowing I have a wide range of options no matter what situation I find myself in.
Well, I certainly derive happiness from guns, but that’s not how I would define happiness… That would have more to do with loved ones, family, friends, etc.
I couldn’t say happiness is a warm gun anymore than i could say happiness is a warm, sunny afternoon in the park with the dog and the girl, or happiness is a warm homemade meal I just made for my family and friends, or happiness is a warm, tight… well… you get it.
Carrying a gun gives me Plan B. I prefer it stay at ambient tempeture unless I’m on the range.
If I had a choice between a warm gun and Selma Hayek, the gun would lose.
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