When did you begin CCing?

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holdenarm

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I'm curious to hear the room pipe up. Guns are American heritage, sure, but my sense is that most of our dads and grandads didn't carry. A big part of that, surely, is that CC didn't used to be legal. But I also suspect that even if it had been legal, some of our forebearers wouldn't have felt the need. Others surely would have.

So I'm curious to hear stories from anyone who's willing to share. What was it that led you to start carrying? How old were you when you did? Do you wish for a world where you didn't feel it was necessary? What would that world look like?

To be clear, not trying to talk politics or cast judgment on those who do or don't carry, or their reasons for doing so / not doing so, or what they think about the world as it is or should be -- none of that. Just interested in learning folks' stories.
 
I went to a meeting of the High Point City Council wherein crime was the major topic. During that meeting, I learned there were areas of the city that the HPPD had more or less given up on. While I already avoided those areas, to the greatest extent possible, I realized those areas would expand to the point it would be impossible to avoid them. šŸ˜¢
 
I didnā€™t own a firearm until after my son was born. That was November of 2006. I was 31 at the time.

I bought a pistol, and not too long after that took the class and applied for my CHP. Then bought a couple more pistols.


Then several years later got into ARs & the NFA stuff. My first AR was actually an SBR that I built from a stripped lower and a completed upper. Filed for two SBRs and two Silencers about the same time.
 
My buddies and I took our ccw class right around the time we turned 21, maybe even a little before if memory serves.

I didn't plan on carrying at the time, just wanted to be able to buy pistols without a PPP but as soon as the permit came in I never looked back.

Going to school in Charlotte and living in super cheap housing really showed us how crazy things are!
 
I don't recall the actual age. I have owned guns since I could pay for them myself. (12 ish) of course with Dad's help. I put off getting my CCW for a LONG time because I didn't want my finger prints on file. Let's just say that decision paid off. (circumstances but nothing illegal) I estimate I finally got my CCW around age 40. My father got his pretty much as soon as he was able. Not that that kept him from CCW.... He was a cop until I was born.
 
About 11 years ago after a guy in a Toyota pickup pulled out in front of me and I had to lock up the brakes. I flipped him the bird and he did a couple brake checks then about a half mile down the road stopped in the middle. He came out with what looked like a steel pipe and I let him get within 20yards, when I threw it in reverse and was able to take off in the other direction.

I realized I was getting too old and people we're getting too crazy so I bought a Ruger LC9. After watching the Kenosha WI riots, and seeing Kyle Rittenhouse get attacked by 4 different rioters, I added a S&W M&P 9mm for road trips.
 
I remember it even thou it was about 16 years ago now. A pizza delivery girl was attacked at the bottom of my apartment complex that I seemingly thought was safe. I chased the attackers away with a shotgun and my wife and another lady tended to her wounds and got her some clothes as they had tried to rape her and had ripped her shirt and bra off. We heard her scream and came running down to the 1st floor from our 3rd floor apartment. While looking back tactically tons of errors were made, to say the least, It changed my outlook on life and made me a much less trusting person.
 
I took the CHP course literally on a whim. It was the middle of winter and I didnā€™t have anything to do that Saturday. Plus I figured it would make it easier buying and selling handguns.

Got the permit, and figured, what the hey, think Iā€™ll start carrying one.

Then it got to be like the other stuff in my pockets. Felt nekkid without one.
 
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As soon as I turned 21, which was only months after I moved from NJ to NC.

My parents didnā€™t even own guns. My dad hunted growing up but thatā€™s it. My mom was very much against guns in the house with kids, but fast forward a few decades and now she has her own for HD.
 
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November, 1991 in Texas. Two weeks after the Lucyā€™s cafeteria shooting in Waco. I had eaten in the restaurant a few days before the event. Bought a Browning BDA in .380 and carried it for years. Still have that gun. First CC permit was in 1992.
 
Sometime in the mid '80s in NH. Fill out the form and they have fourteen days to issue or deny and NH court precedents held that not being a prohibited person leaves no grounds to deny. $10 for four years. No stupid class either.

I usually only carried when visiting sketchy areas I couldn't avoid (few and far between in NH back then), or carrying large sums of cash, i.e., buying a car or doing my annual Christmas shopping.

After not too many years it became everywhere all the time. NH started sliding downhill like so many other good places.

