There’s nothing Americans love more than freedom, but someone has to say it: with freedom comes responsibility. Not to worry, though. Responsibility isn’t all homework and early bedtimes.
Responsibility is a badge of honor. Responsibility is your father deeming you ready for that first pocketknife. Responsibility is knowing that others depend on you, and that they are right to have confidence in your leadership. And responsibility is going about your day wearing a concealed pistol or revolver, because you understand that you’re the only person you are positive you can 100 percent rely on in an emergency.
So in the interest of helping us all stay as responsible as we can during the week-long party we’re about to kick off, here are the ways I see good people slip up the most often.
Understand That Your Firearm Changes Everything
As soon as you’re armed, every interaction will involve at least one gun: yours. This means you must go out of your way to avoid conflict. You must be the bigger person and walk away from unreasonable people and situations. And you must live with restraint and prudence because if you manage to get yourself into any kind of altercation, that firearm will be there and you’ll be the one who brought it.
Know The Law — For Real
The number of people who carry firearms but have never even glanced at their home state’s gun laws is frightening. Here at the USCCA, we work night and day to educate responsible gun owners, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. You need to know where you are allowed to carry your firearm and, even more importantly, where you are not allowed to carry your firearm.
You need to know your legal obligations as far as gun storage goes. And you need to have read (and actually understand) the laws in your home jurisdiction surrounding the use of force in defense of self or others and those laws in any jurisdiction in which you intend to carry.
Knowing the law is step one. Having a plan for what happens after is step two.
If you ever have to defend yourself or someone you love, the emergency may not end when the police arrive. There will likely be investigators, attorneys, court dates and trial expenses.
Responsible concealed carry means thinking ahead. You need some kind of legal backup plan. Freedom means you have the right to defend yourself. Responsibility means understanding that defending yourself can come with a legal aftermath.
Control Your Firearm
This goes far beyond the stories you hear about people leaving pistols in bathrooms. This extends to safe firearms handling, training hard to always hit what you shoot at and never, ever letting that firearm discharge unless you intend it to. It also extends to storing your firearms safely, secure against theft and other unauthorized access. You and I are free to own those firearms, yes. But we are also responsible for them.
Be Ready to Save Lives
Carrying a firearm means you also need to learn at least the basics of trauma care. The old days of “if you use a tourniquet, they’ll lose the limb” are long gone. Carrying a firearm means carrying (or at least keeping handy) the basics for stopping blood loss, including a purpose-built tourniquet and packing gauze. And it means taking a class on how to best use that gear as soon as you can work it into your schedule.
Staying Safe Is a Team Sport
If you’re going to keep firearms for home and self-defense, you need to have a plan that includes everyone in the household. From spouses to children, they all need to understand what the family plan is in case of an emergency. Picture a fire drill but designed around how you’ll all react to a home invasion or other criminal assault.
Whatever your personal situation is, do what you can to ensure that the first time you and everyone for whom you’re responsible think about how to respond to an emergency isn’t when an emergency is sprung on you.
Stay Free, Stay Safe
America became what she is by Americans shouldering the responsibility of stewarding a constitution, a people and a nation. If, like me and millions of other Americans, you choose to carry a firearm, I congratulate you and offer my assistance through my position as Senior Editor of Concealed Carry Magazine. We’ve got a near-limitless amount of information that can help you become the best defender you can be, and it’s all accessible through our digital magazine with new issues delivered to your door every 45 days.
But we’ll all have to stay on the same page: with freedom comes responsibility, and the responsibility inherent to firearms ownership is as serious a responsibility as you’ll find.
