I got my concealed carry permit yesterday. I don’t think I will be packin’ heat too often. I really have not had very many occasions in the last 57 years where I thought to myself..hmm..I sure wish I had a gun for protection….and those times I did feel I needed a gun for protection I was in the perceived safety of my home.
My dad always had short and long guns in the house. He took me to the farm when I was young and showed me how to load and fire the cutest little 22 Beretta. I fell in love. When I was 9 or 10 (I was a latchkey kid), I came home from school and the inside garage door to our house was ajar. I was prepared. I went into the house, walked into my folk’s bedroom, got the Beretta out of my dad’s drawer and cleared the house including the basement. I was scared to death but had no fear because I would have shot an intruder without blinking an eye. My dad was not horrified with the story and it bolstered my confidence.
HE and I did the same with our daughters. After my dad passed, I decided I wanted to be a reserve police officer for a neighboring community so I did the training and carried on my hip. I will say that the weapon training I received was a lot more intensive than the “class” required to obtain a concealed carry permit in Iowa. I will never forget running up and down the hallways of an elementary school at night and on command stopping to tear my pistol down and put it back together and run again. I really wish the other thousands of folk in Iowa that are flocking to their sheriff’s offices to get a concealed carry permit had some hand’s on training rather than an internet class…but it is what it is.
I’m also a card carrying liberal and have never understood why my right to bear arms is a conservative issue any more than the woman’s right to her own body and the rights of adults to marry who they love.
Until next time.
Ninasusan 
And it annoys me when ppl use half a quote to make their point. It’s like pulling one sentence out of the bible and basing every single one of your beliefs on it, no matter what the rest says. So if one is going to constantly quote the second amendment about the right to bear arms, why not continue the quote about a “well regulated militia” ? Just sayin’.
LikeLike
@Ninasusan – Thank you 🙂
LikeLike
@strawberryfieldsgirl – Don’t apologize girl…your opinion needed to be said and your opinion is always welcome here!!! See Sunday’s blog about bullys
LikeLike
I’m sorry Ninasusan. I know I should’ve let that go and not responded. I really do know better. But that’s the kind of thing that turns ppl like me who aren’t against things, against them…He is clearly obsessed with world order or something, why else would he have gotten so angry so quickly? But again, xanga fighting? ridiculous.
LikeLike
@mikewb1971 – well one, I don’t and it won’t be if he already owns it. Two, thankfully he’s not like you, he has the ability to exchange ideas without assumptions. Three,, it the country wants your guns, I mean really wants to take all of your guns, all your assault weapons aren’t going to stop them. “They” can take anything they want. Right now they’re trying to take away my freedom to live in peace on land that I bought, paid for and worked years to keep healthy and productive.I pay taxes. Who are “they”? My government, bought and paid for by natural gas, who by the way do not pay their taxes. It is going south, and my neighbor having assault weapons aren’t going to change it. You ask a gas rep a question, they have you arrested and put a protection order against you on your own land. You want to work on keeping your freedoms? Work on keeping big money out of politics, and yeah that means the NRA as well as big gas and oil. Once you get too big, it’s all over. And Idk why I”m answering you, your mind was made up a long time ago. You clearly didn’t even take in what I said with anything close to an open mind, instead you cam barreling at me in anger assuming things you can’t know. Just the kind of person who should own an assault weapon. :/.
LikeLike
@strawberryfieldsgirl – Never mind. And do have fun asking your neighbor who’s a “gun nut” for help when things go south. Make sure to tell him that you want to see his “assault weapons” declared illegal – I’m sure he’ll appreciate that ever so much!
LikeLike
@mikewb1971 -are you a troll? Your reply didn’t make any sense at all to me..haters gonna hate tho right. whatev
LikeLike
@Ninasusan – So I take it you haven’t been following the news then.
LikeLike
Welcome to the world of CCW, first thing I have to say is something my dad used to tell me. ” If you think you need a gun to go someplace, you shouldn’t go there, if you have to go bring a rifle.” I carry a gun like I carry my pocket knife, you never know when trouble might pop up. Like a movie theater, or a gas station. The point of CCW is not to defend yourself in bad areas, it is so that you can defend yourself from bad men. AnywhoWhat caught my attention was the last line of your post. “I’m also a card carrying liberal and have never understood why my right to bear arms is a conservative issue any more than the woman’s right to her own body and the rights of adults to marry who they love.”The line between conservative and liberal has been greatly blurred thanks to the progressive movement. The concept of conservatism has been demonized, and misrepresented for countless years. There are actually schools out there now that are telling kids that conservatism means limited liberty. However the truth cannot be further from the truth. There are two types of conservatives, there are progressive conservatives, and true conservatives. Your true conservative is someone like myself and Ron or Rand Paul. A true conservative believes in a limited government, bound by constitutional law. A true conservative believes what James Madison said in Federalist Paper 45 “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State Governments are numerous and indefinite”. Basically a true conservative believes the government does not have the right to tell me how to live my life.Then there are the progressive conservatives, these are the John McCain’s of the world, they like most progressives, see the government as a way to control the people and protect us from ourselves. The difference between a conservative and a progressive is simple, when a conservative says “we should do something about that”, he is referring to the people around him. When a progressive says “we should do something about that” they are expecting the government to do it. The issue of our Gun Rights, rights that we the people reserved for ourselves, rights that we denied the government the ability to strip away, is not a conservative vs liberal issue. It is an issue of control, and whether or not you believe the government has the right to do whatever it wants regardless of law.
