I don’t like to think of it as worry, rather preparedness. I’ve had people ask me what I’m worried about to make me carry and my typical response is this:
I have had a fire extinguisher in my kitchen for the last 20 years hanging in the open for everyone to see and nobody ever asks me why I’m worried or paranoid about my kitchen catching on fire. Why is it that no one ever asks me that question but people do question me about my “paranoia” when they find out I conceal carry even though statistically I’m more likely to be the victim of a violent crime than I am to have my kitchen catch fire.
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I would say, please do not rely upon a manual safety (or any other kind) to “safe” a firearm against a handling mishap by the untrained curious — child or adult. Curiosity may defeat any “trick” of operation on or in an accessible firearm.
A manual safety will provide an extra margin while you unholster, reholster, and transition to or from administrative handling. Family safety is provided by storing the gun in a safe or keeping it on your person in a secure holster when others are around. Three-year-olds and brothers-in-law will be past a manual safety before you can intervene.
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Being former law enforcement, I keep my head on a swivel and avoid putting myself in an uncomfortable situation. Living close to the Mexican border and illegal entrants from rough countries coming through, I’m even more attentive. Mexican immigrants coming to look for work is one thing but others from South America are showing up to victimize Americans.
I don’t have fears but I stay alert. Know your firearm, gun retention and surroundings every single minute.
God Bless our Country 
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I appreciate what you mentioned about permits. Some of us did everything right with clean records, and even went the extra mile. What are we supposed to do? We either carry regardless of permit schemes, or we don’t and suffer potential debilitating consequences. We often neglect the costs of not carrying in terms of hospitalization, life-long medical costs (therapy, drugs), and even funeral ones.
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Unlike most here, my county disregards reality and prohibits lawful citizens from carrying (unless you’re a retired LEO/fire, a judge, or a VIP). I live in a very safe city and even safer and more peaceful neighborhood. But you do see suspicious behavior and people at some stores sometimes. I was exiting a CVS two nights ago and thankfully willed myself to look all around me as I exited. I noticed a suspicious homeless or druggie type man walking covertly along the outer perimeter of the store’s parking lot, trying to be as discreet as possible. I wasn’t worried but knew he had a plan. Sure enough, he walked up to a trash can and put his hand in looking for something specific. A few minutes before, another seedy looking man seemed to place something in there. I believe the first guy dropped off drugs for the other guy. I would have never noticed this if I had been looking at my phone or just simply unaware of my surroundings. I’ve been in sticky situations and I was never armed in any of them. The only items I had in some of those situations was a knife, mace, and a stun-gun flashlight. But I began carrying those items a few years ago. Now I realize those less than lethal tools are insufficient. I recently thought about the gym as a target area. I will begin conceal carrying but only after taking classes and feeling confident enough to carry responsibly. I swim daily for half an hour in the early morning between 5:30 and 6:30. I then use the sauna, Jacuzzi and steam room for about 10 minutes each. If I carry, how would I do this properly in a gym? Would I just put my pistol in a special case and store it inside my gym bag? This is something that I recently thought about but it’s not something I worry about…yet. But because the gym doors are always open during business hours, what’s to stop a threat from entering if no one is armed? I’m assuming no one is armed because I live in a heavily restricted anti-gun county where criminals are basically given the green light to follow people in their cars and assault and/or rob them. I live in a nicer area where criminal assaults, shootings and other crimes associated with big cities are extremely rare but nothing’s guaranteed. I’ve already encountered a pretty scary attempted home invasion, so I wouldn’t want to experience something similar outside my home.
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Interesting analogy; like it. And he/she who does not have a fire-extinguisher, “what the”. Condom, another good safety example? IDK.
In the new Paramount western film series “1883”, there’s a brief scene when the father worried about his daughter, shares a similar lesson about firearms safety — just before the group takes off on their journey. It was somewhere within the first three episodes or so.
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I think I get your point. It’s a tough nut. There certainly is risk exposure to follow the law, if the law says you cannot be prepared to defend yourself.
But consider that there are also risk exposures in not following the law — assuming jail time might seem a high price for inadvertent printing, or defensive display which involves no shooting. Not to mention the felony piled upon felony which might accompany a needful defensive shooting.
Certainly one should vote and advocate for better laws. And consider building skills with whatever weapons are lawful. Hone avoid/evade/escape talents. The prudent defender probably tries to avoid crossing both bad people and bad laws. Whether to carry in violation, I guess will be a personal choice. Maybe an opportunity for challenging by test case.
