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For me, the trigger for the conversion was being in remote places while RVing. I grew up around long guns and was shooting from the time that I was about 8. We lived in one place (Glenside, PA) where we had a looney neighbor and I bought our .22 pistol there. After we started spending many days out of cell phone range in the RV, I started carrying my Dad's pump shotgun with us but without a real thought or plan about I'd do with it.

Earlier this year, there was a string of reports about RVs being broken into with people in them. I had always figured before that I would see any threat and be able to deal with it outside. Now, I know that isn't necessarily so. I bought a handgun and started my CHL process. Then I found this forum.

Wow! I've always considered myself to be a condition yellow type. I worked 3rd shift in downtown Philadelphia for years moving through many parts of the city in one night. I've traveled alone in many countries in Europe and have was confronted many times, though never violently. I just didn't have the right kind of clothing to blend it so I found that I was safest if I kept my head on a swivel. I've always done that while driving, too, and have saved myself a lot of grief by anticipating what was going to happen. I have some great stories. This forum has taught me that while I thought that I was in condition yellow, much of the time it was definitely condition white and I've made a bunch of changes, most of them mental, since I started reading and responding here. I never dreamed of carrying every day because I initially just wanted to license to make sure that I was covered in the RV. Now, I won't think about not carrying. I really don't expect that any thing more will happen to me in the next 7 years more than the 7 years since we've lived in our current house but I'm a lot better prepared than I was if things do go South. I freely admit, however, that I have a long ways to go in preparation. I have a plan and it is getting better every week.

Another important point. It is very easy to go from placid to paranoid. It wasn't just about being attacked but what would happen after I was attacked and acted to thwart the attack. For a while, I almost thought that the "cure" might be more freedom threatening than the disease. With time and more reading, I've mentally worked through the mine field of "what ifs". I've come up with a mind set that I hope will work for me and I'm simply practicing both mentally and physically so that I will be able to react if I need to. I've never been one to loose my head in a crisis but I had never imagined myself having to respond to some of the horrific circumstances that could occur. I see it as going from 0 to 60 in a 1/2 second without jumping the timing light. Jump the light and it may be a path directly to jail. Don't respond quickly enough and in the right way and the chance to do anything might be gone.

So I believe that my conversion experience is on-going. Since I don't know yet where the end of it will be, it is hard to judge progress. I just know that I've come a very long way in what I believe to be a reasonably short time.