Much was made yesterday of the eyewitness to the YouTube shooting who was across the street at a fast food joint when Nasim Aghdam opened fire. He made it clear that while he wasn’t carrying a gun, he wished he had been. Seems like a perfectly reasonable response . . .

Unfortunately, he’s probably a California resident, which means that depending on who the chief law enforcement officer is where he lives, it could be virtually impossible for him to get a permit to legally carry.

But don’t think that situation is restricted to states with unconstitutional gun control laws. There are plenty of concealed carriers who don’t tote a pistol all the time. Many never carry, despite having the right to do so. And even those to do carry sometimes figure, I’m only going out to the grocery store or to fill up the gas tank. I don’t need to bother strapping one on for that. 

Of course, just like the Spanish Inqusition, you never expect to need your carry gun. And there’s no way to know when, God forbid, circumstances could go south. Fast.

Has that ever happened to you? Have you been out and about and found yourself in a situation where wished you hadn’t left your carry gun at home?

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51 COMMENTS

  1. Not me, my wife. She came home from the hair salon just last weekend and was completely shaken up. IF she carries it is in her Gun Totin’ Mamas purse but not this day. So while getting her hair done a very big black dude came into the salon with his young son and immediately went off the deep end on the staff because whoever cut his hair earlier in the day had cut his scalp. The Manager was eventually able to get him outside to talk and then locked the door and called the cops. Nothing came of it all, but it scared the shit out of her.

  2. “YOUR were carrying”…I carry most of the time unless it’s a po-leece station or courthouse. No metal detector? No change…

  4. “despite having the right to do so” Here in Iowa, like most states, a law abiding citizen still has to ask some “authority” for permission in order to exercise an actual REAL Constitutional right. “Shall issue my ass”. There is NO right.

  5. Tom Givens has at least three alumni—now late alumni—that wish they were armed.

  6. I haven’t, because I like to have a “no excuse” gun of some kind. As in “this gun is so easy to carry I have no excuse to NOT carry it”. Typically something in the micro 380 size that you can just slip into a pocket. Right now that’s a M&P Bodyguard.

    • Same. Always in my pocket unless i’m like in LA, as i often am. Tennessee, i’m carrying. Nine more years, I won’t leave the farm much.

  7. Yeah, I’ve had a moment or two:

    “Well, this is exactly the risk Proconsul Cuomo-the-Younger & company impose on me, with their threat of ending my life’s possibilities their way, should I try to protect myself from people like this whack-job, threatening to end my life’s possibilities his own way.”

    I hate balancing risks, especially risks other people create for me by what they threaten to do. I particularly hate risks imposed by my “betters” and “for my own good.” If I though it was better for me, I’d be doing it.

    Make no mistake. Cuomo is fine with me on the bus while the drunk, belligerent, armed — at least one knive clipped in pocket – guy gets steadily more wound up (not at me; I just sat there), so long as his security detail is around him. Yeah, there I sat, parsing through: “If this guy centers on me, it’s calm him down or I’m gonna get hurt.” and “He keeps getting more wound up, I’m gonna have to watch him beat that snotty kid to a pulp, or try to intervene with no fall-back way to protect myself.”

    I’m less fine with this trade-off being created, for my own good. Maybe that’s why they had to slam their “SAFE Act” through in the dark of night, via fake “emergency” procedures, just when some kerfuffle had enough of the reactive types sufficiently wee-wee’d up. Good ideas you have to get done through shenanigans: maybe not so good.

  8. The gas station is not a place you want to be caught unarmed.

    Wish I was carrying right now, but my gun free workplace means I would be run, hide, fighting with my pepper spray, armor plate in backpack, and pocket folding knife. And a couple staplers, and a full water bottle. My gun is safely stowed in my car in the parking garage, as law allows. So at least my before and post work activities and commute are armed.

    Naturally there is nothing but the weapon free workplace sticker to stop a disgruntled coworker from loading up their gym bag or backpack with whatever weapons they prefer. But good to know that them having those weapons is against corporate policy. After they finished firing, they would certainly face disciplinary action, up to and including termination. That is a relief, wouldn’t want a deceased murderer working here when all is said and done… Safety first! Safe until bullets start flying that is.

