Your Conversion Experience?

[Mando'a]

My little sister went through a very messy divorce.

Her X, and his new gal-pal, decided to start threatening me and my family. Not sure why, my wife and I were always nice and friendly to him.

He is severely bipolar, spent time in a mental ward for it. Never on meds for it, but did take steroids for body building.
He did a B&E, at my sister's house, and my parents house. Fortunately no one was home. There were witnesses.
We also found out later, that on occasion, he would beat my sister.
When they had spats, he would disable her cell phone, so that she couldn't contact us.

We never met his new gal-pal, but on investigating her, discovered that she is mentally ill as well. She is also a hunter, and has access to (owns) firearms.

Because of all this, I decided to start carrying, he is obviously dangerous.
I have had a Texas CHL for about 6 years, but never owned a handgun, that has all changed. I'm now a proud father to a Glock 22.

He and his gal-pal have left the area, but they could always return.

[VoiceofReason]

Those that have read my posts on this forum are aware I am disabled and walk with a cane. I grew up hunting with my father and have never had illusions as to the unseen dangers of everyday life. I sold my guns some years ago and had intended for some time to get my CHL and a couple new guns.

About two years ago my wife and I left early traveling to South Texas. We stopped (still before daylight) at a nice truck stop/convenience store just South of Houston. We went in and I went to the restroom. There were very few people around at that time of the morning.

I was standing at the “porcelain fixture” when three young guys came in. They were not there to use the restroom. They were standing around, looking at me and talking to each other so I could not hear. The hair stood up on the back of my neck.

I kept looking over my shoulder and slowly slid my left hand into my pocket. I didn’t have anything in my pocket except a sweaty palm. I guess they decided not to call my bluff because they left. I got my CHL, a Kimber and a Beretta (32) Tomcat shortly after that. I guess you could say a gun saved my bacon and I didn’t even have one.

I fire my Kimber right handed. I use my cane with my right hand so I keep the Beretta in my left front pocket and practice with it left handed only.

[ClarkLZeuss]

I grew up anti. In 5th grade, I remember writing a paper about my great-grandfather, who was shot before my grandmother's eyes by a drunk guy at the door who got into an argument with him. I wrote about how, in Texas, there are three times as many guns as people. So I assumed guns were the problem. Didn't occur to me for a while that had my great-grandfather been carrying a gun when he answered the door, he might have lived. Or that bad people will have weapons no matter what the law says, so you better be prepared.

Fast forward to college. My grandfather passed away, and me and the cousins and uncles are asked to divest his guns from my grandma's house. For some reason, I took one of his handguns. I had never fired a gun before, so got my roommate to teach me how to shoot and how to clean it. Took the CHL class a little while later, so as to better know the laws and have a CHL, mainly for legal protection purposes, like when traveling (this was pre-MPA). But I didn't finish all the paperwork due to a long story. Later on, I get married, have a kid, then we go through Hurricane Ike. Being in a huge city like Houston with no lights on anywhere and your alarm system isn't working makes you really wake up. Especially when you've got loved ones to protect. Nothing bad happened to us, but it was all the possibilities. Took my CHL class right afterwards, and this time I went all the way.

As I look back at my life, there were several other contributing factors:

- A dangerous relative who has repeatedly tried to re-enter my life
- A few experiences, most of them at gas stations, where I believe I was cased by potential robbers
- A guy I made friends with in college who was later arrested for sexual assault (of another guy)
- My friend watching a carjacking take place 50 ft in front of him in broad daylight near the Galleria
- The potential of civil unrest from terrorism, the economy, etc.
- Church shootings (like in Colorado Springs, Waco, etc.) and other mass shootings (Virgina Tech) which shockingly taught me that even peaceful places are not safe

Clark

[Charles Ellis]

