Concealed Carry Guns Without a Permit, Crazy?

In the film “Smokey and the Bandit,” Burt Reynolds tells Sally Field, “When you tell somebody something it depends on where in the United States you’re standing as to how dumb you are.”

I think those thoughts sort of paraphrase how some people feel about gun control and concealed carry without a permit.

As a Vietnam Vet I’m more aware than some of the damage a firearm can inflict on a human being. It isn’t pretty.

Even non-life-threatening gunshots are still bad. Guns are dangerous — and in the wrong hands are even more dangerous.

A sizeable portion of the population agrees with me.

That being said there’s currently no law on the books or proposed to any legislative body that will stop a determined person from both getting a gun and using it.

Facts Don’t Lie; People Do — Guns Don’t Kill; People Do

I live in a city of 50,000 in Bozeman, Montana. The entire state of Montana only has a population of a little over a million. We’re a state of hunters.

We just got our second US House Representative.

Here people have a very different perspective about guns than say Bronx, NY or Chicago, IL. or Detroit, MI.

Concealed Carry without training and a permit would not be advisable in those three cities.

It’s just a fact of life that the more people there are in any one place some level of violence will take place especially if people are unhappy or hurting.

Montana And Guns and Police

Every year the local newspaper publishes the Bozeman Police Reports from our vastly overworked and understaffed police department.

Here’s a couple of examples of my hometown crime wave:

A husband and wife had an argument. The wife later took some cash from the house. The husband said he was planning to use the cash to pay bills; the wife said she was planning to use it to hire a lawyer. -- April 6, 2008

A man wanted to speak to an officer regarding laws about marrying cousins and family members. He said he is having trouble meeting women. -- Aug. 8, 2012

A group of women flagged down an officer at 1:55 a.m. because a newlywed in the group had to cross "flirt with a cop" off her bucket list. She was warned. -- Aug. 24, 2013

As you can see, we need more cops. The streets of Montana are rife with crime.

Do we have less gun violence because we’re all well-armed? Or is life here just really nice?

Is Concealed Carry Safer?

Again, I think it depends on where you live. What if there was a black bear roaming the halls of your high school?

Gun or no gun? He bear—ly graduated by the way.

It’s said if you have a firearm in your home, it’s more than likely it’s going to be taken and used against you than you using it to protect yourself.

I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that it will take some amount of time for the cops to show up when needed.

Not their fault if they get there too late. Violence is seldom in slow motion.

I for one feel safe where I live knowing that if someone starts shooting, I’m never more than six feet from a fellow citizen that’s packing.

Some Final Thoughts

As I said earlier gun control legislation is nearly impossible to impose and even harder to enforce.

We do have a Second Amendment that people read with various meanings.

Criminals don’t obey gun laws or the Second Amendment.

My idea for gun control is to control ammunition. Without ammo a gun is a club.

If you don’t want magazines that hold 20-30 rounds, then don’t sell someone 1,000 rounds for their 5-round magazine.

It doesn’t take a lot of time to reload.

The most I was ever issued in Vietnam was 100 rounds at a time.

Pro-gun Anti-gun both sides have legitimate arguments because of where they are in the United States.

Gun laws make more sense in some areas that they do in others.

What do you think — depending of course on where you are?

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