Quote Originally Posted by Syme View Post
I would respectfully disagree with your assessment of it as "borderline paranoia". I think that's an example of the double standards and emotional thinking that many people use when it comes to guns. People often view other safety precautions (like wearing your seat belt in a car, keeping a fire extinguisher and smoke alarms in the house, etc.) as normal, but keeping a gun around is "paranoia" and gets met with suggestions that the person has been watching certain movies (Dirty Harry and Die Hard are common examples) "a few too many times". I'm not accusing you of having some kind of anti-gun bias, but the things you said do suggest to me that your view of carrying a gun has been influenced, consciously or no, by the unreasonable attitudes towards guns that exist in our society. I think a wholly objective assessment of the issue would lead to the conclusion that there is absolutely nothing paranoid about carrying a gun for self-defense (or at least, that it's no more paranoid than any other safety precaution that people commonly take). It is certainly true, for instance, that violent crime is far more common than house fires in America; yet no-one gets called paranoid for having smoke alarms in their house.
Don't get me wrong, I am completely for CCW's and carrying for self defense. I just don't want to be bothered with it when I'm backpacking around, it would just be an extra hassle to me, but to each his own. I wasn't trying to call you borderline paranoid, I was just saying that I don't really think it's necessary, obviously you do, and thats why you carry one. I have no problem with that, I am in no way anti-guns. I just wouldn't carry one myself in the situation.