I certainly think it does!
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I have to agree with Derrick, yes it is. Itâs a tool that can keep you alive when other tools fail you. It can protect not only you, but your family, friends, strangers in distress, even the people at a grocery store. Hopefully you never need to use it, but for sure itâs good to have.
Train often, practice practice practice, learn to not only hit what you aim at, but how to reload quickly, draw quickly, and really learn when NOT to draw or fire as thatâs just as important.
Grats on choosing USCCA, as itâs very good indeed to have them in your corner should the worst happen.
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interesting questionâŠ
Body Armor - YES⊠if you are LEO or Security Guard.
EDC tools? - I donât think soâŠ
Hopefully someone is able to interpret this in our favorâŠ:
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I have to agree with Jerzy in that it is both an interesting question and by OSHA standards, firearms are NOT PPE.
I do feel like it would be a great Idea to try and add firearms to the OSHA standard though as many could and would argue that in todayâs current political climate, a gun is fast becoming a ânecessaryâ piece of equipment to stay safe.
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Yes, that is now the reality we live in. I still remember as a child in the 1960âs, once we moved out of the city, we didnât worry all that much about locking our doors. Now, the only time my door is unlocked is when myself or my roommate is passing through it.
I donât leave my home without my sidearm, and even in my home it is either on my belt, or on my desk. I hate it being that way, but I accept that this is the world we here in the USA now live in. And from watching international news, it seems weâre not the only ones, and in many places, citizens canât even carry any form of protection.
This, to me, is the very definition of âbittersweetâ. Iâm very glad we have our 2nd Amendment, but I wish so much we didnât need it to be safe. I wonder if Iâll ever feel safe without a gun in easy reach again.
So, I applied for and received my CCW permit. I purchased a quality handgun. I practice, and I carry. I donât really see any other option at this stage. I hope for the best, but I prepare for the worst.
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Agreed! and congrats on getting your CCW permit! Honestly, the more people who arm themselves the better our odds at fighting against the lunacy left trying to first ban firearms and now defunding police. The left wants us all to roll over and play victims and beg them for their help (as if they ever actually help anyone but their own income).
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Thanks!
Personally, Iâm far more concerned with defending myself against the insane radical right. You know, the ones that want to kidnap and murder state governors for trying to keep Covid-19 from spreading, and from Trumpâs* wingnut white supremacists and neo-nazis.
And as for taking guns, Trump is the only American president that ever indicated he wanted to do that. Donât believe me? Search YouTube for âtrump take guns awayâ and youâll see for yourself.
Also, instead of just mimicking others with âdefund policeâ maybe actually look it up - youâll find out that it does not mean what it sounds like.
All too often police are call to deal with things far outside their duties, and all too often tragedy results. They should not be called to deal with social issues unless violence is involved. They should not be shooting mentally ill people because that person is incapable of understanding their commands, but they do. Cops should not have an âus vs. citizenâ mindset, but they do. Cops should not have military-grade equipment, but they do. Now that last, I can see specialized teams having, as sometimes it may be needed, but not the stuff we see all too often.
The whole âdefund policeâ movement is about moving funding back to social services so every little thing does not involve having to call the cops, especially as if one party is non-white, that can cause death. Not good, man, not good.
Finally, Biden actually wants police to get more funding. So, I donât think that means what you think it means.
So while I appreciate your congratulations on getting my CCW, I do have to tell you that assuming my political stance as being hard right-wing was not an accurate call.
And yes, liberals are often well armed and willing to defend themselves, their families, and those around them too.
P.S. Now you know why I so often request that politics be left out of firearm discussions.
Hi Richard,
I donât make any assumptions on peopleâs political stanceâŠI just speak rationally and state facts.