I have had no illusions as to what type of "people" walk the streets with me for a very long time.While you always kinda know that there are some bad people in the world,the true numbers and the real ugliness of their souls is almost imposible to grasp,until you have had the privelege of knowing a few thousand of them.I worked for the prison system in the 1970's and my eyes were opened very wide there.I don't carry the garbage out to the curb without a pistol on my belt,much less go out to any public place(church included).While I know it gets tiresome living in,Condition Yellow,as Jeff Cooper called it,staying alert is the key to staying safe.Now that I am a senior adult,with senior adult problems,it is even more important.The less I look like an easy target,the less likely I am to be a target.So far,so good

[joe817]

I have had no illusions as to what type of "people" walk the streets with me for a very long time.While you always kinda know that there are some bad people in the world,the true numbers and the real ugliness of their souls is almost imposible to grasp,until you have had the privelege of knowing a few thousand of them.I worked for the prison system in the 1970's and my eyes were opened very wide there.I don't carry the garbage out to the curb without a pistol on my belt,much less go out to any public place(church included).While I know it gets tiresome living in,Condition Yellow,as Jeff Cooper called it,staying alert is the key to staying safe.Now that I am a senior adult,with senior adult problems,it is even more important.The less I look like an easy target,the less likely I am to be a target.So far,so good

Very good assessment Charles. Many if not most of us share your concerns. Thanks for posting.....and welcome to the forum!

[sawdust]

I've had life-long, but spotty, experience with guns:

* Played Roy Rogers as a kid
* Some .22 rifle shooting in teenage years
* Navy bootcamp training, mostly with wooden "rifles"
* Ship's skeet shooting champion
* Years later, acquired .357 revolver & had periodic range time with it
* Basically considered myself to be a low-priority target (situational awareness, body language, etc.). Plus always kept (ex-) wife and others in front of me.
* Kept above .357 at our retail computer store that was a victim of several robberies
* Thought about CHL when first available, but procrastination....
* Inherited great-uncle's (who was Sheriff in Ellis county for decades) SW .38 (manuf. 1903)
* In new town and new business ( in less-savory part of town), kept afore-mentioned .357.
* Thought about CHL, but procrastination.....
* Became a new member of a certain (age-related)demographic, which made me realize that, regardless of how I pictured myself (mean, ready, "take-it-on" attitude ), others may now now see me as a (weak, incapable, unresisting) potential victim. Plus no one will walk in front of me anymore.
* Procrastination....... no more. Acquired CHL last year.
* Going full circle, have now returned to my Roy Rogers days, only now have 9mm. Goal is to acquire another 1-200 handguns before year is over.

[74novaman]

A guy bigger than me (saying something since I'm a little over 6 foot and over 200 lbs) cutting me off on a service road, getting out of his truck, and trying to open my driver side door, presumably to haul me out and beat the crud out of me (I assume he thought I had cut him off earlier? not really sure).

Good thing my car automatically locks the doors when its put in drive. He tried the handle, said get out of the car. When I said no, he walked off. Having never been in a fight in my life, not real sure how that would have turned out for me if my door had been open.

[stevie_d_64]

Don't think I ever needed to be converted...

I was about 5-6 years old and was bulls-eyeing fresh cow patties sitting from the hood of a jeep running in a field with a Red Rider BB gun...

By the time I was 8-9, I was usually asked to go over the hill from the house...Mainly because I was bugging the [expletive deleted] out of the adults, with my trusty Stevens .22 semi-auto nailing squirrels, rabbits and turtles (and a few snakes) by myself...

When I was 14-15, I was hunting dove and quail in the lake basin of Lake Fork Creek with the Sherrif of Wood County at the time...

I joined the Navy at 19, and took my wares there for the government to exploit...Man, I had a lot of fun with those fellers...

I was way over the curve in age when the Texas CHL law came into effect, and got into the rush for some of the first licenses, along with my Dad...

So in a sense the conversion might have been genetic...Maybe thats my problem...

[markthenewf]

Interesting reads here. I never really 'converted'. I always lived by "do what you wanna do, just don't bother me with it" rule. That works fine in a little town in Canada, but not so much in Houston.

