[HarrySchell]

Guys like Jay have never been on the sharp end and presume they understand everything. I understand very well the limits of police protection in response to the death threats I got for most of a year: exactly zip.

When I went river rafting in NM, the guides did a safety brief. If you got dumped from the raft, you were expected "to take an active part in your own rescue" to maximise the chances you could be pulled back in. They had never lost anyone, didn't want to start, but unless you helped, you might be the first one. I guess Jay would just drift along yelling "help".

No desire to shoot anyone (okay, maybe Kim Jong Il or Robert Mugabe...). No desire for trouble. But trouble might desire me, against my will, and I don't know when or what kind of evil I might run into, despite my care and watchfulness.

So I just got my renewed carry license and don't spend much time too far from a weapon.

You only have the rights you can defend, and that is what "arms" and "keep" and "bear" have been about since the 1200's. Were evil passe, then self-defense would also. But evil surrounds us, unpredictably appearing in forms and at times we cannot control or anticipate with certainty.

You can elect to hope your encounter will come out well, or be a part of your own rescue.

If I wanted to be Rambo, I would run down to the local ghetto and find a shoot out. Since I try to avoid shoot-outs, even raised voices, what does that make me if I still carry? Still a Rambo, to this savant.

He is too ignorant to appreciate his lack of knowlege.