• We are now running on a new, and hopefully much-improved, server. In addition we are also on new forum software. Any move entails a lot of technical details and I suspect we will encounter a few issues as the new server goes live. Please be patient with us. It will be worth it! :) Please help by posting all issues here.
  • The forum will be down for about an hour this weekend for maintenance. I apologize for the inconvenience.
  • If you are having trouble seeing the forum then you may need to clear your browser's DNS cache. Click here for instructions on how to do that
  • Please review the Forum Rules frequently as we are constantly trying to improve the forum for our members and visitors.

Just had a double encounter

SIGdude

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2010
Messages
89
Location
Baraboo, Wisconsin, USA
Went to the new Dog Park in Baraboo with my wife today, took our two pooches. Nice place. It has a double fenced area, splitting it so that if you want your dogs seperated by chain link, you can do so. We went into the smaller section as nobody was occupying it.

Our dogs were playing around and the dogs from the other side of the fence came up, being followed by several small children. The oldest boy, I would guess about 6, asked why I had a gun in my pocket. I told him because it was a right I was allowed. He asked if I was a cop, to which I obviously replied no. It is just my right to carry this gun with me when I go places and I do it to keep my wife and myself safe. He seemed to get it, just smiled and said ok, and went back to playing with his new puppy.

A few minutes later, another gentleman and his two kids showed up with a smaller dog and brought them into the the side of the fence we were on. I walked down and greeted him; told him my dogs might get a little loud and excited, but they wouldn't be biting his puppy or his kids and they were on e-collars.

He asked me what was with the gun; I obviously went a little deeper into it than I did with the 6 year old. Told him It was a constitutionally protected second amendment right for me to do so and was the only legal means of carrying a firearm at this time. Told him about the open carry movement and how we really are just normal people that want to have an extra level of safety in our lives.

Seemed to fall on deaf ears. Shortly thereafter he packed his kids and puppy up and went walking out, asked if he was leaving already, said he was just stopping by on the way home from the store to check out the new park. Oh well.

You can't win 'em all.
 

Cobra469

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2010
Messages
218
Location
West Allis, WI, , USA
That's exactly what I was thinking about earlier today was going to the dog park. Of course I wanted to check for local schools first but yeah. It's funny how kids ask about it and when we explain that it is for protection and that we are not cops they just think "oh ok" and go on like they were before without thinking about it. Adults are the ones who freak out like the thing is going to jump out of a retention holster and bite them in the arse or something.
 

Wisconsin Carry Inc. - Chairman

Wisconsin Carry, Inc.
Joined
Jan 23, 2010
Messages
1,197
Location
, ,
Told him It was a constitutionally protected second amendment right for me to do so and was the only legal means of carrying a firearm at this time. Told him about the open carry movement and how we really are just normal people that want to have an extra level of safety in our lives.

Just a suggestion... (and this isn't condescending or criticizing your answer at all)

I of course would first and foremost advocate for being totally honest with people. If the "main" reason you carry is "because its a constitutionally protected right", then I would agree with telling people that.

Having said that, I think most often the best answer to give when people say "whats with the gun" or "why do you carry" is to say "its for self-defense".

Burning a flag is a constitutionally protected right, but you won't find many 'sympathizers" when you are out burning flags.

Carrying a gun IS a constitutionally protected right, but from someone who's not pro-carry, that will give you no chance of getting them to embrace what you are doing.

When we say we carry because "its a constitutionally protected right" I don't think many people really understand that. I think that leads them to think we are just out to make a point. Some people may be, but for most, they are not trying to make a point, they are being prepared and carrying for self-defense.

If someone asks me "why do you carry" and I say "for self-defense" then they start thinking about using a gun for self-defense, not some abstract "oh its just to prove a point".

Carrying a gun for self-defense is a practical matter people can wrap their brain around. Tell them you carry for self-defense AND in Wisconsin, the only way you can carry for self-defense is "open".

Even if they still disagree with the practice, the self-defense angle will elicit responses which you can counter. When you reply "I carry for self-defense" They may say "Baraboo is a safe place, why do you need a gun here" and you could give them examples of people in and around Baraboo who have been victims of crime. Surely there are plenty of examples.

