I'm not the one who needs a gun to "defend" himself.
When my family and I moved from GA to WA in 2008. We stopped in SLC, Utah at a Motel 6 because it was the only place that would allow dogs. We pulled in around 0200 in two vehicles. My then 5 y/o and 9 month old were in my truck sleeping so the wife went in to get our room. While she was in the office, I watched two drug deals go down, and a dude with a hooker pull in and walk to her? room. Well, I wasn't going to stay there, so when the wife walked back out I told her to go get our money back and explained what I had observed. About that time old boy with the hooker comes sprinting out of the room with half dressed hooker in hot pursuit. Guy slides into his car and takes off whilst hooker is beating on his window. All the while, a fat "security guard" with a MAG LIGHT just watches. so wife agrees and goes back in to get our money back. As my wife cleared between the two vehicles and is about 5 yards from them, a big black dude walked past her watching her over his shoulder. As soon as she was inside the office he turned around and made his way toward our cars. When he got to the back of the vehicles between her car and mine, he saw me. I had backed up to the front of the vehicles and now in the light, with my hand on my 1911 but still holstered. The dude stopped dead in his tracks, raised his hands toward me and said, "Wooa dude it's cool, it's cool." He slowly backed up, made a right face and booked it as fast as he could away.
That is the only time I have ever possibly needed my gun.
When I lived in VA, I got pulled over by a VA State Trooper for speeding. In VA, when you are a CCW holder you have to announce that you are a CCW holder even if you aren't carrying. Well, I wasn't carrying that day because I was going hunting. So, trooper walks up to the truck, I had all of my paperwork out, hands on the steering wheel and vehicle off. Guy asked the normal "why are you going so fast" question and asked for my lic, reg and insurance. I gave it to him, and then told him that I was a CCW holder, but wasn't carrying that day. That is when things got a little weird. Trooper handed me my paperwork back, then proceeded to chew my ass up one side and down the other for not carrying my pistol. "It is your civic duty to carry, you went through the process, carry! I depend on people like you to help me if some crack head is handing me my ass on the side of the road and my back up isn't close." Then he told me to slow down.
I would highly suggest you go to your local PD and ask to go on a few ride alongs. I went on 4 or 5 in VA, in the county I was a volunteer fire fighter in. I also went on one in PG county in Maryland
I might not ever truly NEED my pistol, but if I ever do I will have it and I will use it to defend myself, my family or others. And if that causes me to receive ridicule from a bunch of leftist nutjob hoplophobes then so be it. But, I will throw a fucking fit (and am) when those people are actively trying to take a tool from me that aids me in defending myself and my family if the day ever comes. I see it no differently than carrying crevasse rescue gear or avalanche transceivers *just in case*.
Except statistically speaking your gun is more likely to be used by your kid, on your wife, or on yourself than it is to be used in your defense. Your "just in case" scenario is putting others at risk.
And not to sound like a prick, but I live in a working class area of LA, not some bumfuck county in Virginia. If I don't need a gun, you sure as hell don't.
