I cannot claim to know the minds of anyone else here on this forum. I can however explain my own propensities toward being prepared, and espousing my belief that smart, well meaning people should be armed. (on the flip of that I am not saying stupid people should not have the right to self defense, but clearly competence is important)
Since I was a little kid I have always had a fascination with guns. I never watched a lot of TV, or movies I was almost always outdoors, but I did worship the military, and police officers since I could even spell my name.
When I was 10 I started a military club.
So a real naive perspective was clearly my main focus for firearms for a long time. IMHO this is extremely dangerous. When a person believes what the filtered heroic accounts seen in the movies, or on TV, or from what he hears to be true without regard to the unfiltered and grisly facts it is a position of dangerous fascination, not practical application.
When I was 14 years old, my uncle decided to burst part of that bubble. He took me out and showed me the devastating power of firearms, and impressed on me the monumental importance of safety, and making sure you know what you are doing. Safety + competence.
Fast forward a few years and at 18 I went out hunting fairly often both with friends, family and strangers, I saw some with good safety, some with poor safety, and some who where frightening in there lack of safety.
Fast forward nearly a decade later, I woke up that morning, grabbed a cup of coffee and picked up the paper and about fell down. One of my closest friends was on the front page, it was a picture I knew well, it was from our prom. She had been killed where she worked at a local veterinary clinic. She opened up in the mornings and no one else was there. A man came in about 5AM, and beat her with a fire extinguisher and raped her.
It was a devastating loss. Even now nearly 5 years later I have a hard time thinking about it without becoming emotional. She was a very special person. So caring, so honest, so much more than so many others.
I began to study these kinds of situations, I wanted to understand how best to be ready if something like this ever occurred again. It literally meant more to me than anything else in my life to try to understand how smart, caring and capable people can learn to see these things coming and be prepared to prevent such a travesty from occurring, or be ready if it does. I realized that passion, and anger are the wrong emotions to have during such a situation, only training and skill are needed. I realized that police have been dealing with these kinds of encounters for as long as human beings have been policing themselves. I realized that there was no reason to reinvent the wheel. The force continuum is my standard.
Among all of my friends, and people I know I have always been the one to slow things down, to take time to understand, to try to diffuse a situation. I am always the last one to think violence is the answer. However in a situation where someone wants to kill, or maim you, and you can be certain of that, you should not hesitate to use deadly force.
As I studied I realized some core facts which have altered my position over time.
Fact #1, you never know the capability of a person who might do you wrong. Make no assumptions in this regard. In dangerous situations assumptions can get you killed.
Fact#2, you must be extremely safe, or else you could end up being a victim of your own carelessness. (this to me encompass both situational awareness and firearms safety.)
Fact#3, you could end up doing something illegal even if you have not harmed anyone due to self defense laws which restrict law abiding citizens capabilities.
Facts 1 and 2 where so ingrained from my time in martial arts, and from my safety training I had gone through with hunting and my uncle that they are completely uncontroversial.
Fact #3 made me angry. EXTREMELY angry, becuase I started to realize that innocent, caring, and compassionate people around the US who would never use a deadly tool like a firearms in anger would be restricted under the law in their ability to defend themselves.
I know my friend would have never used a gun in anger, but I also know if she had had one that day, she may very well be alive.
