by Jim Kerrigan

Created on: June 21, 2010

Carrying a gun is like having any other tool or vehicle if you know how to use it; it can help you. If you don’t then it will be useless to you. Using a gun when justified is one thing, brandishing it AKA allowing the procession of it to change your behavior is self-destructive and dangerous. If it would make sense to you to run away if you were unarmed then when armed you run away. The tool is just that a tool. Everyone knows you should drive defensively on the nation’s highways. It doesn’t matter if you are driving a station-wagon, Van or Sports Car the right thing to do is the right thing to do.

Now here is where the problem is: answering the question can I be armed and not allow the procession of a firearm to change my decision-making? This question is straight forward, however conquering denial and processing self-awareness aren’t givens. Both have to be worked at if we are to be honest with ourselves. Ask any soldier who has a combat infantry badge if shooting at the range is even remotely similar to shooting back under fire? If he or she is a love-one they will tell you they are universes apart.

To use a firearm in a heavy stress environment requires training and or practice. Practice loading, unlocking, griping properly and target acquisition so that you have a chance of behaving by impulse and reflex rather than trying to think. It took me 15 years of practice to have these steps become instinct and reflex.

Along with the handling of the weapon there is the knowledge of what the weapon can and cannot do. This is relative to stopping power, penetration and recovery. The stopping power of a 45 caliber pistol isn’t the same as that of a 22. The penetration of a handgun isn’t the same as that of a rifle or shotgun. Penetration changes with type of ammo as well. Hard ball penetrates better than hollow points. Recovery is the strongest determining factor in deciding in real time the ability of the shooter to get of follow up shots or worse taking on the other aggressors if there are more than one.  

Having a 44 magnum with 300 grain bullets flying at 1300 fps generates over a half ton of energy at a close target. But the second shot is going to be slower than the 45 with its 230 grain bullet flying at 840 fps with 350 ft lbs of energy.

Questions of where you are going to be carrying this weapon need to be addressed. What are the 4 perceived threats? Hiking in bear country is different than going to the circle k for gas. Living in the county is different than living in a city. Living in one state while working in another can have legal issues with firearms, so know the law.

Basically if you aren’t going to take owning this device more seriously than anything else you have ever owned or will own take a pass. Nothing is worse to my mind than the power of life and death in the hands of indifference or wielded by someone who has become someone else because they have a gun.

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