If you are carrying in a grocery story and someone asks why, you tell them "for self-defense" and they say "yeah, but in a grocery story" you can then ask the person a rhetorical question and say "so you are saying no one has ever been assaulted in a store, or between the store and their vehicle"? Of course they could never make that claim.

Anyway, just a thought. The "Its a constitutional right" response is usually a conversation stopper. It tells the person you don't have a practical reason, just an idealogical one. Liberals typically don't accept ideals or principle as a justification for doing things. They consider themselves the ultimate pragmatists and will comprehend far better a practical use of firearms than then abstract concept of a "constitutional right". Also don't forget that most liberals think the constitution is a 200+ year old archaic document that isn't practical to todays world anyway. The self-defense reasoning will be far more efficacious in the minds of those luke-warm to guns rather than to leave them thinking you carry just because "its a right".
 
Last edited:

SIGdude

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2010
Messages
89
Location
Baraboo, Wisconsin, USA
I guess it wasn't made clear now that I reread my post. The self defense thing was part of it, but I also stated it as a protected right as well. I didn't say that was the sole reason I was doing it, I said the same things to him I said to the kid, but could also include concepts that a 6 year old wouldn't have comprehended.
 

wrightme

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2008
Messages
5,574
Location
Fallon, Nevada, USA
If the child was my 12yo son, he would not ask you why. He would ask you what it was, which caliber, and why you chose that one. :banana:


One day we went to the local DQ, and saw a parent with a youth football player, and we conversed with them for a bit, since my son was in Pop Warner. I was reading my American Rifleman, so the conversation turned to firearms. The parent commented about how guns were important, so the 1st amendment was necessary. My son replied that it was the 2nd Amendment and not the 1st, but that the 4th and 5th were ALSO very important. :dude:
[/hijack]
 
Last edited:

Wisconsin Carry Inc. - Chairman

Wisconsin Carry, Inc.
Joined
Jan 23, 2010
Messages
1,197
Location
, ,
I guess it wasn't made clear now that I reread my post. The self defense thing was part of it, but I also stated it as a protected right as well. I didn't say that was the sole reason I was doing it, I said the same things to him I said to the kid, but could also include concepts that a 6 year old wouldn't have comprehended.

I understand. My suggestion is just that 'leading' and focusing on the self-defense concept is in my opinion the most effective.
 

MKEgal

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2010
Messages
4,383
Location
in front of my computer, WI
my theory

I think that there are several basic reasons to carry, and each of us has them in different amounts.

F'rinstance, my ratio is about 96% self-defense, 2% education, & 2% because it's a right (& I don't have to justify it).
If I'm going someplace specifically to raise awareness (like the Sussex State Patrol event), obviously it slides more toward education at that point.

But I agree with Nik that no matter what your balance of reasons, most people will respond best to leading with self-defense when you're talking with them.
 

littlewolf

Regular Member
Joined
May 10, 2010
Messages
349
Location
A, A
Carried at Best Buy in Plover today.I bought a new lap top and the sales clerk noticed my XD and said he seen others open carriing there, said it was great and said he was looking for a Kimber Custom Carry .45, I gave him a business card! Another clerk there wanted to know how to get a permit to carry and I had to educate him a little and tell him about WCI
 

littlewolf

Regular Member
Joined
May 10, 2010
Messages
349
Location
A, A
title of the thread should be; an encounter with the left.

Funny you should say that I tend to shoot to the left,may be a good thing after all !! Hit what I should and not where I AIM !!!lol
 

johnny amish

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2010
Messages
1,024
Location
High altitude of Vernon County, ,
One very good thing came out if this encounter, that is you started a conversation with someone on oc. Chances are that person will talk about you at the dinner table, with friends and coworkers. He doesn't have to like it or agree with it but through his conversation he will get other people talking about it. He will be in a way then, working for us. Awareness of oc is what we want and very much need in this state if we are going to continue to get our rights back.
 

Optimus Prime

Regular Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2009
Messages
79
Location
Stevens Point, Wisconsin, USA
Carried at Best Buy in Plover today.I bought a new lap top and the sales clerk noticed my XD and said he seen others open carriing there, said it was great and said he was looking for a Kimber Custom Carry .45, I gave him a business card! Another clerk there wanted to know how to get a permit to carry and I had to educate him a little and tell him about WCI

I've had a couple conversations with employees there and handed out some pamphlets. Good to see we're raising awareness.
 
Top