A certain amount of silliness

A little background is necessary before I get to the meat of this particular entry. When I graduated college, my wife and I moved to the DC Metro area, specifically the Northern Virginia area. We lived in a nice, low crime, middle class area; but it was also still the DC Metro area. I had a VA concealed weapons permit, and Virginia also allows unlimited open carry; of which I availed myself to from time to time. Thankfully, I didn’t work in DC, but rather the Arlington area, so for the most part I was able to avoid the District’s draconian gun laws.

While living in that area, I never once felt like it was a bad idea to exercise my right to carry. Even though the specific area I lived was low crime, I worked in a high crime area of Arlington. Carrying there made good sense to me.

Fast forward to now. A year and a half ago, my wife and I moved to the Indianapolis area to be closer to family, afford a house, etc. We now live in a nice suburb, with a very low rate of crime, and I work in a very low crime area. I still carry, every day. But now I feel almost silly doing it. I’ve spent the last 6 years preaching the mantra of “Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it”; and yet I cannot but help feel slightly silly when I strap on my pistol and tuck a spare magazine into my pocket.

Of course, I’m not about to stop packing, because no matter how silly I feel it is still better to have it and not need it.