    • TheUnspoken,

      Why not bring a handgun to your workplace and store it in a location where no one (except you) will ever find it? Have a drop ceiling in your office? Store it up on top of a ceiling tile. No drop ceiling? Pull out the bottom filing cabinet drawer and put it the dead space of the filing cabinet below the drawer and put the drawer back in.

      There is always some place that you could store a handgun in an office where no one will ever find it. And if the day comes where there is a workplace attack and you have to use your aforementioned hidden handgun, losing your job for preserving your life is well worth it.

      Note: even if someone does find it some day, you face zero repercussions as long as no one can trace it to you: your loss is simply limited to the cost of the handgun. (Ensuring that your handgun is untraceable means purchasing it in a private transaction — ideally from someone who also purchased it in a private transaction.)

      • Pocket carry something small with a dedicated pocket holster that breaks up the outline.

        Cleaning crews can have bad habits of looking in places they shouldn’t and the area above the drop tiles actually gets a surprising amount of traffic by the h-vac guys, not to mention it can be a pain to get to in a hurry.

  9. Every weekday, my job is at a gun free zone. So I have to think do I really want run errands after work or go home and get my carry.

  10. Several years ago, I obtained a CCW permit. After 1 month of getting used to carrying it every day, I was stuck inside during a blizzard in Buffalo that deposited 8′ of snow over 6 days while I was providing round the clock care for an elderly relative. On the 7th day, I ventured outside to shovel snow and clear a path to get out to the store. I decided to take my gun and OWB holster off while I shoveled.

    While shoveling, I was approached by 2 men in a 4×4 who objected to my shoveling snow onto the edge of the street while clearing the driveway. They proceeded to seriously threaten me physically, and then further threatened me with a pit bull attack as well.

    Thankfully, I managed to diffuse the situation, and walk away. When I went back inside, I strapped my handgun back on, and I have worn it every day since, from rising until bedtime. I don’t intend to ever face threats like that or worse while being unarmed.

  13. Yep, I was going for a stroll along the shore of Lake Superior when I bumped into a bear that looked to be about 300lbs. Nothing came of it, because we looked at each other, and decided to go our separate ways. At the time I really would have liked to have the option of my .30-30 or a big bore revolver, but this was the North shore of the Gitche Gumee, so my guns were back in the US.

  15. SOUTHERN BORDER STATES are going to wish they fing had multiple guns and plenty of ammo. The “caravan” approaching the border is reportedly ‘breaking up into smaller groups’ in order to overrun our border security. It is also reported that cartel and MS 13 gang members (as well as foreign nationals of unknown quality) will be inter-disbursed amongst them.

    IF OUR PRESIDENT AND OUR POS F-ING CONGRESSIONAL AND SENATE REPRESENTATIVES CANNOT PROTECT OUR BORDERS THEY HAVE ABSOLUTELY
    ABDICATED THEIR
    FUCKING JOBS
    AND PERMANENTLY WAIVED THEIR “SELF-PRESUMED” RIGHT TO BITCH ABOUT ANY OF OUR GOD-GIVEN RIGHTS TO DEFEND OURSELVES AND OUR CHOSEN MEANS,
    A N D
    H A V E
    PERMANENTLY SELF-RESCINDED [THEIRS, AND THEIR OFFICES’] ANY AUTHORITY [THEIRS, AND THEIR OFFICES’] TO ENACT ANY LEGISLATION GOVERNING OUR

    A G A I N

    GOD-GIVEN RIGHTS TO DEFEND OURSELVES AND OUR CHOSEN MEANS.

    F EM ALL IN THE GOAT A_ _ .

    • Whoever told you that is a moron, and so are you for believing it. That ‘caravan’ of immigrants is a political showcase. They do it every year. They march from Honduras across Mexico as one large group and legally request asylum at the US border. They do so in an attempt to bring attention to the dangers they face just trying to reach the US for the chance at a better life. About 100 of them were granted asylum last year, more settled in Mexico, and most returned to Honduras.

        • Joe is right!

          It may have been the mid 90’s but I spent 2 days RIGHT on that fence line working on a Ted Kopple special for CBS and back then!
          Right after we switched off our huge studio lamps that flooded the whole 2 valleys we were shooting footage in…WAVES of hundreds of illegals charged the ‘little’ border fence and overwhelmed the BP that was there and that happened both nights!

