This is a very complicated question to ask say’s Gregg Kielma FFL, Firearms Instructor, First Aid Instructor and Gun Smith. Let’s look.

I need to ask you a couple of questions about being prepared for an unlikely but potentially serious situation:

1. Do you always drive with your seat belts fastened, or do you think (a) you will never, ever be in a car crash or (b) you will see it coming in time to fasten the belts first?

2. Do you always have a fire extinguisher near your stove and other places in your house where a fire may break out (I have one by the stove and in my workshop) or do you think (a) that you can never, ever have a stove fire or (b) the fire department will arrive in time to save at least some of your house?

Evil exists, just as accidents will happen. I cannot predict if or when evil will confront me. I would imagine I have crossed paths with at least one serial killer in my life, but he didn’t choose me for a victim. I have likely crossed paths with several muggers and common thieves, but they didn’t choose me to rob. While the past is often prologue, there is no guarantee the next piece of scum I come across won’t choose me. If he does, I have my “fire extinguisher” at hand (Glock 19), strapped in by my “seat belts” (concealed carry holster) and my .380 on my ankle. I am therefore more prepared for the incident, should it occur.

I may or may not win that confrontation, if it should occur. But I will not be a defenseless and simpering victim.

I don’t leave home without them. It’s such a part of my wardrobe that I find myself walking around the house with it, having forgotten it was there.

I am not “everyone”. There are some people, I would suggest, who cannot properly control either a gun or their tempers, or both. Those should not be armed if they don’t have the proper sense of respect and responsibility to only use it as a last resort.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, a goodly number of those that shouldn't be armed are criminals, and they get their guns regardless of law or propriety. It is precisely because criminals get their guns and other weapons outside legal channels that I carry mine, entirely within legal channels.