I certainly donât mind that youâre a liberal. I welcome discussions with liberals and they even have influenced a change in my thinking like Michael Shellenberger who was appointed by the Obama admin to head up research into alternative energy solutions. His verdict after years was that wind and solar were bad and nuclear and coal were the safest and best solutions for the environment. Unfortunately, most want to disagree with him but with the mountain of evidence heâs collected, thatâs similar to my daughter arguing that the tooth fairy left money for her for every tooth she lost.
Now, to discuss your claim that Trump wants to take guns away and eluding to democrats notâŠwellâŠok. First, every gun control organization like the Brady Campaign, Everytown for Gun safety, etc are all Democrats. Together with other democrat politicians, they work to pass laws chipping away and passing laws that honestly make so little sense that itâs laughable. To give an analogy, the democrats could pass a law saying all kitchen knives 4" in length be bannedâŠso knife makers change and make knives 4.1". Thatâs how stupid it is and these politicians keep doing it repeatedly wasting millions of our tax dollars on this frivolous nonsense. I canât think of a single democratic politician who hasnât spoken against some type of firearm and sought out banning something. The democrats pushed for the original âassault weapons banâ that even the DOJ pointed out was utterly useless and showed no evidence of preventing violence. Yet, that doesnât stop democrats from acting like broken records and doing everything they can to keep doing the same things over and over again and having the same lack of results. We tend to consider that insanity by definition.
Thanks for bringing up the radicals but please look up my other responsesâŠIâm against ALL radicals, both RIGHT and LEFT! I think all radical (or extremist) behavior is unacceptable. So you fearing the extreme rightâŠI do too!
As for the governors, you have the govs of the blue states who have mismanaged their states into the ground and like Whitmer, spoke out against the stimulus plans that donât rescue her and others like her from the mess they put themselves in. Look at Newsom who has done everything he can do dig a grave for himself and now he is asking for aid to help save him before he buries himself. Now, Iâm sure democrats will argue that this is all falseâŠso please look for yourself and ask yourselfâŠhow much money have these governors asked their citizens to pay in taxes every year and where has that money gone? In California, they asked every year more more money to fund a high speed rail project and after millions of dollars and several years, the project was scrapped before it ever started. Whereâd all that money go? I knowâŠdems have a short term memory they forgot and donât care because thatâs last years issues. How about homelessâŠevery year every city asks for more money to handle homeless in my state of California, or Oregon, or Washington and homless populations are getting worse. Odd isnât it?
Letâs get back to Trump. Trump did ban bump stocks. He also said that he favors taking guns away from âpeople who might commit violenceâ. Honestly, I canât think of a single mass shooting where I watched a democrats stand up on their soap box and demand we get rid of all âassault riflesâ. Heck, Democrats coined the phrase âassault rifleâ because it invokes an emotional response from people. The truth isnât as emotionally impactfulâŠmy weapons are all DEFENSE WEAPONS. They defend my family and I and I donât use them to âAssaultâ anyone. If you actually took the time to look up the definition of assault, youâd see that the only group that actually uses âassault weaponsâ are the military, police, and criminals because each of these groups assault someone or some group. Law abiding people donât assault, they defend. Therefore, my rifles and handguns are all defense weapons. Democrats would rather lie and play on your emotions than be honest and thatâs really the difference in the parties, Democrats use emotion to drive your vote, Republicans use facts to drive your vote.
Youâre a liberal, and Iâd bet you respond emotionally about any number of arguments donât you? Letâs look at âdefund the policeâ. It is EXACTLY what it sounds like. You can sugar coat it however you want but hereâs the catch, most minority neighborhoods DONâT want to defund police because police keep their streets safer. Thereâs a great video on youtube where a reporter goes into Santa Monica, land of liberals and asks people there if people should have to present ID to prove who they are to vote. Most people interviewed spewed all sorts of nonsense about how many black people couldnât get to the DMV to get a license or where unable to afford it or any number of other nonsense. Then the reporter went to Compton and showed the video and every minority was shocked liberals degrade them so and feel theyâre so helpless. Iâll bet you too pandered to some group and thought they needed YOUR help to succeed didnât you? Itâs okâŠI was a democrat and a liberal myself at one time before I woke up and realized how the truth I was being told wasnât actually true.
