I live in a large old house that was once a hotel with a number of people who are coming and going at all hours. Occasionally people stay with us for a period of time. For example a local police officer stayed in our home for a year after his divorce. He remarried and for a while we also had his wife and her child living with us. We also had another police officer who had quit the force and stayed with us while he was in between jobs. One of my daughter's friends was in Puerto Rico for six months and her fifteen year old son roomed with us.
The police officer worked different shifts and often his friends would stop by to visit in the middle of the night. His wife worked police dispatch and also worked different shifts.
Sometimes a truly odd noise would wake me up in the middle of the night and I would decide to go investigate. (I realize that playing Wyatt Earp is not a good idea but I had my daughter, her husband and two grandchildren to worry about.)
I could have walked out of my bedroom with a 12 gauge coach gun and scared the shit out of some innocent visitor, which would have been foolish. Instead I slipped a S&W Model 642 snub nosed .38 revolver into my pants pocket. Often I would encounter a visitor. I would simply say hello and walk to the kitchen to get a glass of water.
All the visitor ever noticed was an older overweight man with his hand innocently in his pants pocket.
My choices were:
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6Eg670GzQKM/SSiMYwa20YI/AAAAAAAAAuk/Bp8-H0rTpk0/s320/StoegerSXS.jpg)
or
One time the police officer who was in between jobs, my daughter and myself stopped by a nearby fast food joint. While he had been on the force, he had made some enemies but he didn't have a CCW so he no longer could legally carry. He must have noticed something or someone who was suspicious as he whispered to us, "Are you carrying?"
My daughter and I laughed as we both were armed. I have a concealed weapons permit as does my daughter and her husband.
We look at it as it is better to have a carry permit and not need it than it is to not have a permit and need one.
A prime example of that was when my daughter attracted a stalker. She filed a restraining order but this fool violated it with impunity. Everywhere my daughter went she encountered the stalker. Of course she reported every violation to the police, but little seemed to happen. One day this cockroach pushed a bit too far. I witnessed the violation as did a store owner. The police officer who arrived arrested the stalker and after a trail he spend five weekends in jail. He appears to have learned his lesson.
My daughter would have lived in fear had she not had a concealed weapons permit. The stalker had a lengthy arrest record including several incidents of violence including resisting arrest. My daughter had no desire to shoot the stalker, and while he appear to love acting in a threatening manner in order to scare her, he never did attack. She would have shot him without the slightest hesitation if he had.