Hands-on with Friends - seeing is believing.

[LedJedi]

Recently the wife and I have been spending more time with an old high school friend of mine and his wife. We do the normal friendly couple things like dinner out together or dinner over at their/our house, etc. We’ve been doing it more and more lately since I’ve been spending more time with my buddy helping him get his new car customization shop started where I can. In either case, it’s put us in a lot of contact with them recently, more than normal anyway.

So the other day we met them for dinner at Golden Corral and headed back to our place to check out a new laptop they bought and so we could sit down together and update their business card designs. We walk in the door and I walk over to my desk with both of them in tow to look at the card design on my computer. Before I sit down I reach down and pop the snaps on my iwb holster and pull my 45 out and lay it on the desk with holster just so I can be a little more comfortable while we work/talk.

Immediately his wife’s eyes bug out a bit and she says, “you had that on you the WHOLE TIME?!!� I said, “well yeah, I carry just about everywhere these days. You just can’t be too careful and you see the neighborhood we live in.� The conversation went back and forth a bit but the gist of it is she was completely astonished especially when I explained that just about every time we’ve all been out together I’ve been carrying and she never knew. I took the opportunity to talk to her about getting her CHL and self defense topics. We eventually got the business stuff taken care of but not after a good hour of good quality discussion about carrying.

My buddy carried when we were growing up off and on. Many of my friends did, but he’s fallen out of habit with it because of legal issues he had when he was a kid. He actually can’t get a CHL because of that nonsense and I’ve talked to him about that at great length, but his wife is still eligible.

Apparently our discussion and the first hand proof to her that you can carry and nobody will know made and impression. We went out to dinner again the other night and I asked her, “So, when are you gonna get your chl?� She came back pretty quickly with, “Well, I don’t know, but I’m really thinking about it. I don’t know what and how I would carry.� At that point my wife chimed in that she just took her class and it was a blast.

We’ll probably invite them to the range next time we go. I suspect that shortly after that she’ll be filing for her paperwork.

Now I wouldn’t recommend doing something like that with just casual friends as it could raise some eyebrows but I can say that at least for my buddy’s wife seeing me pull out that 45 when she had no clue I had it was a real eye opener for her. I think she has a better understanding now how easy it is for folks around her to be armed and how easily it is for her to do the same.

I can’t honestly say that move wasn’t a bit calculated though. I’ve talked with both of them off and on about the importance of being armed and aware of your surroundings, but to see it practiced first hand seemed to have made an impression that words couldn’t convey.

Disclaimer: Obviously this isn’t something to do lightly with just casual friends. I admit I’m a bit of an evangelical when it comes to championing this stuff with folks around me and that has it’s own inherent risks as discussed at great length elsewhere. But that’s something I do willingly, realizing those risks. Your results may vary, but hopefully me sharing this story might get your gears to turning.

I can tell you I’ve invited them to the range before and she flatly refused, but the last time I mentioned going to the range she asked when we were going again and if she could shoot my wife’s 9mm. I can’t say that doesn’t put a huge grin on my face.

Note: My buddy's record is an obvious issue, but that's not really the point of this post.

[Rokyudai]

That's definitely a step in the right direction for your friend's wife Led! I know what you mean about choosing who and when you can discuss topics like CHL. I made the comment to my wife a while back joking about how I thought our dating days were over. It seems when we find another couple to do things with, that is EXACTLY what it feels like! We all don't want to say something or do something that makes the other feel uncomfortable, we try to keep off of charged topics like politics, religion, and such, and at the end of the night we never know how to take the comment "that was fun, let's do it again some time"....ahhhhhh! What does that mean?!

[old farmer]

Hi,


My wife and I are waiting on our CHL. We are planning not to tell friends. The issue is one of comfort level.

[Hyunchback]

I've been working on getting a female co-worker interested. After showing her the Ruger LCP and telling her the MSRP she got interested!

She was ignorant on several points. Apparently she had the impression that all handguns cost over $1,000 and you had to have your CHL to buy a handgun.

[legend]

I've been working on getting a female co-worker interested. After showing her the Ruger LCP and telling her the MSRP she got interested!

She was ignorant on several points. Apparently she had the impression that all handguns cost over $1,000 and you had to have your CHL to buy a handgun.

My neighbor thought she needed a CHL to have a pistol in her house... It's amazing how many myths there are, and how many people believe...

[CJATE]

I have only done that once, very close friend and I started hunting together quite often, we talked about my bag of pistols and he asked me to bring it, I had 3 in the bad and he was really enjoying it. With out thinking, I walked over and got the 38 out of my truck…

Him: you just leave it there?
Me: Uhh, yea but the law changed…
Him: (interrupting) “I have been thinking about CHL… do you have one?�

25 min latter after talking a good bit, I pulled my H&K from it’s hiding place on my hip. He really liked shooting it, and could not believe I had it on me every time we had hunted ect…

I have lied and kept my mouth shut every other time. I don't see how anyone needs to know.

It is funny when you learn an “acquaintance� is licensed and everyone has the unspoken politeness to not ask if they are currently packing.