Rod, I have had a CHL for at least 10 years and everything that you have said is fact, as well as that said by the police officer. The general public is always safer when armed CHL holders are among them.
Fritz (I moved this to OT). -----Original Message----- From: Rod Goke [mailto:rod.g...@earthlink.net] Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2010 11:53 AM To: John Brooks Cc: Cavers Texas Subject: Re: [Texascavers] grotto culture and concealed carry Actually, John, it would not be surprising at all if some grotto members do carry concealed firearms to meetings, and do so legally. Several meetings ago, one of our long term caver friends joined us after a Grotto meeting here in Austin at the bar where cavers customarily go for the "meeting after the meeting". He not only carried a concealed firearm, but he had a long friendly conversation about firearms, concealed carry, etc. with some other people there who shared his interest in guns. This caver was, and still is, a police officer, and it is both legal and common practice for off duty police officers to carry concealed firearms, even in places where people with concealed carry licenses are not allowed to carry them. Have you ever gone anywhere with an off duty police officer? If so, you probably were in the presence of someone carrying a loaded concealed handgun. If you didn't know the person well enough to know that he or she was a police officer, then you probably wouldn't even notice the gun, unless it was shown to you deliberately. That, after all, is the idea of concealment. Similarly, people with concealed carry licenses normally carry their guns in ways you wouldn't notice, so in places where concealed carry is legal, you never really know who, if anyone, is carrying a gun. It is precisely this uncertainty which helps to protect us all from predatory criminals. Even, if you never carry a gun, the possibility that you or someone near you might be doing so helps to deter would-be criminals who otherwise might target you or someone near you for robbery, rape, carjacking, kidnapping, home invasion, or some similarly serious violent crime. In areas where concealed carry is prohibited, it is much easier for a predatory criminal to feel confident that any victim he chooses will be a defenseless victim. By far, the greatest safety benefit of concealed carry, both by off duty police officers and by people with concealed carry licenses, is not the number of criminals shot with these weapons, but rather the number of times that would-be criminals are deterred from attacking people by the possibility that their victims might not be as defenseless as they appear. Interestingly, during our conversation with the off duty police officer following the grotto meeting I mentioned above, one person asked him how he felt when he had to stop someone with a concealed carry license in a routine traffic stop or similar encounter. His response was that he usually felt safer than he would otherwise when he knew that the stranger he was stopping had a concealed carry license, because of the screening people go through to get these licenses. On average, these license holders are significantly less likely to commit violent crimes than are people in the general population. It's something to think about the next time you hear anyone fretting and speculating about how dangerous it might be to let concealed carry license holders take their guns into national parks (which, if you remember, is what started the recent discussion here about guns and caves). Rod -----Original Message----- >From: John Brooks <jpbrook...@sbcglobal.net> >Sent: Feb 24, 2010 10:12 AM >To: Geary Schindel <gschin...@edwardsaquifer.org> >Cc: David <dlocklea...@gmail.com>, Cavers Texas <texascavers@texascavers.com> >Subject: Re: [Texascavers] grotto culture > >Another question: do any members of any of the grottoes carry concealed >firearms to grotto meetings? > --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- Give this to a friend: ot-subscr...@texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: ot-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: ot-h...@texascavers.com
