Annie Oakley I am not!

Last night, I attended a Concealed Weapons Permit class.  It was very interesting.  It some ways, it was very hard.

I'm 33 years old and have never touched a gun in my life.  I have family history that involves guns that did not end well.  I will say, I am not one that is against guns.  I fully believe that it is the user, not the gun that is the problem.  I use the same argument for spoons.  It is the user not the spoon that can make you obese.

I believe in the Constitution.  I believe that it is a sacred document inspired by God.  Which has always made me wonder why the 2nd amendment of this divine document refers to the right to bear arms.  As I read it, there is counsel in that I have a right to protect myself and my family. 

As times are changing, I want to be proactive in protecting my freedoms and rights.  I have no desire to be "packing it" all the time in my purse or my belt loop.  I just want the right and freedom to protect myself and my family if such an opportunity presents itself.  Attending that class was about opening up my choices and options. 

Me at this class felt like the Sesame Street song "one of these things just doesn't belong here."  I think my purple coat and turquoise scarf may have contributed to that, but I'm not changing who I am to fit in.  I'm doing this as me.  An officer taught the class about laws and safety.  It was so much information, my head was spinning.  They fingerprinted me and what I got out of that was my ring fingers are sadly inflexible. 

As the teacher presented all the different situations that could arise where I could legally use a gun, I just felt discouraged that this is the world we live in.  Man, I live in a happy, naive bubble.  I am way too soft hearted for this stuff, so law enforcement is definitely a NEVER in my book.  If you were with me right now you would hear me singing "I am NEVER EVER EVER EVER getting into law enforcement!" to a little tune by Taylor Swift. 

I did have one moment that I was happy about.  The teacher played two movie clips showing different situations of when pulling a gun out is the right thing to do or not the right thing to do.  Apparently, the popular verbiage for "Dirt Bag Criminals" is the M-F-er phrase.  The teacher had warned us that there was language.  I thought, this is my cue to leave, but I just sat there.  The video played and within 10 sec, the language was used in every other word.  Something I find interesting about swear words is that each one can be used as a noun, verb, adjective or even pronoun.  Who knew, right?  I had a thought hit my head "you do not need to hear this or see this for your education.  Time to leave."  So, I humbly got up and walked out of the room.  I could still hear it faintly in the next room and so I started to sing songs in my head.  Another thought came to me "you are doing the best you can to avoid this.  Even though you choose not to hear this and you can, you will not be held accountable."  What a sigh of relief I felt that even though I was doing the best that I could and could still hear things, I was still clean.  Please, don't laugh at this, it is very important to me.

I walked away with the clear thought that I will most likely have different forms of protection surrounding me to keep me safe.  Preferaby the non-lethal ones.  I am grateful that I have more education about gun laws and safety.  I am grateful that this experience will give me more choices should the opportunities ever present themselves.  But most of all, I am grateful for the experience because I added a small block of integrity to my character last night.  I have a long way to go!