When you go to a college wrestling match, your emotions get stirred as you watch two combatants battling on the mat. It makes me think back to the days when I did the same. Sometimes, I think I’d like to get back out there again, whether wrestling, judo, or jiu-jitsu. It was so fun to test myself and roll with people who challenged me.

But while you’re at the college wrestling match, you look around at the crowd. There’s lots of people with cauliflower ears, thick necks, and backs as wide as a refrigerator. Even though you think you still have some fight left in you, you know you don’t want to mess with anyone at a wrestling match. You just don’t know what’s possible. I’ve never seen a fight in the stands at a wrestling match.

I went to a UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championships) event in Indianapolis. It was funny because I was talking with one of the vendors. He said he loved the UFC event. Everyone was so calm and polite. He said it was the opposite of what you’d expect. Its the NBA where he saw fights in the concourse and people berating his crew. You don’t dare start a fight at a UFC match because you just don’t know. You could have a former champ sitting next to you and he could do some real damage. So people don’t fight at those events.

Here’s what I’m getting to. If you are ever in Texas or Arizona where people carry firearms, either concealed or open, you better not start a fight. If you are a robber at a convenience store, you better believe your chances aren’t very good if half the population is carrying. Its just a matter of fact. And think about this, most illegal carriers on the street don’t know the first thing about handling a malfunction with a weapon. All they see is some gangster on TV holding a gun in ways a legal carrier never would. They have never practiced remedial action either in combat or in practice. They just pick up their illegal weapon, load it, and walk around without an educated clue. Its the illegal carriers who cause the problems. Illegal means that they don’t obey laws.

If I’m honest with myself, I’m more apt to be a responsible citizen when I’m carrying than when I’m not. The reason is, everything suddenly becomes life or death when I’m carrying. If someone cuts me off in traffic, I’m not prone to doing anything stupid because I know the end game. I don’t walk down a dark alley because all my bravado is erased. Carrying a weapon doesn’t make you more brave, it makes you more cautious. You are never looking for a fight. But if it comes to you, hopefully you’re ready. I would say the main reason I carry is so I’m not a sitting duck. I’m not crouched under a table hoping for the problem to go away. Instead, I have the means to protect not only myself, but people who are close to me that I care for. If I was a parent with kids, I would never want to be crying behind a bush with them. I’d protect them instead. That’s my job. To protect those you love.

We can’t have immature people without training carry weapons. Its the worst way to have a society. But to those who do have training and carry responsibly, they can be the best way to insure a civilized society. It is the best deterrent we can have. People who don’t know any better only see these crazed lunatics and think we should have gun free zones. Unfortunately, that will only cause more deaths.

We have knee jerk, emotional responses to things we see. And then the solutions are equally emotional, ineffective, and lack any bit of common sense. Instead, leave it to people in the know to find reasonable solutions.

"When seconds count, the police are only minutes away" [a minute too late]