Reply #11: I could give you some flip answer...

[Bigmack]

... but it's more complicated than that. I have a permit and a 9mm, and I carry it much of the time.

I think my feelings about weapons are a carryover from the Corps... about a thousand years ago. It's a tool... a deadly tool.... but still, only a tool.

If I go biking, I carry it for dogs. Yes, I have drawn and aimed it at two very large Rottweillers, and they came about 10 feet away from my lighting them up. Would I get in trouble if I blew up some dog that attacked me. Dunno. I love dogs, but I don't like bike-related head injuries and broken bones. I've had people threaten me and my wife on the road too. Seems some folks don't like bicycle people, and much of the time the roads we bike aren't heavily traveled.

Most of the time, I keep my wallet and my weapon in the same little fannypack. Separating them and rejoining them takes more planning than I'm capable of sometimes.

I guess if I was on a bus, I'd be OK with people having weapons, as long as I was one of those packing.

Having said all this, sometimes I feel like part of the problem....carrying a weapon around in a supposedly civilized society.