Iâd like you to do a ride along with police and then ask yourself who else could handle the situation better? Domestic disputes often turn violentâŠwould you want a counselor to place themselves in harms way and potentially get killed? Near me there was a domestic dispute in a parking lot where a man and woman were screaming at each other. People tried to break them up, one was even a psychologist, and police were finally called. The man eventually locked themselves in the car and choked out the wife till police were forced to shoot him to save the woman. Tell me, who would be better suited to handle that? You seem to âthinkâ you know better and yet youâve never been placed in that position yourself or seen it first hand. Youâre an armchair know it all with very little real experience iâd bet. I say that because I personally have gone on ride alongs, I know others who have also and when poop hits the fan, police are forced to react to any number of situations and they do an amazing job at crappy pay. As for cops not having âmilitary grade weaponsââŠstop right there and please stop talking. please look up 1986 Miami FBI Shootout. Suspects had "Military grade weapons and officers had handguns and were decimated. Your opinion on what police should have speaks to your own ignorance of whatâs out there so please just stop.
Biden has done more to decimate minorities than any candidate short of Harris. Biden passed the 1994 crime bill and the only ones trying to downplay it are democrats. Minorities know what impact it had on their community. Harris prevented new evidence in a case of a death row inmate that cleared him. It wasnât until the supreme court forced her to allow it did she finally release the guy. Harris kept inmates long past their release dates because they were free labor. Biden has made more racist remarks than anyone since LBJ. A Dubious Compliment - Top 10 Joe Biden Gaffes - TIME
Now weâre facing the facts that Biden and his son used their influence with China, the Ukraine, and Russia and Hunterâs own business partner confirmed the information. Meanwhile dems keep saying is disinformation then switched to itâs nothing.
listen, Iâd welcome a civil conversation about what your thoughts are and share my own anytime. Iâm certainly not going to dismiss your opinion but I am going to challenge any rhetoric that is false or proven to be untrue like the russia collusion, claims that Trump is a racist, or any other nonsense the left spews without facts. I donât mind politics and I can understand your side because like you, I used to firmly believe the democratic party was the morally righteous party till I learned the truth and realized they were actually the same racist party theyâve been since they owned slaves, fought to keep segregation, trail of tears, japanese internment camps, fought against all civil rights acts till Kennedy supported the Civil Rights act of 1964 (there were at least 6 previous ones they hated), Love LBJ and yet ignore his repeated references to black people throughout his presidency as the N word, passed welfare act which led to destroying the middle class black families, support abortion while Margret Sanger has made it clear why she loves abortion (look it up), and more. Same party, same message, new marketing, same racism. Now, democrats love to play identity politics where they try and diminish âwhite malesâ as if our opinion is less than anyone elseâs. Problem is, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that dems finally got on board with makes it clear we canât diminish anyone based on colorâŠodd how they forget. Republicans support equality. We see ourselves as all being equal and the GOP was founded as the anti slavery party and that hasnât changed. I may disagree with my party on gay rights, and religion but I agree in our constitutional rights and equality overall. So, let me know what youâd like to disagree on and Iâd welcome some civil discussion. I promise to be open minded and consider your points if you consider mine.
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Now you may argue this was about a criminal, but think about this: If in the exact same conversation on the exact same subject Obama had said that, what do you think would have happened?
Only Trump* thinks blue states have been âmismanagedâ, the truth is that red states tend to get far more federal money than they provide in tax revenue, while the blue states tend to be the exact opposite. However, I will grant you that youâll never hear that from Fox or OAN, although the actual data is public domain.
Iâm not going to go into the balance of your post, as it seems rather clear we donât have the same sources, and yes, I do get emotional about the destruction of our nation, our international standing, turning us from an internationally respected nation to the laughing stock of the world, and the insane level of division fostered by the current GOP.
