Many of you talk about the important "fence-sitters", this is your guy.

[NineseveN]

This guy is on the fence. Yes he bought a gun, but his head is still not in the right place. This is a great opportunity to help someone get over the natural fears and misinformation that many new gunnies are accustomed to. If you have a few moments, send him an encouraging e-mail. Perhaps give him some encouraging statistics (true stats obviously) or words of wisdom, I dunno, we should all try to do something if we can find the time. This guy took that first step, and it sounds like he did it mostly alone...it's time to lend a fellow gunnie a hand, not as a political ploy, but as the right thing to do.

Anyone else feel the same?

I bought a gun

Two days after the worst shooting in American history, I took possession of
my first gun, a 9mm Taurus that holds a baker's dozen of bullets and weighs
just over a pound. This weekend, my gun-owning neighbors and I went to the
shooting range to practice.

I don't like guns. But I feel I need one. Before buying my first house in
St. Petersburg, I had never feared for my safety.

Growing up in Chicago and St. Louis, I had many close associates who had
been the victims of crimes, some serious. But I can't name a single person I
knew who owned a handgun. Period.

I trusted my street smarts to handle most situations and the police to
handle the rest.

* * *

I am young, age 25. To afford my first home, I bought a house west of
Tropicana Field in Palmetto Park, which I knew had its share of crime. To
stretch my pennies, I decided that despite knowing the neighborhood wasn't
secure I could wait several months to install an expensive security alarm.

Not even two months later, my home was burglarized while I was at work. My
roommate who worked nights was home sleeping.

The robbers took nearly everything of value from my home, down to rum from
my freezer and a case of beer left over from my housewarming party just the
weekend before.

Then they tried to enter my roommate's bedroom. Luckily, he'd locked the
door before going to bed. When the door knob jiggled he assumed it was me
wanting to talk about his dirty dishes or late rent. He called my name and
the burglars fled. What would have happened if they had opened that door?

That question bounced around my brain until the police came.

* * *

Within months, I was reeling from another incident. Good friends of mine - a
real estate agent who coordinates the neighborhood crime watch and his
partner - woke one night to chunks of concrete being hurled through their
kitchen window. Panicked, the real estate agent, another reluctant gun
owner, emptied his 9mm into his back yard and garage. No one was hit, but
the assailants who had jumped his fence, fled.

Another neighbor - also a crime watch coordinator - had his house
firebombed. We were caught in a neighborhood battle between drug dealers and
people who wanted to clean up the neighborhood.

I invited our community police officer to my house to discuss what
additional security precautions to take. He said that after the burglary, I
had really made all of the reasonable changes, including installing a
security system and changing my door and window locks. He encouraged me to
buy a gun.

I have very little experience with guns. My grandfather, a veteran of World
War II, took pride in teaching my brother and me, his only two grandsons,
some marksmanship.

When we visited him at his Wisconsin cottage with its long hallway, he'd
line up cereal boxes several deep and draw a target on the last box. We'd
shoot a BB gun from the other end of the hallway. When we got slightly
older, he took us to an outdoor range and coached us with a .22-caliber
rifle.

But the destructive appeal to a teenage boy of shooting soda cans off tree
stumps long ago waned. I would have been content never to shoot a gun again.
My brain knew that statistically, a gun in the home is more likely to kill a
family member than an intruder. And even in the hands of a well-intentioned
citizen, a gun can be stolen and used to commit another crime. The fewer
guns on the street, the safer we'd all be.

So instead, I improved the lighting around my home so that it was lit like a
night game at a minor-league baseball stadium and I adopted a black dog - 97
pounds of muscle and a bit intimidating. I got involved in our crime watch,
started aggressively calling in suspicious activity into the police
nonemergency line.

Every single time I have expressed concern for my personal safety, the
police response was the same: Buy a gun and let your neighbors know you're
not afraid to use it.

Instead, I redoubled my efforts to communicate with my neighbors and
coordinate nonviolent means to enhance our safety.

Then another one of the new residents was robbed and assaulted in the
alleyway behind my home as he cut through an abandoned lot next to mine.

His answer was to buy a .50-caliber revolver and get a concealed weapons
permit. I started to feel some of the pack mentality and phony machismo that
seem to have a strong influence over our cravings to own guns. Still, I
resisted.

Slowly, though, I watched as my neighbors and I checked off our security
precautions, and last resorts seemed increasingly inevitable.

Then one night in December, I was jolted awake by gunfire. Not unusual in my
neighborhood in the northwest corner of Midtown, but these shots were right
outside my bedroom window.

I hit the ground and couldn't find a phone, so I used the panic button on my
alarm. Finally I found my cell phone and dialed 911 and reported possible
gunfight erupting outside my house.

