Double Bass People who carry a firearm (DB Forum Thread)

[Sam Dingle]

Thought I'd post here. I was talking to a fellow musician and he mentioned to me that he is a licensed concealed carrier (or however you say it). I didn't get to ask too many questions about it but I'm curious to know how one does that as a musician. From the little I know about that I understand there are restrictions to where you can carry (bars, churches etc). I'm curious is anyone on here has experience. I'm not interested in carrying myself, just wanted to know about it. Thanks.

 

[DerekW]

Canadian checking in.
I have no idea what hat you're talking about.

 

[BazzTard]

you Americans and your guns.....

As Chris Rock says."if bullets cost $5,000, then you'd no longer have innocent bystanders" lol

 

[Sam Dingle]

"I'm gonna pop a cap in your ass...as soon as I can afford it..."

 

[jasonrp]

It's really a state to state thing except for the federal regulations. No federal buildings (courthouse, post office, ect) no schools. VT is pretty relaxed about it. You can carry concealed, but you have to declare it right away if you get pulled over. Most of our bars have a "No fighting, Cussin' or Gunslingin'" rule so it all works out.

 

[El Spearo]

New Zealander here. Not even cops carry guns here. Is it really that bad in the US of A that people need to carry guns?

 

[jasonrp]

Not where I am but there are places where I wouldn't mind having one for safety. I'll usually take one if I'm hiking but that's more of a rabid animal attack thing than fighting of gangs of desperate outlaws.

 

[MattZilla]

Every full moon in civilized, modern upstate NY there's at least one non-gang-affiliated urban youth shot and killed in every urban center- Syracuse, Rochester, Albany, etc. Even in the winter. The shooters are also teens, and when they're not out for oreo blood, they're uptown looking for free iPhones, money and skin. Is that not happening in NZ and CAN? The news companies aren't telling anybody anything unless it involves the relative of someone very vocal and then it only gets a single twenty second blurb without followups (but, if there's face painting and craft vendors, we get five minutes of "come spend your money folks! Everything is awesome!"). Ask a retired journalist. Ask a bigmouth drunk cop (their job is to serve and clean up, it's another union member's job to inform). CCLers have intervened in over ten would-be assaults this year alone in my little city. Thank god for drooling illiterate neanderthaal rednecks who enjoy a night on the town as much as anyone else. The cops are too busy filling out paperwork for each of the idiotic car accidents that keep our hospitals crammed full year round to be out patrolling the sidewalks.

It's fine here compared to Baltimore, Cincy, etc. These kids have nothing to lose, nothing to gain but "respect", and don't expect to live past 23. And they have knives and guns. A twenty five year old is an OG and either reformed or ppossesses one solitary fear: appearing soft.

If I were less of a wuss, I would probably carry and conceal as well. Instead I just dress like I'm broke. Also, I'm broke and a pretty big wuss.

 

[Joe Nerve]

What is Oreo blood? What is skin?

 

[TroyK]

... Is it really that bad in the US of A that people need to carry guns?

How else are you going to get the guitar player to turn down?

 

[MattZilla]

"Oreo" is what they call dark skinned kids who openly aspire to anything other than gang life. It's usually B - A+ students catching bullets, often after some hallway beef in school, sometimes it's just "I hate that guy".

Skin- rape. Only four filed reports of gang attempts on adult women last year. There are several pregnant rape victims under 15 in each of our city schools. One is twelve. This year there's been one teacher and two students who got violently groped, a five-on-two rape in the gym and lots of consentual sex in just one highschool that I'm aware of.

 

[DerekW]

In 2009, there was a total of 93 homocides by handgun in Canada, not bad for 30,000,000 people.

And by far the vast majority were used in gang related crime in the big cities. It's virtually impossible to even own one legally.

A lot of cops in Canada may never draw their sidearm during their entire career.

I'm 47 years old, never seen a handgun that's wasn't strapped to a cops side, and I've never even held one.

It's such a different world.

 

[Sam Dingle]

From what I understand here in New Orleans there are a lot of gang related incidents that aren't very publicized. Some locals I know (not a local here, started school down here 3 years ago) say that the police force is so corrupt that they look the other way. They could be paranoid, I don't know but I will give a situation where I (for a moment) thought "I wish I was carrying something".