While you state that you are against radicals, right or left, I have to say that the things Iâve read on these forums the last few days have made me feel very unwelcome as a Democrat, and as I tend to very high blood pressure, Iâll probably do my best to curtail my usage of them.
Remember this though, the free press is one of the defining properties of Democratic society, and the only ones that think they are the âenemy of the peopleâ are dictators. History shows this to be true, and itâs true in 21st Century USA as well. If you donât trust our media though, thatâs fine, and sure, both sides are biased. Check out what international news has to say about the US these days. You may be shocked.
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all these 
because of PPE?
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Yeah. Iâm actually very close to bailing on these forums over the politics. I just want to talk about CCW, and firearms in general, but that doesnât seem like itâs meant to be. Probably wonât be long until I give up on it.
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The good thing is that we can always ignore politic posts or threads⊠
Iâm also bored with Biden/Trump, Dem/Rep, Left/Right speeches and writings and just scan them with 2 -3 seconds without focusing.
I hope this Community will come back on the track which should be, what you have mentioned:
CCW, and firearms in general
Iâm a patient man 
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So let me ask youâŠwhat else do you have to suggest Trump wants to take our guns away? Iâve researched every school shooting as part of my profession and frankly I can cite countless cases where if a family member was successful in gaining a court order to evaluate a suspect, a mass shooting could have been averted. Unfortunately the family memberâs hands were tied because the law prevents that type of overreach. So, itâs not unreasonable for anyone to say or feel we should take away the guns from people on the edge and work it out later? Thatâs an emotional response to an awful situation and I can completely understand it. Is that constitutionalâŠno, but non the less we all are victims of emotion. However, once reason and logic return, we all start to think it through and consider the ramifications to such actions and what it might lead to. I too felt the same way at one point until I began reasoning that such endeavors could also be corrupted. So, am I shocked Trump too felt an emotional outrage for the same reason? Nope. However, other than this remark, what else do you have to support your claim that Trump wants to take guns away?
I think if you stopped and treated him with less hatred and more rational thinking, youâd see that your case against him is extremely thin. Now compare this to the repeated calls by democrats to âpass gun control lawsâ, take away âassault weaponsâ and any number of other calls they all speak to during any number of examples throughout history.
As for Trump being the only one who thinks blue states mismanage, noâŠlots and lots of people think the same. Areas that were predominately red and had a large influx of people from blue states got to see this first hand also. Areas like Portland OR which was one of the most red cities I can recall at one point had an exodus of californians move away from the high costs of homes, homelessness, drugs, etc. In less than 10 years, Portland began voting more blue and now we can see the impact such politics play with months of riots, homeless populations that continue to grow, drugs in the streets, reduction in police, and utter chaos. That all stems from the liberal ideologies that grew as the liberal population grew. Look at any major city thatâs run by democrats and youâll see homeless populations, poverty, lack of infrastructure, and mismanagement of funds. it doesnât take but opening your eyes to see it. I travel to many of these cities and see the needles, feces, homeless, and more.
As for well run democrat cities or your wish to convey that democrat run cities are doing well, please offer some examples. Iâd wager that any city you come up with isnât what you think it is.
Our International Standing? You mean how Obama lost us our AAA rating by defaulting on our debts? Or do you mean how Obama signed out country away and lessened our own workerâs value and rewarded other countries little to no tariffs on imports causing US based companies to outsource jobs to other countries to compete? Or maybe youâd like to discuss paying countries like Iran not to make nuclear weapons and knowing they are moving their nuclear material around from one building to another because investigators could monitor the radiation levels and know material was just thereâŠyet we paid them how much? ListenâŠTrump got us out of a lot of one sided deals because they were benefitting everyone BUT the USA and Iâm glad. Weâre starting to see jobs returning, companies are ending the outsourcing and weâre tariffing imports so that Chinaâs government forced cheap labor is now more closely aligned to our merchandise costs.