Living in fear makes it difficult to separate perceived danger from actual.
It felt like eternity lying on my belly, waiting for police to respond.

My roommate moved out because he didn't feel safe. I started to research
buying a gun. I wanted to have another option other than praying that the
police would arrive in time.

I spent hours and hours over several months researching guns. Family,
friends and co-workers tried to convince me it would be better to simply
move out of the neighborhood. And they're right. But where can I live?

The reality is, my neighborhood is a rare affordable option for myself and
many others. And if residents willing to invest in their communities abandon
these areas, the criminals who are accustomed to controlling these places
win. A small minority of residents has been able to intimidate others, who
hide in their homes. Those who can afford to, move at the first opportunity.

I don't want to contribute to a dangerous Wild West dynamic that has been
created in the neighborhood, where outlaws largely operate in the open and
emotionally drained neighbors have been encouraged to take up arms.

But I have to do something to protect myself. When you're scared, issues
that once seemed simple, aren't anymore.

* * *

On the advice of a couple of gun shops, I went to a shooting range and fired
a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver and a Glock 9mm.

The revolver's recoil was more up and down rather than front to back, which
made it harder to keep the weapon on target and group multiple shots.

I actually surprised myself with my accuracy with the Glock. Shooting it
dissolved some of the tension I had built up about owning a gun.

Yet, I flinched every time someone around me shot their gun, and I felt like
I was tiptoeing on an emotional bed of pins and needles, torn between a
feeling of empowerment and fright.

Finally, about 10 days ago, I decided to buy a gun. After the waiting
period, I picked it up Wednesday and fired it the first time the next day.

I'm really not comfortable having it in my house, but I promised myself I'll
keep the weapon locked in a safe and will get as much training and practice
as I can. I may apply for a concealed weapons permit.

Still, it's still hard to imagine that owning a gun offers anything but a
false sense of security, which comes from the sheer power of the weapon.
Sometimes, though, even a false sense of security is enough to keep a person
from coming unglued.

I can just hope that I never actually have to use my gun in self-defense.



http://www.sptimes.com/2007/04/22/ne...ht_a_gun.shtml

I'm looking for contact info for him now...

[Emptymag]

He doesn't seem "ready" to USE a firearm for defense yet.

Still seems to be more afraid of the gun than the criminals.
Just a little dose of anger may be helpful. A person can sit in fear in their own home or they can get a little angry about the fact that they are afraid in their own home and use that "anger" to stop being afraid and take responsibility for their own safety. This person HAS done many things right... alarms, light, etc., but buying a gun doesn't help this person much more than buying a loaf of bread if he is afraid of it. Hopefully that fear will go away with training and practice.

[phillyd2]

We care about Brendan's opinion why?

[TRB]

It has to start somewhere. Brendan took the first step. He is seeking training. The more he trains and associates with folks who believe self defense is a top priority the quicker he will make the decision to refuse to be a victim. He is evangelizing the cause in a public forum. It is true that the tone of his piece is soft, but soft sell will open someone else's eyes. Not everyone responds to the hard line.


"Buying a gun and thinking you are armed is like buying a piano and thinking you are a musician."

Col. Jeff Cooper

[MichaelB]

Will the gun do him much good locked in his safe?

Is it legal to empty a 9MM in to your back yard because someone threw a rock through your window?

[NineseveN]

It has to start somewhere. Brendan took the first step. He is seeking training. The more he trains and associates with folks who believe self defense is a top priority the quicker he will make the decision to refuse to be a victim. He is evangelizing the cause in a public forum. It is true that the tone of his piece is soft, but soft sell will open someone else's eyes. Not everyone responds to the hard line.


"Buying a gun and thinking you are armed is like buying a piano and thinking you are a musician."

Col. Jeff Cooper

You nailed it right there.

[RoyJackson]

Good article!

Here we have a guy (who never handled a firearm) determining he needs one for his safety.
Is he nervous? Sure sounds like it!
We must remember he's probably overcoming years of anti-gun propaganda. At 25, he's not too old to forget what he heard in school or college.


Phillyd2, your comment was "We care about Brendan's opinion why?"
Everyone who realizes they cannot depend on public services to "save" them form the BG's is a possible ally in the cultural war against the Second Amendment. A few weeks back, Brendan was a guy who would probably support HB 760 (Cruz's registration bill). He may not be 100% on our side yet...but he's closer now then a few weeks back.

I wrote a short letter to the editor of the newspaper that published Mr. Watson's article commending his article.

Thanks for this thread! It's a good one!

[NineseveN]

No response to anyone I take it?