          It is nuts down there where the fence is short or non existent!

  16. With Dan ‘Walter Cronkite’ Zimmerman in charge of the writing, it looks like things have gone down a notch. Spell check, proof reading, and fact checking is dead.

  17. Once, I was bicycling off-road in some woods by a vacant lot, and the bike trail led me by a group of three men and a woman. Soon after I passed them, the trail came to a dead end, with a fence in front of me and a gully on each side. That’s when I overheard the group saying, “If the police ask you if you have a dead body in the trunk…” I couldn’t make out the rest of the sentence, but I thought I’d stumbled upon a kidnapping or murder. Then it suddenly grew quiet, as the men realized they’d been overheard. One of the men walked towards me on the path, and I could hear him coming before he came in sight. I had nowhere to run, so I pretended to develop an intense interest in the birds and the trees so he’d think I hadn’t been listening to their kidnapping and murder plot.
    I was sure he was going to murder me too, so I wished I had a gun to defend myself.

    He asked me what I was doing, I said, “Just bicycling” or something like that. Then I turned my bike around and tried to go back along the path to get out of the woods, but I had to stop because there was a naked woman lying down in the middle of the path, naked from the waist down. She tried to stand up, but couldn’t walk on her own, and one of the men helped her to walk away from the path. She appeared drunk or drugged (and I thought she’d been kidnapped and raped). I asked her, “Are you okay?”
    She replied, “Who are you?”
    I said, “Just a bicyclist.” Then I high-tailed it out of the woods.

    Once I got back on the road, I called 911, but I don’t think the police believed me, because I hung around for a few minutes waiting for them to show up, but they never did, even after I called them a second time, and they never called me back.

    After this happened, I said, “I’m never going bicycling in the woods unarmed again.”
    But since I live in the People’s Republic of New Jersey, where NOBODY is allowed a CCW permit, this means I’m never going biking in the woods at all!

    • I knew a guy from Philly, he told me about seeing a Cadillac come around the corner, guns blazing, and 2 people on the street got hit. He said he looked up at a window on the top floor and prayed. He felt eyes on him and then the car took off….. He said that that is what an Italian boy in an Italian neighborhood would do….

  18. I was assaulted twice (to no effect, unlike RF I train full speed/full impact hand-to-hand so I was able to neutralize my assailant both times), at which point, I decided to get my concealed carry permit and now I don’t leave home without at least my little snubbie pocket gun.

  19. I am always armed unless there is no way I could go armed and cannot get around going there. In other words, the times that I am unarmed are so few that they are statistically insignificant.

    BTW…

    “There are plenty of concealed carriers who don’t tote a pistol all the time. Many never carry, despite having the right to do so.”

    Can we cut that shit out? It’s not just concealed carriers. Some of us also open carry. Some also carry a long gun. I do all three from time to time, but, I am almost always carrying. Also, if one is carrying under a license, they are NOT exercising their right to do so. They are exercising a government privilege. This is liberty 101. Get it correct now or get screwed later.

  20. One time I was barely armed. I held off two drug users/dealers (not just pot) with an NAA mini. It was tense but I won. I was in my PJs and that was all I had with me at the moment. I have corrected my deviant ways and do not have only that firearm on my person; even in PJs.

  21. 24/7, 365, there is a firearm on me, or in arms reach (on the bedside at night, etc).

    I’m able to carry everywhere I go. I’m not necessarily allowed to. Regardless, always do. Every time I think about leaving without one, I think, “what if this run to the gas station has dudes robbing it, and I get stuck inside?”

    It’s better to have and not need.

  22. Nope never wished I had a gun… Of course that may be because I always have one on hand or close enough by to be called on hand. However, I do ALWAYS wish I had more ammo and more spare magazines.

  23. Not since I was too young to carry legally.

    Sometimes I don’t carry on a bike but that’s just because I know that I can hit the throttle and be gone. Well, that and because I know that falling ON the gun could produce a worse injury than just falling on my PPE.

    • That has always been a concern of mine. I have talked to a few people (I think literally 3) who have been in accidents while carrying and the gun produced no greater injury to them, one their Glock even absorbed some road rash, possibly for them.

      I can generally also accept the notion that if you are in an accident, the gun hurting you is probably the least of your worries.