Listen, I donât want you to feel unwelcomeâŠeveryone is Welcome here and frankly Iâm enjoying chatting with you because we can have a civil discussion without name calling and without stress. We may disagree but thatâs ok. I enjoy your perspective and Iâm happy to offer my own. The big difference is this, Iâve been a democrat and now Iâm republican. Iâve talked to people from both sides and the one thing that remains the same is republicans more often tend to be accepting of you regardless of your position. Thatâs not to say everyone is, just most. On the other side of the spectrum, I used to know a lot of democrats who utterly refuse to talk to me again because I voted for Trump. They literally scream to drown out discussions or any opposing view. Maybe theyâre the exception but if so, thereâs a LOT more exceptions on the democratic side then the republican side.
If you donât believe me, go to a republican eventâŠany republican event and youâll find youâre going to be totally fine. Now compare that to the event I recently had to walk by on my way to a meeting where I was damn near attacked just because someone asked if I was coming in and I said, âNo, sorry, headed to a meeting.â Was then accused of being a racist and several other vulgar comments. Itâs astounding to me how the different parties treat people. I know one long time dem who only recently left the party because she admitted to her friends that the wall in SoCal actually helped the area and lowered crime. Her friends immediately called her names and made her feel extremely unwelcome in her own dem party. So, she left and is now an independent.
As for international news, I listen and read it all the time. Australian news agencies mock Biden and Harris, UK news agencies all admit Trump has done more for our country then they every expected, Germany, who thought Trump was being Xenophobic about refugees now admits Trump was right and regrets they invited so many in. All are places Iâve lived at different points in my life along with a couple others we wonât talk about. See, Iâve lived outside the US and have lots of friends/family still in these places. I hear it all and I doubt you can cite something I havenât heard.
Lastly, if the free press is one of the last defining properties of the democratic society, then why arenât you up in arms about how twitter facebook/google is blocking opposing views? Why arenât you freaking out that the main stream media is only giving you a small segment of the news that THEY choose to give? why arenât you going ballistic over how no one is talking about issues democrats are involved in but are jumping up and down to show anything they can make up about republicans? This goes back further than just recent events. Look at Bengazi where 4 Americans were killed because Hillary chose not to act on their security recommendations and then watched as things unfolded and let it happen rather than pull in assets nearby? Explain how you werenât enraged by her emailing scandal when that would have been the end of anyone elseâs career for emailing secret information on a public server? I donât care if its a republican or democrat, I want to know who does what so I am informed. However, democrats all choose to only talk about things republicans do wrong (and we do a lot mind you) and thatâs not free pressâŠthatâs the very definition of a party run press. Listen, I donât care if youâre democrat. I enjoy challenging you and discussing your thoughts but donât forgetâŠthis doesnât go both ways with most people on the left. They scream us down rather than have civil discussions and thatâs absolutely wrong. we need to engage in civil discussions or we become each otherâs enemy and that isnât what anyone wants.
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Richard, one thingâŠthe press are actively making themselves the enemy of the people because time and again, rather than do their job and present the news, they cherry pick the news THEY want to present and the way THEY want to present it. Trump released his interview with the very left leaning reporter who said that the Hunter biden story wasnât news. Keep in mind, Hunterâs own business partner confirmed the information on Hunter bidenâs laptop and corroborated the stories so it is WAY more than newsâŠitâs HUGE! and yet the reporter dismisses it because SHE and her network want to decide what to report. That isnât free pressâŠthatâs tabloid garbage and thatâs what most networks are becomingâŠtabloids looking to sensationalize whatever they can to earn ratings. Look up Yellow Journalism and youâll see how whatâs happening right now is exactly what happened before and was called Yellow journalism.
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PPE = Personal Protective Equipment.
It would definitely seem to qualify.
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PPE = Personal Protective Equipment ⊠but not âactionâ equipment. Unfortunately OSHA doesnât treat firearm as PPE⊠only equipment protecting the body from being harm (fe by firearm) is considered as PPE.