I'm a fairly big guy who's been in a few scuffles, played hockey, worked very long days and nights at the docks, and has little reason to be even a big wary of anyone walking in my vicinity. That being said, when new neighbors moved in next door (latino family from L.A.), I soon learned from the father that they moved here because almost all of the kids were either involved or getting involved with gangs. He was a truck driver and was only around a few days a month and the whole bunch sometimes were a bit testy. I take no bull from anyone except my parents and wife, so imagine their surprise when a next-door-cracker stood up to them. The oldest brother and dad were not impressed. There were other issues with garbage and barking dogs, and eventually the dad showed up a little drunk and gave me the "I will protect my family" speech. I took that as an outright threat. However, since I'm a good law-abiding resident alien, I blew him off. The wife was quite impressed with me on that!

Considering the neighbours history and disposition, it appeared I might have to become at least familiar with handguns. I'd never handled or fired a pistol before so the next week I spoke to a buddy of mine and we went down to the range. I popped off a few 9 mm and was surprised how easy it was compared to a 12 gage or my dad's big ole' Enfield (303?). A few weeks later, I got my Kimber 1911 w/crimson trace grips (I highly recommend them). Over the few months I unloaded 1000+ rounds and both my wife and I became reasonable shots with and without the laser. Knowing the basic Texas 'castle law', I now had a much more warm & fuzzier feeling about being at home and not having to duck and run should the trash next door decide they'd had enough of their neighbor. A few months later, I decide to become a bit more educated and Texan and went ahead and did the CHL course.

The neighbors have since moved and things have gotten much better. Over the past few months I've adopted firearms as my new hobby. Among other things, I've tore down and built up a 1911 (not the CCW Kimber!) and I've started reloading 45ACP and 308. In the run of 2 years I've gone from ignorant and not caring to having a gun safe!

Anyways, I do not really carry much at all, though the pistol is readily available to us. I have carried a couple of times when being out late at night on a munchies or gasoline run, but otherwise my office doesn't permit it. I'm also still searching for a good IWB holster (crossbreed supertuck is on the way) so that I can do pants and polo shirts.

[jgedmond]

Always liked guns, but growing up in the northeast, never really got too much of a chance to followup. We moved to TX when I was 27 with two small sons and shot some .22 with Grandpa in the woods out back. Full conversion came when my then 18 year old eldest son walked in on a burglary of our home in the middle of the day. It was a bunch of early 20-year old former residents of the subdivision as kids, no one got hurt, and we got most of our stuff back. But our awareness and security measures were kicked up several notches by that experience.

[MrIan]

My parents are highly anti-gun, they wouldn't even let me play with nerf guns growing up. So I grew up ignorant about guns but was always interested. I was born in upstate NY, moved to Austin (Round Rock - suburbs), then finally to Dallas (Plano - suburbs), so the thought of crime wasn't even on my mind. Criminals only seemed to exist on the news and in the movies. I entered college and became more interested in current events. I read more and more about crime striking the suburbs and each story seemed to strike closer and closer to home. Later, a close friend of mine (girl) was robbed at gunpoint in front of her apartment. The world I thought was safe became to seem more chaotic and tragic than I had once believed. Around this time, a friend offered to take me to shoot his Walther P22. This is the first time I have ever shot a gun, and instantly became interested. I later purchased a Sig Mosquito that month. Seeing that most of my friends were girls walking around in condition white, I began talking to them about awareness, but was quickly labeled paranoid and I realized they were rather anti-gun as well. I took it upon myself to take each of them out to the shooting range in order to hopefully change their perception or at least open their mind. My arsenal slowly began to grow and while my friends are now more open, they will never be in the mindset to carry. I took it upon myself to carry instead. I figured it was better than nothing since I am around them often enough. I still continue to try to preach self defense and awareness to them now that graduation is coming up and we will be going our separate ways. My eyes have been opened to all the dangers in this world and I take it upon myself to protect my loved ones, even if they would be appalled to find a gun on me.

[kP380]

My parents are anti gun. I grew up in an anti-gun, very blue/liberal state. Moved to TX a few yrs ago and love every minute of it!

Bought a house gun for protecting the house, after one unsavory character tried to sell me on why I should open the door to have him show me what's in his spray nozzle bottles (?!)