I've never had to draw and only reached for it twice, both false alarms.
 
I started carrying when I was 21. My college roommate got jumped going to the off-campus parking lot for underclassmen, and that seemed as good a reason as any.

My dad never carried. Pretty sure grandpa carried dirty all the time, best as I could tell. He had a little Colt snub that just magically appeared whenever we went anywhere. Pre-9/11 travel was neato.
 
Grew up around guns. Hunting mainly. But was never really >into< them. Dad would take me to gunshows and we would gripe about all the plastic guns.

About 12-13 years ago (I guess) he gave me a Ruger single six for Christmas. It was my first gun that was just mine. It was like an odd epiphany that I could actually buy my own. So I stumbled across the forum that most of us used to be on. I was a complete and utter noob, but started soaking it all in.

I went from ā€œI love guns but donā€™t know why people need an AR.ā€ to ā€œSo how many magazines do I need for my third AR?ā€ in no time. Listening to reason and experience from others here, and other venues pushed me to get my CCW. The rest is history. I used to question how so many people had guns they never shot, to the guy who finds guns they forgot they had while doing inventory. Where 200 rounds of ammunition seemed like a lifetimes supply, to 200 rounds is probably rolling around somewhere in my car.

The urgency and reality of >why< I carry was cemented in my mind about two years ago or so. Was in Atlanta visiting family and seeing the sights. Was taking my family to the aquarium, and I knew there were gun buster signs and metal detectors to get in. So I locked my pistol in the hotel room. When we got to the first floor a hotel worker in an excited state ushered us all into the office as an active shooter was suspected in the hotel. Gunshots had been reported on one of the floors. So, there I was, in a small office of the hotel, a 2 inch folding pocket knife and bad language was the only thing between that threat and my wife and 4 kids. I remember staring at that thin wooden office door thinking about my pistol so close, yet completely useless. I swore then Iā€™d never be in that situation should the Lord carry me through.

It ended up being a false alarm. But for those 20-30 minutes while we waited for the cops to clear the building were absolutely real, and an eye opener. My fun vacation day to see some fish almost turned into a fight for my families lives, and I was grotesquely unprepared. Iā€™m a big dude, not overly aggressive though, and I have no illusions of grandeur when it comes to fighting. I would have fought, but died. I will say, in my defense, during that time I did stand at the ready for whatever came through the door. I didnā€™t cower in the corner.

So, anywayā€¦being scared like that changes you mentally. Being defenseless isnā€™t something I ever want to feel again. Especially when my family is involved.
 
John & Irene Bryant, or my brush with an honest to God Serial Killer. Gary Michael Hilton.

I had grown up hunting and shooting black powder. Owned a 9mm that I bought around 1993, but never really even shot it. In fact, at this time, it was in my dadā€™s safe 600 miles away. I had the required .22, .30-06, 12ga and 9mm. That was it. All inherited. Never used.

Sometime in 2007 the wife and I took our newborn on a hike in Pisgah NF. We explored the upper stretches of the South Mills River for an afternoon and spent several hours just hiking around. Decided Iā€™d head back the next with a fly rod.

When I went to pull into the FS road, it was blocked by a Game Warden, State Trooper and county deputy. I asked what was going on and they just told me to move on, road was closed.

Turns out that an asshole named Gary Michael Hinton had attacked and killed Irene Bryant (80 yo) and kidnapped her husband. From what Iā€™ve pieced together, the wife, kid and I walked no more than 10yards from Ireneā€™s body on our way out .

John, Ireneā€™s husband, was kidnapped and driven to TN where he was forced to drain their ATM. He was then killed, I forget if he was killed in TN or GA. The guy killed at least 2 other women on trails in TN, GA and FL before being caught.

So. Instead of going fishing that day I drove to Rexā€™s Guns in Hendersonville and bought a .38. Picked it up as soon as my PPP was ready and applied for CHP the same day. Iā€™ve carried every day since, illegally at first until the permit was issued.

www.transylvaniatimes.com

Son Of Murdered Couple Waits For Justice

On Oct. 21, 2007, 80-year-old John Bryant and his 84-year-old wife, Irene, started to hike a trail off Yellow Gap Road, near the Cradle of Forestry, in the Pisgah National
www.transylvaniatimes.com www.transylvaniatimes.com
 
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