With my K5NRA license tag, which is a TSRA logo plate, I pretty much leave that part of my politics out there for anyone to see, and I expect them to assume I have a CHL.MojoTexas wrote:With my NRA and TSRA stickers on my truck and my often vocal opinions on second amendment issues, most people that know me probably (and correctly) assume that I have my CHL. I don't advertise the fact that I have my CHL, but I'm not shy about talking about it.
I agree with OldGringo--I *WANT* bad guys to assume that I'm armed and willing to defend myself, even when I'm not carrying. That's the beauty of legal concealed carry...it turns violent crime into a potentially lethal lottery for the bad guy. Am I armed? You'd better guess right if you wish to injure me or my family.
MojoTexas
The thing that always gets to me is how many people don't even know a CHL exists, or are completely uninformed on various aspects of same.
I have five scanners in my possession at this moment, I was a volunteer fireman for 17 years and it's tough to keep the old fire horse from champing the bit and kicking the stall doors when the sirens go off, so I listen in.
In the years I have lived in TX I have only heard CHL status mentioned on the radios a few times, so maybe there are not many CHLs getting stopped.
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When we lived in IL, just a few days after Christmas one year, I was working in the garage around lunch time with the door up and saw the very young daughter of one of our neighbors come running down the sidewalk and across the street in clothes not suitable to the weather. Just as I was about to step out and scold her for crossing without looking (a very low traffic street thankfully) I heard my scanner light up with a call and the address sounded very familiar - it was her house.
I stepped inside the house and yelled to my wife that "Jan and Bob's" house was on fire, and took off running myself. With 17 years behind me as a fireman you might think I would have better instincts, but I ran over completely empty handed, passing two fire extinguishers and a big first aid kit as I left the house.
The scene when I arrived was somewhat chaotic. The neighbors had had a fire in the fireplace the night before, and early in the morning he had cleaned up the ashes. Being somewhat of a city feller he had not realized that the ashes were not cold, and he dumped them in the city rolling barrel in the garage, the big plastic rolling barrel.
Just as they were about to sit down for lunch his wife commented about the smell of plastic burning and when he opened his garage door he was met with a "wall of flames" (I saw the burn marks, and his version of a wall is much smaller than mine.) He tried to fight te fire himself while his wife called 911, but he did it in bare feet, and the garden hose, carefully stored in the garage during an Illinois winter was frozen solid, so he was reduced to filling pans in the sink and trying to kick out the fire.
When I got there I hauled the smoldering rubble out into the driveway and threw snow on it while another neighbor treated the burns. The fire did get into the wall next to the door from the garage to the living room, but it didn't extend far, so everything was pretty much ok, except for the burns on his feet, they required a trip in the ambulance.
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I have heard all sorts of interesting stuff on scanners over the years, avoiding traffic snarls due to major accidents, and when the neighbor's kid got arrested, and even when they local police were setting up to raid a house nearby. One of the things I enjoy most is listening to the speed traps: "The green Mazda in the left lane, 85" and such.