{"id":3787,"date":"2010-04-08T10:26:48","date_gmt":"2010-04-08T17:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=3787"},"modified":"2010-04-08T10:26:48","modified_gmt":"2010-04-08T17:26:48","slug":"roscoe-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=3787","title":{"rendered":"Roscoe & Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Since I occasionally carry a weapon on long motorcycle trips, I decided I’d better get an Arizona concealed carry permit.<\/p>\n

I had a CCW permit before but foolishly allowed it to expire, which meant I had to take state-mandated training all over again to obtain a new permit.<\/p>\n

Never mind that Arizona’s on the verge of passing legislation that will allow citizens to carry concealed weapons without any sort of permit.\u00a0 Other states still require CCW permits, and I often ride across borders.\u00a0 Also never mind (for now) this bizarre NRA\/Teabagger\/End-Times Militia\/Christianist-sponsored push to arm all citizens (so long as they are white).\u00a0 I wouldn’t feel right without a permit, so I got one.<\/p>\n

When I took my first CCW course back in 2002, training focused on the legal issues involved in using guns in self defense: when you could or couldn’t display, brandish, or shoot.\u00a0 The rest of the training covered gun safety and maintenance.<\/p>\n

This time around, in addition to the above, we spent a couple of hours talking about the philosophy behind concealed carry and the various methods of packing heat without it showing (that skivvy holster photo is no joke — click on it & see).<\/p>\n

I’ve been on the planet for 63 years and never once felt I needed a loaded pistol close to hand.\u00a0 When I flew fighters I wore a pistol on my survival harness; every couple of years I had to take small arms training to stay qualified.\u00a0 Otherwise my life was weapons-free.\u00a0 I’m not sure exactly when I decided to keep a weapon in the house and carry it with me on long motorcycle trips, or why.\u00a0 Maybe I’m just susceptible to the pervasive gun culture of the USA.<\/p>\n

But here I was in a room with ten other guys who sincerely believed they needed to be armed at all times: in the grocery store, in Home Depot, driving the kids to baseball practice, noshing down at Applebee’s, watching Leno in bed at night, sitting in the stands at a NASCAR event, walking the dog.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 To defend themselves and their families from attack!\u00a0 Which could come at any time!<\/p>\n

Our instructor wore three guns.\u00a0 A large automatic in a waist holster concealed underneath an untucked polo shirt, a smaller automatic inside the waistband on the other side, and a little 9mm in an ankle holster.\u00a0 He wasn’t wearing these for instructional purposes, he told us — he wore all three every day, wherever he went.<\/p>\n

Jesus, where do these guys live — what kind of lives do they lead — that would make them feel this threatened?\u00a0 I truly don’t get it.<\/p>\n

There’s an interesting discussion about concealed carry over at The Reality-Based Community<\/a>, if you’re interested in this issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since I occasionally carry a weapon on long motorcycle trips, I decided I’d better get an Arizona concealed carry permit. I had a CCW permit before but foolishly allowed it to expire, which meant I had to take state-mandated training all over again to obtain a new permit. Never mind that Arizona’s on the verge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3787"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3802,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3787\/revisions\/3802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}