Mugging scenario (courtesy thelibertarianrepublic.com)

“It is one thing to deal with threats in the abstract, to run though all the hypotheticals as merely an intellectual exercise. It’s another thing entirely to grapple with them in real life. When you talk to gun owners you will time and again find a real experience—something that happened to them or to a loved one—that concentrated their minds and made them believe that they had to take concrete steps to protect themselves. The gun debate will go nowhere unless we can acknowledge their experiences and respect their actual need for effective means of self defense.” – David French in Why Carry a Gun? Readers respond to David French’s essay on what critics don’t understand about gun culture. [via theatlantic.com]

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34 COMMENTS

  1. Yeah, I don’t know how true this is anymore. During this recent round of gun-stravaganza I’ve read more “I’d rather die with a clean conscience than pick up a gun to defend myself” editorials and comments than ever before by a crazy wide margin.

    Either these people are lying or the anti’s really are suicidal hyper beta soys who would rather die for the virtue signalling points and insta-likes than struggle through any adversity.

    • Gotta go for the gold in the Oppression Olympics- even if you’re an upper-middle-class white guy getting stabbed and raped by a black guy, you’re helping the (D) team!

    • I’m sure “lying” is an accurate term for it… maybe.
      It is definitely what we would call virtue signaling, a way for them to state “look how progressive and civilized I am!”.
      It’s a natural and thoughtless statement, one that requires no real introspection, self-analysis, or real-life experience.
      And that is precisely the point: I find that WAY too many bigots who oppose our right to self defense feel that way solely because THEY HAVEN’T ACTUALLY THOUGHT IT THROUGH.
      Why? Because it’s an unpleasant thing to think about, naturally. So instead of coming to grips with that fear they simply spout off the first bigoted sound bite that comes to mind. Easy.
      So where does the mugging victim come in? Their perspective has changed because they were put into a situation that they could not simply ignore and pretend would not happen to them – they actually came face-to-face with that fear and found that their favorite Facebook sound bite did exactly fvck all to fix the problem. They were FORCED to actually think it through… and they arrived at a rational conclusion as a result.
      🤠

    • I’ve seen those, but also an article from a guy who said he had been mugged twice, and was glad he didn’t have a gun either time because he would have been killed if he tried to use it. (One of these instances he related was two thugs making him kneel with two TEC-9s pointed at his head. This raises … questions … as to his veracity; but leave that aside for the moment.)

      A common thread is that the threat suddenly materializes. No warning, the bad guy is just … there, and threatening. (How the bad guys get Star Trek transporters is a subject for another thread.) In a situation like that, of course you don’t have a good chance to get your own gun.

      In other words, zero situational awareness assumed. Granted you can’t avoid all bad situations, and you can’t always see the unavoidable ones coming quickly enough to get prepared. Going around in Situation White (or, worse, Situation iPhone) should not be the regular state of affairs for someone carrying a defensive weapon, though.

      It also reminds me of the drivers who say a car “came out of nowhere” when they have an accident. No it didn’t, you just didn’t see it, and that’s probably because you weren’t looking. But, there are always people who won’t acknowledge their own part in their own problems. Again, another thread.

      • I remember vividly my first automotive accident: that telephone pole did come out of nowhere.
        🤠

        • Tree. That damn thing just ran out in the road in front of my 16 yo ass while I was driving my uncles Buick.

      • My drivers ed teach would talk of how the “Steamroller darted out” That’s still LOL for me

    • Shire-man,

      I think a lot of the people who say, “I will die defenseless with a clear conscience,” are simply trying to quell their conscience and justify their failure to care for themselves.

    • It’s all apart of the leftist agenda. The ultimate goal is an Islamic fundamentalist socialist state. No, I’m not making that up. Europe is the proving ground for their utopian society.

    • See, I don’t have a problem with that attitude, though. Go you. You love peace.

      Stop trying to mandate that for the rest of us. Man up and fully accept your responsibility and accept that others will do it differently. Your virtue ends at enforcing victimhood on others. Full stop.

  2. I will never put any value in a scumbag’s life over my own. If these emasculated soyboys or pearl clutching soccer moms want to be victims just to virtue signal, that’s their choice/problem.

  3. I dunno. I was pro gun since I was a wee lad. Didn’t need to be robbed or assaulted to appreciate the reasons to establish a defensive posture, that includes weapons as just one component.

