Late to the Party by Gretchen Fritz 12/4/2015
So by now you have heard all the news the mainstream media is willing to release about the massacre in San Bernadino. You remember that earlier this year a Muslim adherent shot several of our military service members in Chattanooga and two others tried to attack a freedom of speech event in Texas. And you have probably heard the news report that ISIS claims to have operatives in at least 15 states here in the U.S., many ready and willing to carry out missions for them. It appears that the wolf is at the door.
Many people I know who have an outlet to do so are calling for more or less everyone to get a license (or permit, outside of Illinois) to legally carry concealed, buy a gun and learn how to use it. I will include myself in that statement as well. We believe that in the current environment in which ISIS is becoming more aggressive and other people are apparently “snapping” at an increased pace, carrying a gun is basically the only way to increase our chances of getting home alive.
I will now make a bold statement: I believe that the people of Illinois and Wisconsin will be better able to defend themselves than people in almost any other state. I say this because Illinois and Wisconsin were the last two states to legalize concealed carry. Wisconsin has only had it since 2011, Illinois since 2013.
I have two reasons for making this bold assertion. The first is that our training is more recent. In Illinois everyone took their firearm training classes no more than two years ago. We have seen a resurgence recently in our classes, so many people are just now getting their training requirements satisfied.
The second reason I think we will more successfully defend ourselves is because the newness of concealed carry hasn’t worn off for us yet. It still has that new car smell. We’re still excited about it. We still check out each other’s hardware and holsters, discussing what has worked and what hasn’t. We still carry every day or as many days as we can, legally. Before I leave the house, I think, “I have my phone, my keys and my gun. Okay.”
Anecdotally, judging by Facebook, there are a lot of people itching for a fight. So ISIS may want to stay out of Illinois and Wisconsin for a while.
Stay safe out there, everyone. As my boss says: be nice to everyone but know how you’re going to kill them.