LikeLike
@Ambrosius_Augustus_Rex – I value my ability to bear arms and I don’t feel that ability is in jeopardy…in fact I fear the other values of the conservatives more!
LikeLike
The reason why “gun toting liberal” sounds like an oxymoron is because it’s the Democrats who are always trying to attack the 2nd ammendment. It’s weird that you would continue voting for them if you value the ability to bear arms.
LikeLike
@vexations – Libertarians also think that the Second Amendment guarantees a fundamental, individual right. It seems that the founder of the Democratic Party agrees with us.@Ninasusan – What those who wrote the Second Amendment wanted to avoid was the federal government having anything resembling a monopoly on physical force and weapons. In U.S. v. Miller, the Supreme Court said that the only weapons protected by the Second were “militia weapons” which are defined as having “military utility,” such as the M4 / AR-15 / M16 and the AK47 types of rifles.@strawberryfieldsgirl – You said noone is trying to take anyway your right to bear arms. This is patently FALSE – Chuck Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, and Sarah Brady have been trying exactly that for twenty-plus years.Anymore than anyone is trying to take away your right to drive a car by having to have it registered.I have yet to see an advocate of a firearms registry who will disavow exactly that as an option for the future. But still :Well one more thing, my neighbor is all about guns. . . . . I got used to it and we just stay away from that spot on our land. But I’ll tall ya what, if anything bad starts going down around here, I’m heading straight for his house!Let me get this straight – you expect that he’ll simply surrender liberty and property upon demand, just so you can have your warm fuzzy that you “made a difference” and “got something done,” but if the neighborhood goes to pot, you’ll show up on his front porch, expecting him to assist you gratis ? Why should he do anything other than slam the door in your face? What are you willing to do for him?
LikeLike
I don’t care a fun or own a gun but I have bought some for my husband. I believe if you can and in your right mind you should! If you want too!
LikeLike
If the unborn were gun toting liberals able to benefit from the blessing of the 2nd Amendment do you think they’d let themselves be offed by their crazy as bed bug mothers?
LikeLike
@strawberryfieldsgirl – no…you did not blather on and on. I’m so with you on the reality of the points…I live in the country too and I used to fear for my kids too.
LikeLike
So as another card carrying liberal who is not against guns, I understand your point. I’ve pretty much stayed out of that controversy. I don’t think it’s a conservative issue, I think they’re making it one so they can keep their NRA money coming in. Their arguments are so weak, it’s pathetic. My 2 cents, (sorry I know you didn’t ask) is that noone is trying to take anyway your right to bear arms. Anymore than anyone is trying to take away your right to drive a car by having to have it registered. And that argument that the bad guys will get them anyway is just dumb IMO, of course they will, but it might take them a few more days. And we don’t legalize drugs or robbery or murder just because the bad guys are gonna do it anyway. So there, now I sound like I’m against guns. And that’s why I usually don’t say anything because I’m not. But geeze, come up with some better arguemnts. Nobody needs to be able to get off 100’s of shots in a minute. Or whatever it is. Unless you’re in a war, what is the point of that?! Oh God there I go again. lol Well one more thing, my neighbor is all about guns. I swear he’s shooting cannons over there sometimes. At first I hated it when my kids were little because I didn’t dare let them play on the hill we share behind my house. just incase he’s target practicing and doesn’t see them. I got used to it and we just stay away from that spot on our land. But I’ll tall ya what, if anything bad starts going down around here, I’m heading straight for his house! wow did I just blabber on way too much?! So congrats on your permit. I don’t mind you having it at all! hehehehe
LikeLike
Assault rifles are not the problem, and banning them is a non-solution to a non-existent problem. With doctors like that Kermit freak runing around with scissors and killing babies, maybe we should ban scissors.
LikeLike
Its the fear-mongering liberals like Nancy Pelosi and Diane Feinstein who hurt their party. We need more liberal gun owners like Hunter S. Thompson. Drop some acid. No fear or loathing of anything, including NK nukes.
LikeLike
@somewittyhandle – I think there are a lot of us out there but I’m almost as afraid of the anti gun liberals as I am of the radical tea party folksIf you have another daughter named Katy…we need to meet 🙂
LikeLike
@vexations – yup…totally agree…and I will go one step further and say that I think all assault rifles should be banned.
LikeLike
And why not?Me, I use my rifle to shoot rats. I keep chickens in the back yard, and the rats have a tendency to multiply on the chicken’s food if un-checked. But I would be prepared to use it on an armed intruder. Like you, I don’t see that that is the prerogative of the Tea Party.By the way: my daughter is called Jenny, by strange coincidence.
LikeLike
The second amendment distracts us from deciding what gun policies are best for our society. Conservatives say it is fundamental to all the other amendments, that it maintains the first amendment and so forth. I believe people should be able to own and “operate” firearms just as they do an automobile but I do not think people should be able to own, trade, share and sell guns without some regulations. Guns are dangerous. Now, without adequate regulations, far too many youth and irresponsible people do not understand the dangers of guns and misuse these dangerous tools.
LikeLike