    • Some people, smarter people, are adept at learning from the experiences of others. That is, they don’t personally need to be mugged to understand that it can, and does, in fact happen.

      This self imposed disarmament is more akin to whistling past the cemetery than an actual, rational choice. It’s as if they believe that by denying the reality hard enough, by failing to prepare for it because that would be an admission that it can happen, they can somehow avoid being involved in such a situation. It’s magical thinking, and it gets people killed.

      There was a time, back in the 80’s and 90’s when teen pregnancy was a big deal, and there were those who shook their heads and wondered why, with condoms readily available, provided at no cost, along with education on their use, teens still weren’t using them effectively. I posited then that acquiring condoms had something of a ‘premeditated’ feel to it. . .that is, that a girl carrying condoms had to think first to her self that she intended to have sex with. . . someone, while a boy carrying them signaled that he thought. . . someone was going to have sex with him. Both sides saw it as either an admission of guilt or an advertisement expectation or perhaps a judgment of the character of ones date.

      I suspect there is some of this at play with those who eschew the concept of armed defense: To carry a gun for ones protection simultaneously signals that one accepts the fact that bad things can happen, that people can be violent and evil, and that one is willing to kill to survive. . . things that a significant portion of the population cannot or will not acknowledge or do. Cultural changes largely altered the dynamic on condom use, just as cultural changes are altering the dynamic for carrying a weapon.

      I remember when the PoTG thought actually carrying a concealed pistol was a little nuts. Now carry is more mainstream and more prevalent. Given enough time, the carry of weapons will lose its stigma, become less taboo, and eventually will normalize. All the wailing and ranting notwithstanding.

  4. First, fear and paranoia are the motives for gun ownership here

    And that is how these articles always start; with an outrageous straw man false premise.

    The left refuses to acknowledge that evil exists or that individual citizens ARE capable of dealing with evil and not simply capitulating to it. And yet, with no doubt in my mind, if presented with imminent death and given the choice between a gun and a cell phone for which to defend themselves, every single one of them would pick up the gun.

  6. A Gun Control Advocate is Just a POS MFn botched abortion Liberal Who Hasn’t Been Mugged, raped, sodemized, beaten, stabbed, shot, acid attacked, beaten again, enough times Yet: Quote of the Day

    We don’t care if they convert.

  7. A Gun Control Advocate is Just a Liberal Who Hasn’t Been Mugged Yet.

    That a stupid notion.

    Based on both observable reality and recent history, their children can be gunned down due to multiple failures of various government agencies, while armed Sheriffs hide behind their cruisers shitting their size 52 tighty whiteys.

    When it should be painfully obvious that the government can not and will not protect you, they still want gun control.

  8. Gee I HAVE been mugged(on the el in Chicago). I fought the black sob off because I was a big fearless bodybuilder. Looking back I wish I’d had a gun…die if you want idiots.

    • I read the linked article. If that isn’t proof that there are some people out there that don’t “just want your money”, but just want to do you harm, I don’t know what is. (Then again, I can see the antis now: “just comply and give them your legs”.)

  12. The reader responses are “interesting”.

    I will openly admit that I am afraid of nasty animals and people harming myself and my family. Why? Because nasty animals and people have attacked me and people that I know — as well as countless people that I do not know.

    And yes, having a handgun in an effective self-defense caliber on my hip as I go about my day is a great comfort. Like two days ago when I was plinking with a pellet rifle in my backyard and a neighbor’s HUGE, aggressive, and unsocialized German shepherd got loose. I was about 50 yards from my back door and was able to walk quietly to my home without the dog noticing me. Great! And what if it had noticed me and attacked me? THAT is why I carry a handgun. You never know when a nasty animal or human might come after you.

  13. I don’t like this. It’s like the old, pointless, disproven thing about atheists in foxholes.

    Put someone under duress and they might not act according to their philosophy. That is the nature of an unreasonable situation. It doesn’t make anyone a hypocrite. It doesn’t particularly make them weak in their convictions. You live, you learn, work toward self actualization but not a contest.

  14. I was always pro 2A as a child. I was told it was my right. That was all I need to know. Of course getting robbed at gun point twice has also made my mind laser focused on my gun civil rights.

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