Tedious yes, but comprehensive; concealed carry instructors cover everything from how a gun works, to holsters, to the legal use of deadly force to anger management and firearms retention. Plus live fire! But the classes don’t cover everything. Here are three things they don’t teach you in a concealed carry class.
- Carrying a gun makes you paranoid – at least at first! The first time you strap on a concealed firearm, it feels like you’re carrying a Howitzer. Pistol-packing paranoia makes perfect sense. Public speaking is Americans’ greatest fear; we’re hard-wired to be afraid of public embarrassment. Being “outed” while carrying a gun – especially by someone who’s rabidly anti-gun and/or terrified of guns – is public speaking on steroids. “Oh my God. He’s got a gun! What do you need that for?”
- Carry a gun changes your personality – for the better! Gun control advocates have this strange idea: they believe that carrying a gun makes a person into amucho macho trigger-happy Clint Eastwood wanna-be. They have it backwards! Why would you want to engage in any confrontation when any confrontation could lead to escalation which could lead to a gunfight which is something you don’t want to have? This confrontation avoidance thought process becomes second nature. You become far less likely – if not completely unlikely – to engage in road rage or any sort of argy-bargy with a stranger.
- Carrying a gun is addictive! Anyone who carries a gun on an everyday basis can tell you about those times when they suddenly realize they’re not carrying one. Like when they disarm to go into Whole Foods, forget to rearm and enter a non-gun-free zone. Crap! I don’t have my gun!