  24. “Have you been out and about and found yourself in a situation where wished you hadn’t left your carry gun at home?”

    I can’t remember the last time I left my carry gun at home.

  25. I have survived four instances where I was legally justified to use deadly force — and I was under the age of 21 in all four instances so I was not armed. In all four instances I REALLY wanted a firearm. I cannot begin to convey how much I wanted a firearm to defend myself in those circumstances.

    Because of those experiences, I do not leave home without my handgun that I carry every day.

    Caveat: I recently visited museums and government buildings in Washington D.C. — all of which have metal detectors at the entrances. I left my handgun locked in my car in Virginia. I did carry a substantial wood cane for self-defense. That was a “once in a lifetime” type of thing and I made it a point to restrict myself to “nice areas” with lots of people (and some cops) during daylight hours. Beyond that, I go armed if I go out.

  26. Yeah, when there were 2 shootings on the edge of campus when I was at Case Western. We had a campus carry movement, but the police chief said that would “send the wrong message” to the ghetto trash of East Cleveland who regularly lift iPhones off the rich Chinese kids with no sense of direction. Sometimes I blame myself for the demise of the movement, as I pinned up a nasty reply calling out an SJW’s accusation of “victim blaming” that got pinned to a Campus Carry poster. The original poster simply implied that sexual assaults would decrease if students were allowed to carry guns to defend themselves. After that, the administration said no one was allowed to post anything anywhere without approval.

    • ” Sometimes I blame myself for the demise of the movement, as I pinned up a nasty reply calling out an SJW’s accusation of “victim blaming” that got pinned to a Campus Carry poster.”

      Don’t blame yourself for the actions of another. Nothing you posted could have forced them to take the actions that they did. You might influence a decision but the person taking the action owns that action. Ownership of one’s actions, and only their actions, is psychologically healthy. We have a culture of blaming others for our own actions. Conscientious individuals have a tendency these days of blaming themselves for the actions of another or others.

  27. I carry virtually 100% of the time at home and when out-&-about in PA. I live 2 miles from the NJ line; so, when I expect to have to cross the bridge I don’t carry; and, then, I’m conscious of being unarmed.

    In PA I almost NEVER see a “no guns” sign. Only one I can think of is at the DMV (PennDOT). CostCo prohibits carry; but I carry anyway, they have no signs.

    I’m torn on the Open- vs. Concealed- Carry debate. PA is an open-carry State for the most part; and, I’d like to promote the practice of Open-Carry to promote the practice of carry-by-any-means. On the other hand, The way things ARE (in my area) of PA, Concealed-Carry is commonly practiced and no-one is conscious of the fact. So, I wonder: What to make of this?

    PA has one of the highest rates of adults with CWPs among the 50 States. I expect more residents to apply; and, to carry, at least occasionally. Eventually, the percentage of adults with CWPs will be 20% or 30%. Eventually, the non-gun-owning public will become gradually and imperceptibly conscious that many of the adults around them are carrying – and nothing happens. It will become a fact; an ACCEPTED fact.

    Then, I wonder what would happen if some of us began Open-Carrying. Would shop-keepers suddenly put-up “No-Guns” signs? If that happened, would people like me stop carrying? Were that scenario to unfold, wouldn’t it prove counter-productive?

    I hasten to add, that I’m NOT making an argument against Open-Carry in those precincts where the unfolding of events took a different course. E.g., in TX the No-Guns signs went-up as soon as TX passed a CWP law. Then more signs went up when TX passed an Open-Carry law. The hoplophobes got ahead of the curve in TX so there was no green-field on which to quietly build a Concealed-Carry practice.

    The question (not an argument) I’m raising is whether it’s better to build a Concealed-Carry practice in States where there are no (or very few) No-Guns signs. If we build the practice of concealed carry then we might be able to avoid the counter-force of GFZs.

    • We’ve used open carry to get rid of GFZs here in Ohio.

      Prior to about 1999, myself and practically everyone I knew carried concealed. My older relatives and friends’ relatives did likewise. Carrying a concealed handgun didn’t seem to be used as a primary charge and it, AFAIK, wasn’t really a problem. Sometime around 1999 or thereafter, there was a push against concealed carry. It was about that time I realized, “out of sight, out of mind”; Ohioans, by and large, did not see all of us carrying over the decades so they apparently thought few carried. I mildly resisted concealed handgun licensing out of respect for my long time liberty brothers who thought it was a good idea. I regret remaining silent. Most of them now agree with me that it shouldn’t have been allowed. Now there is a culture, political lobby, and an industry focused around licensed privilege to the detriment of the right to keep and bear arms.

