There is a simple way to understand the thinking of most people who want you disarmed.
Make the internal assumption, for the sake of understanding them, that you have deliberately chosen to be unarmed. It isn’t that hard to do. Being armed requires effort. You have to choose to be responsible. You have to practice self-discipline. You adopt safe gun handling practices and you train. You think about unpleasant possibilities and plan for them. In many states, becoming armed takes considerable legal effort. You have to devote time and money to be being a gun owner.
Once the decision has been made to be unarmed, many of their reactions to gun owners become understandable. Unarmed people are often uncomfortable around those of us who own and carry guns. Armed people have a significant power advantage over unarmed people. Many unarmed people don’t want to be reminded that armed people have that power. To avoid this, they want to force other people to be disarmed.
That explains why some unarmed people dislike concealed carry, but absolutely hate open carry. Open carry forces them to confront the power differential they have chosen. It reminds them of an unpleasant reality and they feel intimidated.
People are more accepting of information that reinforces their personal choices. If you’ve chosen to be unarmed, you want to hear news items that validate that choice. If a health professional tells you that keeping or bearing arms makes you less safe in your home and on the street, you will have an intrinsic bias toward believing them.
(snip)
If you have chosen to be unarmed, you probably don’t have much knowledge about firearms and how they work. Learning and knowing about guns is one of the costs that people avoid by choosing to be unarmed. When gun owners point out technical mistakes in articles and legislation concerning guns, it strikes the unarmed as meaningless, pedantic babble. Semi-automatic, automatic…who cares? You are not interested in guns, so technical distinctions are beside the point.
“Many unarmed people don’t want to be reminded that armed people have that power. To avoid this, they want to force other people to be disarmed.”
I’ve been legally carrying concealed firearms for a little over 2 years here in Illinois. And as a bit of an amateur student of human behavior I’ve made some fairly interesting observations. When people don’t know I’m armed “normal” interactions occur. Now I certainly do not make it a point to let people know I’m carrying. Discretion is paramount in my view.
When it does come up in conversation most people think it’s no big deal although I’ve noticed that men and women tend to have different reactions. A large percentage of men will say something like “I should get my permit.” Or they’ll ask me about the process, what kind of gun I favor, that sort of thing.
Some women have, too. But that reaction mostly comes from men.
Only one man that I can remember has said that he was uncomfortable being around me when he learned I regularly carry. I told him he was free to leave any time he wished. Interestingly enough he didn’t.
Women, however, tend to have a very different set of reactions. “Are you carrying right now?” is asked almost 100% of the time. They will raise their eyes, lower their voices when they do it.
My response is always the same. “Concealed means just that. You won’t know for sure unless something really bad happens. But if you do happen to see it you will want to get really small really fast. Getting behind something sturdy would probably be a very good idea, too.”
I do NOT qualify as something sturdy.
What’s even more interesting to me is the way women’s behavior toward me will change. They tend to stay just a bit closer for just a bit longer. Some will make subtle but obvious expressions of sexual interest. It’s like they know an Alpha dog when they see one. Pretty amusing, actually. If I were single I might take advantage of that.
I’m wondering if anyone else has had similar experiences.
L