Knox is acts like his is addressing non-gun owner but he is really just "preaching to the choir" and pandering to fellow CHP holders like me.
The flaw in his logic is assuming non-gun owners expect protection from concealed carriers in their midst when in my experience most either don't even think about guns as they go about their daily lives or fear them due to some negative personal experience with them.
In case I my nearly got killed by a playmate showing off his father's "hidden" gun with the bullet hitting a wall a few inches above my head, and had an uncle who killed himself cleaning one when I was kid. As a clueless 20 year-old I got robbed at gunpoint on Capitol Hill in DC, less than a mile from the Capitol dome.
When I moved to MD to were I could own a gun, albeit under a lot of restrictions, decided to overcome the fear by buying a 9mm pistol and learning to use it. At the time I wished the gun store offered free shooting lessons or they were available at a municipal or state level like driver training. I couldn't afford a lot of ammunition so I practiced for an hour or so a day with a pellet gun and within a year placed 3rd novice class in an ISPC match I entered to test my skills under pressure.
I've lived in VA since 1995 but never until recently found a need to carry one and no longer interested in competition I didn't even shoot my 9mm, practicing shooting skills with the air guns. I guess that makes me a moderate gun owner not a right-wing one, but the non-gun owning public has no reason to fear me simply because they would never suspect from my appearance — aging Hippie —I carry.
I'm now very situationally aware, having been professionally trained in that as part of serving in the Foreign Service for 25 years, 11 of them overseas, and still don't perceive enough personal threat from crime of terror. But I got a CHP and bought a Walter PPS 9mm and belly band and AIWB Kydek holster this month so I can start carrying concealed.
What I fear are the gun toting sheepdogs who don't know when to keep their gun in their tactical pants. Guys in their 20s who walk around with paracord bracelets and a knife clip showing in a pocket which advertises the fact they are carrying a gun under their untucked shirt, or wish they were 21 and could. They are so obvious in their desire to "look the look" and take action at any provocation that even those not situationally aware but fear guns are starting to notice them. It heightens their fear of getting caught in crossfire at a Home Depot parking lot because nearly every 20 something mass shooter has dressed like that.
If you dress "tactically" as if to respond like a soldier to a crisis other than a personal one, wear clothing with pro-gun statements and drive cars with pro-gun slogans you might not realize you are really not helping the cause of concealed carry as much as you are fueling the worst fears of those who fear guns and make those who don't think about them at all alarmed also. That's the real message Knox is delivering to the pro-gun audience reading it.
What would help the cause, and what Knox is suggesting by his personal behavior is that the best approach is carry so that even the most observant gun owner who is also carrying doesn't have a clue and the buttholes of those with a very real fear of guns don't pucker when you walk into a store or drive aggressively on the highways.
Nobody will suspect I'm carrying because I dress like what I am — a mellow 63 year-old retired guy in a little red roadster — and if I do need to use my gun if faced with one I plan to use that as a tactical advantage.
Knox is acts like his is addressing non-gun owner but he is really just "preaching to the choir" and pandering to fellow CHP holders like me.
The flaw in his logic is assuming non-gun owners expect protection from concealed carriers in their midst when in my experience most either don't even think about guns as they go about their daily lives or fear them due to some negative personal experience with them.
In case I my nearly got killed by a playmate showing off his father's "hidden" gun with the bullet hitting a wall a few inches above my head, and had an uncle who killed himself cleaning one when I was kid. As a clueless 20 year-old I got robbed at gunpoint on Capitol Hill in DC, less than a mile from the Capitol dome.
When I moved to MD to were I could own a gun, albeit under a lot of restrictions, decided to overcome the fear by buying a 9mm pistol and learning to use it. At the time I wished the gun store offered free shooting lessons or they were available at a municipal or state level like driver training. I couldn't afford a lot of ammunition so I practiced for an hour or so a day with a pellet gun and within a year placed 3rd novice class in an ISPC match I entered to test my skills under pressure.
I've lived in VA since 1995 but never until recently found a need to carry one and no longer interested in competition I didn't even shoot my 9mm, practicing shooting skills with the air guns. I guess that makes me a moderate gun owner not a right-wing one, but the non-gun owning public has no reason to fear me simply because they would never suspect from my appearance — aging Hippie —I carry.
I'm now very situationally aware, having been professionally trained in that as part of serving in the Foreign Service for 25 years, 11 of them overseas, and still don't perceive enough personal threat from crime of terror. But I got a CHP and bought a Walter PPS 9mm and belly band and AIWB Kydek holster this month so I can start carrying concealed.
What I fear are the gun toting sheepdogs who don't know when to keep their gun in their tactical pants. Guys in their 20s who walk around with paracord bracelets and a knife clip showing in a pocket which advertises the fact they are carrying a gun under their untucked shirt, or wish they were 21 and could. They are so obvious in their desire to "look the look" and take action at any provocation that even those not situationally aware but fear guns are starting to notice them. It heightens their fear of getting caught in crossfire at a Home Depot parking lot because nearly every 20 something mass shooter has dressed like that.
If you dress "tactically" as if to respond like a soldier to a crisis other than a personal one, wear clothing with pro-gun statements and drive cars with pro-gun slogans you might not realize you are really not helping the cause of concealed carry as much as you are fueling the worst fears of those who fear guns and make those who don't think about them at all alarmed also. That's the real message Knox is delivering to the pro-gun audience reading it.
What would help the cause, and what Knox is suggesting by his personal behavior is that the best approach is carry so that even the most observant gun owner who is also carrying doesn't have a clue and the buttholes of those with a very real fear of guns don't pucker when you walk into a store or drive aggressively on the highways.
Nobody will suspect I'm carrying because I dress like what I am — a mellow 63 year-old retired guy in a little red roadster — and if I do need to use my gun if faced with one I plan to use that as a tactical advantage.