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I’ve carefully considered what you said for many years. I still have what I thought would be my conceal carry gun that I prepared several years ago. It’s ironic that I’m a USCCA member but I don’t practice my 2A right to bear arms. I’ve counted the costs and I’ve even had one terrifying encounter where I almost shot one of four home invader ex-cons. That’s what prompted me to immediately subscribe to USCCA. I had two subsequent incidents that could have turned out horrible. All those incidents occurred at home and with a loved one. It’s not just about me but about protecting less abled loved ones. I’m accountable to GD, so I wouldn’t want to forever regret that I couldn’t defend a loved one because of fear of man. GD’s laws trump man’s laws. One of my duties is to defend and protect my family, and I’m a caregiver. Sometimes we have to violate lesser laws to uphold and defend life.
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I’ve always believed that preparedness, and to this point concealed carry, should reduce or even eliminate anxiety and worry in any given situation. I also believe in never tipping your hand, i.e. open carry. Years ago when I earned a blackbelt in a martial art I’d already known that flaunting your skillset got you in trouble. People wanted to challenge you to see ‘how good you really are’ type of deal, and even if you came out victorious you still had a target on your back, perhaps even bigger, now.
My son’s recently started open carrying. He’s young and arrogant and all “look at me and what I can do” but then he gets the dirty looks, or the worried looks, or the greedy looks when ever he goes out. Just to tout the gray man piece, I’d much rather blend in and have the advantage of surprise if things ever did go south at any given point in time. To me, open carry invites things to go south, sometimes, but that’s another discussion. In the end when you carry your confidence should go up and your anxiety should go down, regardless of the source of that anxiety.
Peace.
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Never realized this would be such a popular post, but you are on to something here.
Jeff_C reminded me when I took a younger relative to their first range experience. I later realized it helped boost their confidence. Of course we went over safety first.
Preaching to the choir here, but when I took a few folks out for their first range visit, I made it a point to hold a mini safety class with them at home first, firearms unloaded, so they can learn some basic safety rules first; It made such a great positive difference and helped us enjoy more range time together since we got some basics out of the way at home first.
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Some people in this world does not know the meaning of Brandishing a firearm,
like a strong wind blows your cover garment open and reveals your firearm, parts of it.
Then you get told on by too many people in your community. All that said, verbal abuse
is hard to live with at times hearing the lies. Brandishing is a total and deliberate
act and agressive.
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I open carry and concealed carry. I think it’s important to normalize guns. I think everyone should open carry and concealed carry. It reaffirms that responsible people with good intentions carry all the time everywhere. I think open carry has been vilified, much like homeschooling, to eliminate the optics of it. How can all of these people be carrying a gun and gun violence and crime in general go down or remain unchanged.
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When alone, my primary “worry” (read “concern”) is I may have to kill someone. If I am with a member of my family or a close friend my concern is that I may miss a warning sign or not be quick enough.
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Like others have said, after you’ve carried for awhile, you get used to being on Yellow alert, which is good even if you don’t have a gun on, because there are other ways to avoid problems. However, for the newly certified (not necessarily licensed, but by knowledge) carriers, the newness of having that extra weight on one’s body causes a heightened level of anxiety. I remember shortly after I started carrying, I was getting out of my car and someone across the parking lane caught a glimpse of the weapon as my shirt road up during my exit. He said, " I see what you’ve got." I simply looked at him in recognition, said nothing, continued my exit and locked the car and headed off to the store. The lesson is that while there may be an occasional glimpse of your weapon, just follow the alert rules, silently acknowledge that you are aware of their presence and continue with your business. Just always remember that your gun is last resort only! Keep reading and learning other/new defensive techniques, and soon life will seem to be a lot less threatening than it was.
Stay alert, stay safe.
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Just think of your pistol as a parachute. You wouldnt on purpose set your planes engine on fire just to use the chute. Sames goes with going into a bad situation with your pistol. Both are good to have in emergencies and you hope you never need either one.
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Not worried, but rather aware
My EDC is steel and I’m constantly aware of it in my pocket, which prevents me from becoming complacent.
If I feel the need to reach into my pocket and “palm” it then I probably should have retreated earlier.
If there is no retreat possible, then I’m already over half way to presentation.
Having that confidence doesn’t mean i’ll win a fight, but it does telegraph an element of
bad-assery which the observant will notice, perhaps making the inevitable less inevitable.
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Worried? Sure. About the traffic, about the jerk tailgating me, about my kids and grandkids and if they’re doing OK, about how and if the European war is going to spread and/or effect us more, about the economy, about the sad state of discourse in our nation, about crime.
None of this has anything to do with my EDC. It’s just a tool. I’m no more or less worried carrying that I would be otherwise.
God determines our steps and protects us, including helping us to make the right decision when we have to turn around and get to safety as quickly as possible, or take defensive action with a weapon.
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me” (Ps 23)
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I’ll do my level-headed to avoid being in a situation where I’d even have to consider it. So far, in 60 years, I’ve succeeded!
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Can you move somewhere else?
Nope not at all.After Afghanistan I have very little fear.As long as I have the ability to fire/return fire if I get killed it was my mistake.
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