I hear people on DU say those with CWP rarely use their guns to shoot others

[Lizzie Poppet]

84. Actually, I'm probably one of them.

Pretty much ever since I could talk, I've been accused of having a "smart mouth." I do not, as they say, "suffer fools gladly," and it's taken me years to put some roadblocks in the otherwise direct path between "inside voice" and "outside voice," at least when I encounter someone being an idiot. It's not at all that I feel violent or even particularly aggressive (I'm something of a 'cold fish' emotionally, actually), it's just that I didn't tend to filter my opinions all that well. I speak snark fluently...

However, since I took to carrying a concealed handgun (well over a decade ago), I find that it's a lot easier for me to avoid saying things to people that might prompt a confrontation. Since I have a deadly weapon in my possession, I have the moral responsibility to try to avoid confrontation that might escalate to violence. For me (a rather small person), I can't assume that I can ever fight my way out of a physical confrontation without some kind of force multiplier. Thus any such violent encounter would likely turn deadly in short order. If that occurred and I caused this escalation because of what I said, then even if the other person was the one to first resort to violence, in my estimation a significant portion of the blame for the incident would be mine.

I realize I'm probably not typical in this regard, but it really did work this way for me.