Open Carry / Concealed Carry

Recently there was a legal issue brought up in a local municipality that dealt with "open carry", that is, the carrying of firearms for defense openly and exposed for all to see instead of concealed under clothing. I won't dive into the legal aspects or the arguments made, as that's not what this post is about. What I want to cover is an often overlooked reason why I think concealed carry is a MUCH better idea than open carry. No, I don't think it should be illegal, but I don't think you should do it.

There are quite a few excellent sites out there that talk about which is better, tactics wise, so I also will not be talking about that aspect.

Dead, bleeding deer

Let's talk about hunting for a second. There are three types of people out there: Those who are pro-hunting, those who are anti-hunting and those who don't have really strong feelings about it one way or the other. There is a large chunk of people in the first block, a small but EXTREMELY VOCAL chunk in the second, and an enormous number in the third.

It is this third group of people you need to be careful around. Why? Because it might just take one instance of a hunter being an asshole or not paying attention to push someone from this third group into the second group.

Here's an example: When you transport your deer home, it is always good to make sure you have it covered up and have the tail gate closed so people don't see it there. (There are also very good sanitary reasons for this, but that's a different topic.) Now as you are driving home on county and perhaps city roads, a minivan with a soccer mom and her kids slowly passes you. Her kids look out the side window and see Bambi's dad in a jumble in the back of your truck, tongue hanging out and still dripping blood. The kids point "Mommy! Mommy! Look!" and suddenly BAM! you just possibly pushed someone who was in group three into group two.

It is a purely gut, emotional reaction in this case.

So how does this tie in with carrying a weapon?

I think a much overlooked reason to carry concealed is sensitivity to other people, i.e., the same reason we hunters cover our harvests on our way home. I have encountered two people in my local area that were carrying openly that I was certain were not police. One was a rather unassuming guy just walking downtown. The other was a rather loud, obnoxious asshole my wife and I watched at the grocery store for a while.

As I said, this guy was obviously not a cop. And he attracted attention in the same way that loud obnoxious assholes usually do. What kind of impressions did he give to people around him? This is important because when it comes to carrying weapons, the same three groups of people exist. How many people might he have pushed from group three to group two?

But the guy was an asshole anyway!

Yes, very true. But lots of non-shooters get weirded out around firearms anyway and they have been fed a steady diet of anti-gun propaganda for YEARS. Don't run the risk of affirming a stereotype.

Look, we pro-gun people have been fighting the lies and bullshit from the antis for... Good Lord, as long as I can remember. We are battling for the hearts and minds of that third group. AND WE ARE WINNING! The wind is at our back. Perhaps in the future people won't be weirded out when they see guns on people. BUT... until that time, we need to be careful. We need to always be on our best behavior, be friendly, be good neighbors, give good first impressions and be sensitive of people who may not be in our camp. (Actually, this is good advice at all times, period.)

As I said, there are MUCH better reasons for carrying concealed instead of openly (see the writings of Massad Ayoob and Jeff Cooper for starters). This is just an extra point I felt hadn't been addressed. Do I think open carry should be legal? Yes, yes I do. But even if legal, I still would urge you to carry concealed.

ALERT! New Dirty Jobs in Real Estate Episode Coming

A new Dirty Jobs in Real Estate episode is in the works and should be up within this week. This new one will be different from the clean out videos and will focus on a very important, yet very neglected aspect of landlord/government interaction.

Stay tuned!

Calm The HELL DOWN, People!

Seriously. Just calm... down...

I can't believe people are STILL panic buying (and yes, yes they are).

There is no need to try to buy every keg of IMR 4064 you can lay your hands on, no matter which talk radio blowhard told you that "thar cumin fer yer GGGUUNNZZZZ!!!". Just stop it.

Believe it or not, some of us would like to get some powder to load some rounds to try to use, not so we can wrap the kegs in plastic and bury in our backyard to hide them.

On Poverty And Soap

Eric Cartman - "Mr. Garrison! Why do poor people smell like sour milk?"

Mr. Garrison - "I don't know, Eric, they just do."

I don't recall the particular episode it was in, but that exchange in Southpark always stuck with me. Why is it that lower end tenants (we're talking low C and D class renters here) usually smell bad? Why are they almost always dirty, smell of BO, unkempt, etc?

(BTW, I'm talking about my area here. Perhaps in your area this is not the case. Hey, weirder things have happened…)

Yes, yes, yes... I hear all you social crusaders out there: "It's because they are PPPOOOOOOOOOORRR! We need more tax-funded social programs to help them be better!" I even hear other Catholics out there saying "Haven't you read that G. K. Chesterton article about the little girl's hair?" The common thread in all this is the assumption that there is some automatic cause/effect relationship between your income and your general state of cleanliness. At the absolute lowest end in some areas this can perhaps be shown at some point: If you are a beggar on the streets of Islamabad, then yes, I very much doubt that you have much of a chance to keep yourself clean at all.

We are not talking about those extremes here.

I am talking about the general lower class, the bottom income brackets in general, particularly the lowest income brackets that are encountered in the C and D class real estate market. Do we see the same kind of situation? Can, say, government subsidized or full-out charity funded housing tenants not afford the requirements of basic cleanliness?

I have seen quite a bit in this area, and I answer NO. My answer is based on what I see in day to day interactions with tenants and particularly what I see when we do evictions. Let's run through the list, shall we? (For a sample of the kind of thing we see, CLICK HERE)

Lots of empty cigarette packs
While I don't smoke myself, I have been in line at the gas station when lots of people are buying. The average in our area seems to be about $4-$5 a pack.

