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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Other Side" data-source="post: 980394" data-attributes="member: 17969">Ok, interesting perspective, but not really the answers to the questions I posed.  Im interested in your "need" to carry, pyschologically speaking.  You said this "....you automatically regard the act of carrying one as as FEAR based behavior when in reality it is nothing more than a reasonable precaution taken by any number of rational and level-headed people for any variety of reasons.""This is exactly my point when I say gun owners "convince" themselves that they are taking a proactive approach to carrying a weapon.  You say you are taking a "reasonable precaution" and it is not "fear based", but actually, it is.  You further the point by saying that any number of rational level headed people would do the same?Really?  I dont think so.First, your reasonable precaution is a SECONDARY THOUGHT and not a primary thought.  Lets put it in an example.  Before you walk out the door, you have already decided to bring a gun with you, Ok?  But what thought process went into that decision?  If you are going to McDonalds to pick up breakfast for the family, do you factor in what gun you will need to accomplish this task and how many bullets you will need?Clearly, in your mind, your reasonable precaution is based upon the circumstances that you will be experiencing while you leave your home.  As you think this out, you are factoring in conditions, areas and people and somehow, you are fearful enough to establish that you need to bring a gun with you.This isnt a reasonable precaution, its a reactionary overreaction to an insecurity.  Pretty simple to understand.  You believe (while untrue in pyschology) that you are taking a proactive position when in fact your thought processes are merely re-active processes.While a gun owner who feels the need to "carry at all times" cannot seem to explain this in any detail on this board with a rational explanation, its really easy to determine that those same persons are dealing with serious insecurities.In your own story you told, it was fear based from begining to end.   Lets examine it.1) wife and I passed a guy once whose car had broken down in the middle of nowhere on our way home from the beach. It was after midnight, in an area with no cell reception. To make matters worse (for him) he was black--  these are all FEAR BASED COMPONENTS.2) a rarity here in Oregon -- again FEAR BASED, an unusual circumstance.3) I thought about it -- HERO COMPLEX---and realized (a) this poor guy had a real problem on his hands and (b) the risks of picking up an unknown hitchiker in the middle of nowhere ---FEAR BASED----were at least somewhat mitigated by the fact that I was ARMED.---HERO COMPLEX4) I had my wife drive--CMON--this isnt FEAR BASED?  he sat in the front seat; and I sat in the back seat directly behind him--again, FEAR BASED.. (I guess you also wont say it was because he was BLACK and it was unusual for a black to be out there.)5) it was the right thing to do, but it was NOT a risk I would have been willing to take had I not been ARMED --again HERO COMPLEXING at the risk of not only you but your wife.6) and he didnt even know it.--  HERO COMPLEXING...  attempting to be in control of another human being unfairly.Every element of this story is filled with FEAR and HEROIC thoughts.  Just like your story about shooting injured animals on the road.  A hero like you just happened to drive by and put it out of its misery with your gun.  Isnt it really the thought of killing something?  even if its injured?DOG, CAT, shoot, dead,   Black man on side of road at midnight in the middle of nowhere where no one can see anything (no witnesses) and if he acts out BOOM! shot to the back of the head, dead.There is a pattern to your thoughts bro.Here, we call animal control to pick up or assist any animal injured on the road, we dont shoot them on the street.    In your other story, if you were being a good samaritan, you could have simply driven to the nearest town and called the local police or sheriff and notified them of the man at the side of the road and avoided putting your wife in the middle of your fantasy.  You could have called the tow truck yourself with the mans location.Or, you just could have invited him into your car and drove on without casting an eye of suspicion onto him waining to pull out your gun and splatttering his brains onto your windshield.Either way, I still havent the first clue on your thought process before you left the house that day for your beach outing that necessitated the need to bring a gun to the beach?  Did you expect a shootout with the local clams?  How does a person plan an outing to the beach and then factors in the need for a weapon?I realize and understand now that you live in a rural community, and for that I give you a pass.  I agree that in remote places, a gun is probably a good idea.  Here where I live, its a concrete jungle, loaded with cops and witnesses.  Nobody here plans a trip to the beach and brings a gun.  That would be foolish in a metropolis.And again, I dont hate guns, I hate their fan clubs.PeaceTOS </blockquote>

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