      Out of sight, out of mind might result in fewer GFZs in the short term but it is corrosive to the RKBA in the long term. It’s even more damaging where concealed means government privilege. I strongly caution against it.

  28. I don’t carry when I go to the post office. No use risking a felony over a mail drop, and the homeless do not congregate there anyway.

  31. My wife. Wasn’t planning on every carrying until a visit to family in California a few years back. Found herself extremely close to the San Bernardino shooting. First words out of her mouth thereafter…wish I’d had a gun. Got her CC permit shortly thereafter and now carries consistently.

  32. Not yet…but I do almost always carry. Hopefully I’ll never say….I’m glad I was carrying, which could be something as simple as I had the ABILITY to protect myself but had to do nothing.
    It’s like almost getting in a wreck and thinking to yourself, good thing I have insurance. I wouldn’t want to live somewhere like Commiefornia where when it came down to it, in a critical time of need, you’re left standing there with your dick in your hand.

  33. I’m so glad I left California for the US Army way back in the 1980s. My last visit was back in 2005. Now I carry everyday. A Ruger p89 or a Barrett 21a depending on how I m dressed. And a Henry AR-7 in my POV because its easy to conceal.

    • And I’ve taken four gun training classes. Not including my CCW class. I hope I never have to use what I have learned.

  34. Every single time I have to go on post or anywhere else my right to self-defense is curtailed.

  35. 15 years ago, I was up at like 2am because it was my turn to get up with our 6mo daughter. She was in her wind-up swing falling back asleep while I played around on the computer, when I heard a knock on the front door of our apartment. I looked out the kitchen window, as it was closest to the front door. All I could see was the porch light reflecting off of the screen door. There was no peep hole, so I cautiously opened the door a few inches. A guy pushed his way inside and stepped onto the landing at the bottom of the stairs to the second floor. He looked out of it, and not drunk out of it. He was on something. I asked him what he needed, where he was trying to go, where he thought he was, etc. All I got was mumbling. I kept nudging him towards the front door, but he pretty much ignored me, mumbling a quiet “stop, man” at one point. He then walked past me up the stairs as if I weren’t there. I shouted “GET OUT OF MY HOUSE” as loud as I could, hoping that maybe he would hear me and do what I said, but mostly so my wife would hear me and wake up. I considered going after him, but the phone was downstairs, and if something happened to me, my wife would have to get past him to get to the phone. So I dialed 911 and followed him up. As I was heading up the stairs, he was struggling to get my bedroom door open as my wife held it closed, yelling at him to get out. I told the dispatcher what was going on as I went into my son’s room to get him, since he was wide awake from all of the yelling. I took my son downstairs and put him in the living room. The guy decided to go into my sons room. My wife, not knowing I had grabbed him, followed the guy in and shouted at him to leave our son alone. The guy turned around and roared at her like some crazed animal. She ran back in our bedroom and closed the door. By the time the cops showed up, the guy was pacing around in our bathroom. The cops headed up and immediately recognized him and called him by name. He instantly seemed more coherent. I guess a pair of Glocks in one’s face does that. The cops hauled him out, and his girlfriend came to our apartment later that day and begged us not to press charges, saying he was just drunk and confused our apartment for hers. We politely told her to pound sand.

    There were a couple of other times that I wished I had had one, but that one was the most terrifying.

  36. Never ever leave the gun at home. I carry 20/7. 7 days a week. Avoid hun free zones if I can. If I can’t. In I will go. Give me a jury if needed.

  37. In a burger joint on M in DC. Spendy neighborhood / shopping district. Homeless guy gets forced down the stairs (past my pregnant wife) and out the door. 2 minutes later, we are the only two customers on the first floor which is just the order counter and condiments. He comes back in door waving a knife and yelling. I put her behind me and backpedal both of us towards a wall – no where to go. This would be a good time to have my gun out. Drop my hand to my holster …. no holster. I’m law abiding, and like many professionals, a felony gun charge will ruin your life.
    I really hate DC.

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