I was waiting for a taxi with my electric and upright bass after a gig. It was about 11 PM when I noticed a large crowd of people nearby begin a protest. This was around the time furgason was in the news so I assumed it was about that but couldn't be sure. Everything was normal and it started out pretty peacefull, until it wasn't. I heard someone yell something and turned just in time to see one woman smash another with a folding chair in the back of the head. a fight broke out and ten seconds later a man joined in with a baseball bat. The last thing I saw was everyone start throwing punches. That was when I promptly picked up my basses and began walking away...quickly.

That being said I'm not sure if I would go ahead and get a carry permit for myself, although being in this situation made me realize why some feel the need to do so.

 

[DerekW]

See that's where we see it differently. And I'm not judging, your society was raised differently than ours.
But if a fight broke out as you saw, it would never occur to us that a gun might get pulled, unless your in an inner city neighborhood, I suppose.
So we would never think we would need to defend ourselves with a gun. A hockey stick maybe (readily available here, lol), but not a gun.

 

[Sam Dingle]

I can see that. My thought right now is I probably have a better chance of scarring someone off with a gun than with a hocky stick, unless it's in the right hands

 

[jasonrp]

We need one of those rocket shooting guitars like Kane Roberts had

 

[Sam Dingle]

Well it would need to be a bass to solve all of our needs!

 

[TroyK]

....I probably have a better chance of scarring someone off with a gun ...

Wrong and dangerous. The only reason to carry a handgun should be to shoot and kill someone. It's not a deterrent and you don't fire warning shots or wave it at people to scare them away. That behavior will put you in much more danger than not having one.

This isn't a subject that I really want to expose my knowledge of on talkbass, but I am happy to suggest a few books and resources to you if you're interested in personal safety. I neither want to speak out for or against guns, but if you are thinking about carrying one, I really suggest some deeper knowledge and introspection first.

I will say that I grew up in Texas and Oklahoma and have a lot of experience handling guns. I learned as a child to be very safe with them and I'm not anti-gun exactly, but I don't chose to carry or posses them personally and I live in a decent sized city and have lived in larger, more dangerous ones in the past. I've witnessed and been around violence in Seattle and it's not made me second guess my own personal decision not to carry a firearm. I have friends who have made the opposite decision and some of them have gone through great lengths to ensure that they are properly trained and prepared, which I respect. Maybe they've made the right decision for them, I can't really say.

 

[Tom Lane]

Wrong and dangerous. The only reason to carry a handgun should be to shoot and kill someone. It's not a deterrent and you don't fire warning shots or wave it at people to scare them away. That behavior will put you in much more danger than not having one.

This isn't a subject that I really want to expose my knowledge of on talkbass, but I am happy to suggest a few books and resources to you if you're interested in personal safety. I neither want to speak out for or against guns, but if you are thinking about carrying one, I really suggest some deeper knowledge and introspection first.

I will say that I grew up in Texas and Oklahoma and have a lot of experience handling guns. I learned as a child to be very safe with them and I'm not anti-gun exactly, but I don't chose to carry or posses them personally and I live in a decent sized city and have lived in larger, more dangerous ones in the past. I've witnessed and been around violence in Seattle and it's not made me second guess my own personal decision not to carry a firearm. I have friends who have made the opposite decision and some of them have gone through great lengths to ensure that they are properly trained and prepared, which I respect. Maybe they've made the right decision for them, I can't really say.

I was considering writing the same thing... but you said it first, and better. Owning a handgun is a responsibility requiring proper training and a willingness to take someone's life.

 

[Sam Dingle]

I'm sorry for any confusion. I was thinking about one sinario that my friend was put in that made him "scare" a potential threat. He was coming home late at night and someone in a hood came up to him with a knife and yelling something. Being frightened he pulled his gun and adivesed the man to stop and go away (probably more yelling). The man was scared of the fact that he had a gun and left. What I ment by scare away is it's possible to stop someone from continuing a violent act without fireing. I think he made the right choice. A gun should be used to stop violence from continuing or in this case starting.