Bought a handgun to learn about the technology of guns and applied for a CHL because I wanted to learn the laws surrounding gun use for SD.

[chasfm11]

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.

[TXCO]

Not really a conversion here. Dad returned from USMC-Pacific theater in 1945 and by 1947, at 3 years old , had me out shooting a .22. Growing up I had BB guns,both Daisy and CO2 powered, and would "hunt" all kinds of varmits. When I was 12 he got me my own .22 and a 30 cal. carbine. After high school, I joined the Army, did my tour in the "far east" and returned home.
Got into deer hunting and dove hunting but never really into pistols. I was a manager at a large parcel delivery company and one of my supervisors was really into guns, pistols in particular. He took me out one day and I got to shoot some of his pistols, don't remember brands now, but I went out and bought a Ruger .22 and would take it with me hunting and to the range.
Fast forward to 1997. At this time, I was working at TDCJ-ID and went to work at 3am and got home at approx. 2:30 pm. Wife worked in medical and worked same hours. One day when we drove up to the house, we noticed the carport door was ajar. From the car outside, we called the Sheriff. To make a long story short, we had been burgerized. I sent off for CHL paperwork at that time.

[Dirty Bob]

Like many of ya'll, there was not so much a conversion experience. Although my folks were hardcore lefties who were rabidly anti-gun, I saw the need for people to arm themselves, even as a kid. I'm extremely polite and peaceful, but some folks just won't leave me alone...

I had a lot of violent encounters growing up in a "peaceful" suburb in Calif. A mugging duo tried an ambush one night when I was walking home from college (I saw them first, watched as one stepped into the bushes off to the side, while the other blocked the sidewalk. I stepped into the street to go around them), then backed off when they saw the rattan sticks poking out of my backpack (I was taking a class 2 days/week, but carried them every day). A group of "yoots" attempted to block me and stop me on my bike one day. I grabbed one end of the heavy chain draped around my neck and chose the one I was going to hit. The group parted like the Red Sea. One of Berkeley's leading citizens attempted to push me into traffic when I was coming home from grad school on the bike. I dissuaded him with a U-lock. He backed off a moment before I was going to dent his skull with it. There were others, like the beating I took as a high school freshman that kept me out of school for a few days. My attacker just wanted to show off for his friends, so he picked me as a target. I found out later that he'd really hurt some other kids -- getting them on the ground and kicking them.

If there was one incident, it was the fine young fellow who choked me to near-unconsciousness in high school, trying to take my bike. Thank God he got scared and backed off, just as my vision was down to a pinpoint. He was a lot bigger than I was, and I tried to fight him off without any effect. Now I look back on that incident in horror at the feeling of utter helplessness I felt. I carried a homemade shank after that...a terrible choice of tool in retrospect, but it was what I could get, and I hadn't had much in the way of training at that point in life.

The most frightening was the night when a couple of local gentlemen attempted to kick in our front door in Las Cruces, NM. I was on the phone to the police (who drove down the street 30 min. later but didn't stop) with a .38 in the other hand, waiting in ambush for when the door failed. The gentlemen gave up before the door did. I was especially frightened for my wife, and I was determined to stop anyone who tried to come through the door.

I applied for a CHL as soon as I could after arriving in Texas, but we were targeted for a mugging the first afternoon we went downtown in our new hometown of San Antonio. I'd seen a skinny, nervous young man waaaay across a parking lot, just before we went into a stairwell down to the Riverwalk. It's an enclosed stairwell, and as we took the first step down, we saw large gentleman step into our path, below us. I looked back and started to turn around, but the skinny guy had sprinted to appear behind us. I grabbed the sliding utility knife in my pocket (everything was still in boxes, so I didn't have my Schrade Sharpfinger with me at the moment). My hand never left my pocket, but I was deciding how I was going to do maximum damage to the large gentleman so that Ana would have a chance to escape. I guess he saw my hand and realized that I was going to use something, because he rapidly backed off, and we got out of there.

I've enjoyed the other posts in this thread. As always, it's a learning experience for me.

Respectfully,
Dirty Bob