Are you the Gun Guy?
Are you the Gun Guy?
Or to be PC, gun-person? By that, I mean are you the person in your circle of friends or co-workers who is known to own and enjoy the use of firearms? If so, this is not an advertisement for a patent medicine, cure or treatment for your condition. It’s an acknowledgment that your position as the guy is both a burden and a privilege as well as an ironic recognition that the non-gun persons may very well want to be you. They just might not have known it yet.
Generally speaking, gun-persons are not proactive and outspoken advocates of gun rights or Second Amendment causes. They do not wear their belief in free exercise of a Constitutional right on their sleeve any more than folks who inherently believe in the wisdom and value of any other Constitutionally enumerated rights or protections. They grind through life meeting the same daily challenges as the non-gun folks but with the understanding they believe in a degree of self-sufficiency and responsibility that perhaps others do not.
Like free speech, exercise of religion or keeping pesky soldiers from quartering in your domicile, it should not be a topic of incessant debate – yet it is. As the gun guy, you are always called upon to defend that which should not require a defense, by people who will never accept your position in any case. Clarence Darrow couldn’t craft an argument sufficient to sway the non-believers. In absence of belief in the principals behind gun ownership or personal experience establishing need, they can’t be swayed.
The key factor here is personal experience and that’s where everything has just changed. In the new “pandemic” world, many who looked at the gun guy with suspicion now see them in a different light. Maybe, just maybe, the gun guy has something going on.
Why would I say that? Because in the midst of all the uncertainty associated with the Covid 19 pandemic, several gun-guys in my sphere have been approached by never gun people and asked for access to yes, a gun.
These people have come to the belated realization that in a crisis such as we now face, there exists the very real possibility that the norms of behavior that they hang their world view aren’t carved in stone. Some of the old rules may no longer apply. The “minutes away” law enforcement they always thought they could count on might be tied up breaking up a fight over a case of toilet paper or some other equally vexing misunderstanding.
The minutes might turn out to be hours or just when they get around to it. Maybe the police don’t want to expose themselves to greater and undue risk for you today. They are in uncharted territory as well. You could be on your own.
The regular folks scoffed at the gun guy for having more than one gun. I mean – you can only shoot one at a time right? Those other guns are the ones that are looking pretty good to them right about now. The gun guy knows the value of a backup plan (and gun). It wasn’t to provide for other folks who too late realize that self-reliance and forethought should be Plan A, not Plan B. Relying on someone else to save them is the gun guy’s Plan C. If we’re down to that well, it’s been real.
Other folks who shook their heads at the gun guys when they stocked away ammo by the hundreds and thousands of rounds when it was available didn’t get it. Why do you need that? Just go to the store and get more when you need it. This past week they walked into every gun and sporting shop in the country and said “Where’s all the ammo? I think I need some.” Too late I guess. The gun guy, well he’s all set.
I don’t say all this to denigrate or belittle the people who have come late to the party. The neighbors and co-workers, family and friends who didn’t see it before, are now faced with a crisis of such unprecedented scope are now able to imagine what previously they could not. That’s a good thing.
Most of us will eventually come though the current situation all right and my prayers are with those who do not. It will likely take a long time, and seem even longer. Perhaps there is already some silver lining though, insomuch as many people will now see the value of preparing for the unknown and relying on themselves to be their own protectors and providers. Trust in yourself. Everything else that works out is gravy.
Be the gun guy.
