Not all gun owners are pro-CCW....

[67gtonut 847]

Here is a perfect example of why CCW will be a long road in this state. This happened today...... I will set the scene.

 

I work in a service dept at a local GM dealer, me and my co-service advisor sit within 5 feet of each other. He is an avid gun owner, in fact he is what prompted me to get back into the hobby...

 

He is a Hunter, shotgun and Bow, deer in the past, but mostly Pheasant these days...

 

He is an avid Trap shooter....

 

He has a large safe full of firearms, including many pistols and shotguns...

 

He has been out to Front Sight in Nev. for a Tactical Shotgun class....

 

But he does not "get" why I have the desire to carry a firearm on my side....

 

I was doing my usual thing today, surfing the net, and we got to talking about about TSA requirements for taking a firearm on a plane. He started asking why I would even need to do that. I said if I ever fly down to Florida to see my parents, I would want to take my gun with me.... After some more small talk we moved on and went back to work....

 

..... a few minutes later, my phone beeped, that I had a text message...... The idiot thought he had texted my Boss( who is cool and was in ear shot of the whole above conversation), but accidently texted me instead...... Here is the text:

 

I'm beginning 2 think Troy is in a constant orange zone. he's always worrying about how & where he can carry -guns....guns.... guns!!!!

 

I later showed it to my Boss..... We had a good laugh, and said I should respond and make him feel like an idiot.... But I am not like that..... I just understand that even though he likes guns, he is NOT pro-CCW....

 

Just thought you guys would find it interesting that not all gun owners will support the effort to get CCW in NJ.

[sirsloop 1]

just cause I don't drink whole milk, does it mean it shouldn't be sold?

[KpdPipes 388]

typical FUDD mentality... Because I have no interest, anyone who does is wrong.

[Guest]

i would be concerned about people at my work referring to me in "threat level" terminology.. and i would likely respond to make him feel dumb.. and then i would further use the opportunity to explain to him that you are not some gun wielding nut.. and you don't lose sleep over it.. you simply want the OPTION to carry a firearm if you so feel inclined to do so.. maybe let him know that you are not crazy about having a firearm with you at all times... but are more concerned about having the option should you feel the need to..

[67gtonut 847]

i would be concerned about people at my work referring to me in "threat level" terminology.. and i would likely respond to make him feel dumb.. and then i would further use the opportunity to explain to him that you are not some gun wielding nut.. and you don't lose sleep over it.. you simply want the OPTION to carry a firearm if you so feel inclined to do so.. maybe let him know that you are not crazy about having a firearm with you at all times... but are more concerned about having the option should you feel the need to..

 

Oh, this isnt our 1st conversation about it..... He got the "threat level" thing from his trip to Front Sight.....

 

He doesn't think I am a "nut", but says having a gun on me could actually increase my odds of being in a self-defense situation. :roll:

[Redfish62 1]

I'm sure the text's was more of a joke then anything else. If he thought of you in "threat level" terminology he would do more then text the boss. I agree that not ever gun owner is in favor of CCW.

[e80hydro 120]

i would be concerned about people at my work referring to me in "threat level" terminology.. and i would likely respond to make him feel dumb.. and then i would further use the opportunity to explain to him that you are not some gun wielding nut.. and you don't lose sleep over it.. you simply want the OPTION to carry a firearm if you so feel inclined to do so.. maybe let him know that you are not crazy about having a firearm with you at all times... but are more concerned about having the option should you feel the need to..

 

Oh, this isnt our 1st conversation about it..... He got the "threat level" thing from his trip to Front Sight.....

 

He doesn't think I am a "nut", but says having a gun on me could actually increase my odds of being in a self-defense situation. :roll:

 

 

Better to be prepared for a self defense situation than becoming a crime statistic. He probably goes to the range with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, then stops for a frozen fruitimochajavafrappicino on the way home.

[djg0770 481]

I wonder what "threat level" Mr T-shirt seller in downtown NYC was at when he reported a smoking van?

I wonder what "threat level" the fellow passengers on the plane with attempted shoe bomber Richard Reid were at when they "accosted" him.

