I just read a bumper sticker that read “They can have my guns when they pry them from my cold dead, paranoid, freaked out gun fanatic fingers”.

It made me think. Somebody has something backwards. Paranoia as we all understand it is an irrational fear of something which more than likely is either not as bad as we envision or not there at all, and is often considered a sign of mental illness.

Tens of thousands of gun owners have licenses tucked in their pockets and carry everything from small .25 caliber guns up to, in my case, either a .357 Magnum or nine milimeter. There is enough firepower to kill one or more people with each gun. Those owners go into stores, malls, movies, etc. all through the day and night keeping their weapons with them because they feel better knowing they are that much safer. None of them want to USE their weapons, but most would if need be, to avoid a lethal threat. The interesting part is how many people they encounter who are never the wiser. The cashier, the attendant, the mother with kids, the old man in the wheel chair. They dont see, so they dont concern themselves with concealed guns. Without a search, they could not tell the unarmed from the armed. They are thinking of everything EXCEPT who around them has a gun.

Yet gun hating people through the country put up signs warning NO FIREARMS ALLOWED in the ludicrous hope that this will deter a criminal. They keep guns out of their homes because they fear that their angry family member might shoot someone (dont they call this emotionally disturbed?) They fear for their children, co workers, etc. So they desperately try to keep all the guns far away so nobody gets shot.

Gun licensees have to pass background checks looking for mental illness, depression, criminal behavior, drug abuse, so on it goes, and they must be free of these maladies. They do not fear their weapons, but most thugs tend to fear THEM. Yet again, the gun control crowd wants the guns put away.

The end point is, who is REALLY the paranoid, freaked out party? The one who fears every respectable citizen is suddenly going to become a terrorist, or start a wild west shoot out, or the guy who keeps his weapon quietly holstered, perhaps for years…just in case. Gene