Interesting attitude for those who carry

[R.A.D.]

Came across this post and thought it held some real merit as to the attitude a gun owner may benefit from. What's your thoughts?

"As a gun owner, you have to be cool-headed, more-so than the police ever have to be. And you do not ever run around pretending to be the police while carrying a gun because then, shit like this can happen. You do not start shit, act aggressively, flip the bird, roll your eyes, talk shit, or even raise your voice. To anyone. Ever.

A combat instructor (who happened to be Buddhist and a Marine) once said to me: "From now on, when dealing with crazy / possibly violent people, you will lose every argument. You are always wrong. You are sorry for impinging on their day. You will apologize and apologize again. You will back the fuck down. You will put your tail between your legs. You will let them talk shit about your lady-friend. You will let them call your mother a bitch and a whore and your dad a bastard. You have no ego. " "You do all this because if you are the one to start a fight, by default that fight now has a gun in it, and if you start losing, you're going to pull it and kill him. And even if you don't go to jail because you could convince the jury that it was self-defense, you're going to have to live with the fact that you could have saved someone's life and yet you let your ego kill someone."

"You are not the police, so don't act like them. Though all of you [civilians] are better shots than the police, you do not have the training, the continuum of force policy, or a union plus free lawyers protecting you if you screw up." He also said: "but after backing down and trying to apologize, if at any time you then feel your life or that of a loved one is in danger, put three rounds into his [cardio-thoracic] vault, call the police, give a statement, go home, and sleep like a baby. You did all you could for your attacker, and he was the one that made the final decision...
... to kill himself.""

[stainless]

A bit heavy on the backing down part but I get his point.

[R.A.D.]

The whole idea of de-escalation is having the power to end a life and finding a way NOT to use it... Isn't that what we've been trying to teach these inner city youths? Think of how many lived have been lost because of the stupid concept of "being disrespected"...

[Emptymag]

Heck yeah. When I started to carry I gave up all that horseshit when driving. Last thing I need is to have to shoot some dickhead who tries killing me because I flipped him the bird after he cut me off.

Keep calm and drive on.

[stainless]

The whole idea of de-escalation is having the power to end a life and finding a way NOT to use it... Isn't that what we've been trying to teach these inner city youths? Think of how many lived have been lost because of the stupid concept of "being disrespected"...

True, but those idiots start trouble with eye contact. Calling someone's mother a bitch and a wore is an entirely different concept.

[Statkowski]

Having great power and using great power are two distinctly different things. Knowing that you have the power to do so, and holding back using such power only as a last resort, grants you even more power over those opposing you.

[JAKIII]

Keep calm and drive on.

Truer words hath never been spoken. Challenging for the youngins, but those of us long in the tooth know better...

[stainless]

Not disputing any of that. I'm an old fart so I'm sure not getting into hand to hand anymore. My only point was that the way it was phrased was a tad much. As stated I do understand the point.

[R.A.D.]

NSFW LANGUAGE!!!

[Mitch10mm]

Heck yeah. When I started to carry I gave up all that horseshit when driving. Last thing I need is to have to shoot some dickhead who tries killing me because I flipped him the bird after he cut me off.

Keep calm and drive on.

Just today I pulled to the side and let a tailgater pass. Carrying has made me damn near zen