 

I posted the other day how I have to recalibrate my suspicions after PK90 posted that the A/C guys were the thieves in another thread. What threat level SHOULD we be at?

 

I prefer to live at threat level red, expecting the worst rather than threat level French (also known as white, or surrender)...

[Z71 4]

I go about my day at "yellow"....aware of what or who is around me at all times and avoid being in a position I cant get out of...

look at people that go around staring at their feet or their cell..its easy to see why some get robbed or worse....

[Malsua 1,422]

I wonder what "threat level" Mr T-shirt seller in downtown NYC was at when he reported a smoking van?

I wonder what "threat level" the fellow passengers on the plane with attempted shoe bomber Richard Reid were at when they "accosted" him.

 

I posted the other day how I have to recalibrate my suspicions after PK90 posted that the A/C guys were the thieves in another thread. What threat level SHOULD we be at?

 

I prefer to live at threat level red, expecting the worst rather than threat level French (also known as white, or surrender)...

 

Your post brings to mind what one author I enjoy reading wrote in the Author's afterword of the book "When the Devil Dances". It's a statement about 9/11 but also on Eternal vigilance.

 

From "When the Devil Dances"

 

By John Ringo

 

Author's Afterward

 

There was supposed to be, there originally was, a long, mildly humorous acknowledgements section here. Of course, I was working on this novel on 9/11. And then, as "they" say, the world changed.

Well, "they" are wrong. "The world" did not change on 9/11, our country did. In the author's afterward to Gust Front I commented that "we are living in a Golden Age, with all its strengths and ills." That Golden Age met a distinct reality check on 9/11. The event, more than anything, woke many of us up.

 

It didn't wake me up, I was already awake. I'd been awake since I was eleven or twelve and an ammunition ship blew up in Beirut harbor. Of course, I was about ten blocks away at the time, so it was...rather noticeable. "Loud" doesn't cover it. The world has always been a very hostile place, more so for Americans in the latter half of the twentieth century than for any other group (with the possible exception of Jews). People in the developing nations come in two distinct brands: they love America or they hate it. I never, in all my travels, met one person who was just flat ambivalent. Being awake was one of the reasons I gave my body to Uncle Sammy. I knew there were barbarians at the gates, even if nobody else heard the thumping. What has always seemed distant to many Americans has always been real and close to me. I have had to wonder how many of my schoolmates were in the crowd that stormed the embassy in Teheran. I've had to wonder if my best friend from fifth grade died in the Bosnian conflict. And I've always wondered what "it" was going to be. Was "it" going to be a nuke in Washington? Or smallpox? Or anthrax?

As things turned out, "it" was destroying the Twin Towers.

 

In WWII, for the British, "it" was the invasion of Poland, and even more so the invasion of France. For the U.S. "it" was Pearl Harbor. Democracies require an "it," a defining moment when the call to arms is so clear that the most complacent hear the trumpets. Where we are going in the future is uncertain. We may yet descend into cataclysmic warfare to dwarf my books. Or we may "change the paradigm" and hammer through on the backs of our elite. I don't know what we shall find in the tunnel ahead. I do know this, though. That is all that it is. A dark tunnel. There is a light at the end; it is not another train, it is the future. We will create that future as Americans always have: a better, brighter future.

 

All we need do, as a nation, is drive through to the end.

John Ringo

Commerce Ga

October 5, 2001

[Babaganoosh 192]

 

I prefer to live at threat level red, expecting the worst rather than threat level French (also known as white, or surrender)...

 

 

I certainly wouldn't want to go around life that way. Must be exhausting. I know, I know you are going to say it isn't exhausting at all.

[robot_hell 72]

I'm a walk around at yellow kinda guy. Most people I know are greens.

 

By the way, I must ask-- why did the US Dept. of Homeland Security feel it necessary to include green? Everyone knows they would NEVER say we are at a "low risk of terrorist attacks" even if it were true. It's pretty much an invitation.