Empty bottles of bottom shelf booze
We're talking about stuff that should only be used to peel paint. Still not cheap. I stopped by the local store near our buildings for shits and giggles and checked prices. "Ten High" goes for $18.00 for a large bottle, which we see a lot of.

Empty cardboard cases of cheap beer
Bud Light (the most common) goes for about $15 a case.

Porn
Porno mags. Lots and LOTS of porno mags. Lots and lots of the latest porno mags. What do those cost, $3-$5 each?

Baggies of seeds and stems
Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. While I have neither purchased nor smoked said substance before, is it really that cheap? Cheaper than cigarettes?

Tons of losing lottery tickets
Depending on what you're playing, $1-$10 each.

Ok, so why am I posting all those? To make a point. I also checked a couple of other prices while I was at the local store. Here's what I found:

Zest bar soap, 8-pack
$3.79. That's $0.46 per bar of soap, for those of you without a calculator.

Suave generic shampoo
$1.46. That's what I use, and it lasts me for months.

At the time Chesterton wrote the article wherein he talks about just wages and uses the example of the little girl's hair, which is a very good article BTW, soap was not as cheap or plentiful as today. Hell, there were still lots of people in Britain who didn't even have indoor plumbing. At our low-end apartments, WE pay for water, including hot water.

So what does all this mean? Well, when a bar of soap costs less than the cheapest loaf of bread, when you have money to blow on shitty booze, porn and drugs you are officially OUT of excuses for smelling like a pigsty.

It's at this point that most of the social do-gooders start to get evasive and still want to talk about money, but I can go even further. How does being poor keep you from taking basic sanitation steps that are free? Do you have to have a certain amount of cash on hand before it is physically possible for you to get off your lazy ass and haul your personal garbage to the provided dumpster out back?

Bottom line, why do poor people smell like sour milk? Because they just don't give a damn about being dirty.

Concealed Weapons - Paranoid vs. Prepared

I have found that trying to explain concealed-carry to people who are not at least slightly affiliated with the gun culture is almost impossible. There is a kind of near universal block in their personality that prevents any comprehension. These conversations come up a lot at work lately because of recent news items (the damn Zimmerman thing, changes in our local laws to allow more open access to public areas for CCL holders, etc.)

The non-gun person usually defaults to one of two positions:
1. "Those people are just wannabe cowboys/compensating for something/just looking to kill someone!"
2. "That sounds kinda paranoid."

People who fall into the first position are not worth your time. They will never understand because their position is based in irrational fear and/or hatred of firearms. If you ever run into people like this, don't try to argue with them. They are the equivalent of someone from the Westboro Baptist Church: they are ruled by irrational bigotry.

People who fall into the second position, however, can be made to understand usually. Here you have to be careful and, I can't stress this enough, never use any of the bullshit NRA promoted factoids or talking points. It's like hearing chanted slogans: people learn to tune them out and dismiss the chanter as a crank. Most importantly, do not ever utter any of the macho bullshit I see way too much of on forums.

So are CCL holders paranoid? What is the difference between paranoia and preparedness?

My short answer: The difference between simple preparedness and paranoia is the degree to which the actions you take to be prepared inconvenience your daily life compared to the nature of and the likelihood of encountering a threat.

To someone who lives in a suburban neighborhood and has a desk job downtown, having to get up and extra half hour early to prep your gear, put on soft armor AND five pound SAPI plates, strap your M9 on one side and test the sling on your carbine, inspect all 12 of your 30rd mags for your carbine, etc would be insane. There is no threat a normal civilian could potentially face on a daily basis in the US to validate that level of discomfort and inconvenience.

HOWEVER...

Instead of a standard white-collar employee, let's say this someone drives Humvees on patrol in Afghanistan. This changes the entire dynamic obviously. In such a situation, this would be considered only the bare minimum of preparedness needed for daily activity.

Returning to our average Joe who lives in suburbia and works downtown. Let's say he carries a compact snubby revolver and carries and extra couple of rounds on a Bianchi Speed Strip. He uses a deep concealment holster and also carries a small locking blade knife. The entire setup takes him 10 seconds to put on in the morning, requires no changes to his wardrobe, creates zero inconvenience or disruptions and pretty much no discomfort. Hell, it takes more time and causes more discomfort to take on and off your seat belt throughout the day. So if you're competent with your weapon and have the ability, why NOT carry it in cases like that?

While this approach doesn't convince people right away, it does usually make them question the whole 'paranoia' thing. At that point further careful debate is needed, but overcoming the 'paranoia' response is a HUGE step.

Lady In #6 Goes Apeshit - Dirty Jobs in Real Estate Bonus

This incident was a real peach.

So this lady was a raging alcoholic that came with a building we bought, kind of like a cheap plastic toy in a box of Cheerios. She lurched out of her apartment one morning and saw, HORROR OF HORRORS, carpenter ants. She then proceeds to fill out voice mail box with obscenity laced rants about the 'billion, skillion' bugs that were in the hallway. She gets more and more drunk as the day goes on. I was so glad when we were able to evict her.

Dirty Jobs In Real Estate - Episode 2

This was an apartment we had to junk out in a building we own that's a few blocks from the warzone. I will never touch Pork 'n Beans again. Ever.

Dirty Jobs In Real Estate - The First Episode

The first junk-out I filmed. These people were behind and then abandoned the property, signing over all claim to avoid court. DAMN was there a lot of crap.