CONCEALED. What It Means.

On Saturday, my son had a futsol game a couple of blocks from my old office. The Probation and Parole Office isn't in the best part of the valley.

As I drove my son to the former roller skating rink, next to the Traxx stop, we passed the 7-11 across from the baseball park. As usual, there were a couple of drunks fighting in the grass on the east side of the store. The Cops, looked like the Gang Task Force or maybe, JCAT (Joint Criminal Apprehension Team run by the US Marshall's) were doing a, "Felony Stop" on a car at the gas pumps. Just business as usual in this neighborhood.

They were playing a team from the east side, around the University, so in the parking lot there were two Porsche Cheyenne's, one Targa, a Volvo and my Audi. And as we got out of the car to go inside, the folks walking by on the sidewalk were a show of some sort. "Wal-Martian's" from the Wal Mart just a block away, the mentally ill, folks going to and from the Traxx stop. It was pretty interesting.

Once inside the boys ended up losing, but they always play this team close, and it always, almost comes to blows. But it didn't. And outside, the same show was going on when we went to leave that was going on when we walked in.

Always seems to be close to chaos in some of the questionable areas of the valley, but so far, nothing has happened.

Took my son to Crown Burger for lunch with his coach and his son because Danny wanted a cheeseburger. He got there and ordered a grilled cheese sandwich. WTF? I could have had lunch at La Frontera if you weren't GOING to order the cheeseburger!

Teenagers.

When we get home, I am in my bedroom, taking off my zipper hoodie, talking to my wife who's back was bothering her, which is why she didn't go to the game, and my son comes in and sees the, "Bigassed" stainless steal, .45 ACP model 1911 in the shoulder holster and says to me, "You had that on at my game! I had no idea you were wearing a gun!"

And his mother said, "That's the idea."

This is why we should have CONCEALED carry permits. If you feel you have to have a gun with you, as I do in a lot of the valley based on the job I did for 20+ years, and you CONCEAL it, you don't make people nervous. You don't upset them, and you don't scare them.

And at a University, you don't intimidate them when you should be able to express any and ALL ideas.

If, as that moron in the Legislature, Carl Wimmer would like it, everyone in Utah could carry their guns openly, or concealed without the benefit of a permit, would that make for a better place to live? I have to say no.

Now, if you're up in the mountains or out in the desert, camping or hunting? Go ahead. Wear them all out in the open. You will make the Fish And Game Cops much more relaxed when they come and talk to you and check your license. But in town? This is NOT Dodge City, circa 1870.

For, Carl who didn't go to college? "Circa" means, "around that time". Not being specific. Just in case he reads this. Which I doubt.

So, if we can come to an accommodation here on the whole gun thing? You Conservatives would like everyone to wear their gun, out in the open, all the time. Us Liberals, who went to college, would be happy if people who were not currently Police Officers, had to at least pass a test showing they knew how to use, and when to use deadly force to protect yourself or others from the threat of death or serious bodily injury. And then the State gave them permission to do so. And even when you are wearing it, you have to keep it CONCEALED so as to not piss people off.

Well, I guess that won't happen. But I will tell you this. In EVERY situation where I think I need to have a gun, I want it concealed. I don't want the, Bad Guy to know where my gun is.

If I'm about to get car jacked, robbed or punched in the face by some soccer mom from the east side that can't stand it when her kid loses to Murray boys, or shot by some guy from the west side who's pissed because I put his brother in jail 15 years ago even if I don't remember him, and they come at me swinging a knife, or waving a pistol, I don't want them to know from where I'm going to hurt them.

I might pull a gun out of my ass, or my boots, but rest assured, it will NEVER, EVER be from a holster you can see, on my right hip. Because that would give THEM the advantage. And I don't want that. I want to pull a .38 out of the back of my shirt collar and ask them, as they get too close to me, "Where do you want it?" right before I shoot them in the head. Or where ever they WANT it. I'm OK with requests.

So, CONCEALED is always the best way to carry a gun, unless you are a uniformed Law Enforcement Officer. And Carl Wimmer USED to be one. Why doesn't he know this? Maybe because he was so bad at it, he never got the chance to retire as a Law Enforcement Officer?

Look, if you want Utah to be Dodge City, go ahead and go with Wimmer. We could all pack openly. But if you want to live in a CIVILIZED society, you might want to make people who aren't Cop's get a permit to carry a gun around. Prove they know how to use it, and you might make them cover the fucker up in polite company. Is that too much to ask?

I think not.