[Guest]

He doesn't think I am a "nut", but says having a gun on me could actually increase my odds of being in a self-defense situation. :roll:

 

believe it or not he is %100 right and i HAVE to actually AGREE with him!!.. having a gun on your persons changes your situation from being involved in a VICTIM situation and transforms it into that of a SELF-DEFENSE situation.. the second of the two being far more desirable..

[Caine 147]

What threat level SHOULD we be at?

 

I prefer to live at threat level red, expecting the worst rather than threat level French (also known as white, or surrender)...

Maybe I'm taking you too literally here, but being at red all the time is impossible. Red implies you are in an active life or death situation. You are either about to be seriously injured/killed or about to inflict great bodily harm on someone else. You have gone past the decision making process of orange and have decided on your action. Your sights are on target and your finger is on the trigger and you have decided to shoot ('cept in NJ of course where you just curl up into the fetal position and wait for the cops to show up)

Realistically, even being at orange for an extended period of time would be difficult, altho I imagine possible given the right circumstances (maybe driving thru the streets of Iraq or certain parts of Newark after 10pm).

 

As for answering the question, I try to stay at yellow most of the time. Sometimes I'll catch myself getting caught up on the blackberry while waiting for a light to change or something and I have to mentally kick myself in the rear to get back in the game.

 

Anyway, John Boyd's OODA Loop and Jeff Cooper's Color Code should be 2 things everyone should at least be aware of.

[Guest]

I do not operate on some subjective color scheme.. i simply pay attention to what is around me.. lean somewhat to the paranoid side (but not to the point of worrying about things that are not there.. lol) and I react as needed... I also tend to watch people around me.. try to listen to what they are saying to one another things like that.. I just act like that all the time.... this is likely a bi product of some of my combatives classes.. we spent a lot of time "reacting" to certain unusual situations.... so maybe it had made me a little overly cautious.. oh well better to be that way than unprepared...

[djg0770 481]

Maybe I'm taking you too literally here, but being at red all the time is impossible.

 

It was meant more figuratively. Similar to threat level white (instead of green)...

[Caine 147]

I do not operate on some subjective color scheme.. i simply pay attention to what is around me.. lean somewhat to the paranoid side (but not to the point of worrying about things that are not there.. lol) and I react as needed... I also tend to watch people around me.. try to listen to what they are saying to one another things like that.. I just act like that all the time.... this is likely a bi product of some of my combatives classes.. we spent a lot of time "reacting" to certain unusual situations.... so maybe it had made me a little overly cautious.. oh well better to be that way than unprepared...

What you described is yellow - you're just too cool to acknowledge it

[unclenunzie 3]

In a pathmark parking lot at night, I walked by a couple of local men discussing an associate's criminal activity. The context was not outrage or scorn, nor indifference, but decidedly animated in a rather supportive way. I went from yellow to orange in an instant, got in my car very quickly, and drove away. I felt distinctly naked without a piece on me (this being NJ), and when I got home I was as pissed as I have ever been about the laws here. Had the law allowed for it and I were armed, I would have acted no differently, but would have felt less vulnerable.

 

The narrative changes instantly when a potential threat manifests itself in real life. The OP's co-worker needs just one such experience to reconsider his CCW attitude.

 

unclenunzie

[Ray Ray 3,566]

I later showed it to my Boss..... We had a good laugh, and said I should respond and make him feel like an idiot.... But I am not like that..... I just understand that even though he likes guns, he is NOT pro-CCW....

 

I AM! I problably would've texted something back that's inapropriate, but that's just me.

I guess you and I are truely different people Troy, but there's no reason we can't be :gay-imgay:

[GoNRA 12]

This is all I have to say...

 

[GoNRA 12]

This is disturbing to listen to: (911 call)

 

[maideneddie 35]

After watching this, isn't it great that we in NJ have no rights to protect ourselves. CCW, and castle doctrine should be standard across the 50 states...imho.

[coldsolderjoint 84]

I know plenty of older guys who where shocked when they learned that my "go-to" gun "has no safety" and has one in the chamber ready to go.

 

From what I understand, they aren't really anti-ccw, but they really dont care about it. They are "revolver guys"..

 

the one guy see his guns as only a means to go hunting during gun season.