It's always the same refrain, over and over again.  
	
The Latin expression "ad nauseam" means "to the point of 
nausea."  My nausea threshold is pretty low early in the 
morning, I must admit.  To add insult to injury, I always 
have to ask the same question - and endure the endless, 
whining answers - every time I teach a new concealed handgun 
class.  

"Why do you want to carry a firearm?" I ask a new crop of 
students.

"Well, I wouldn't, except . . ."

"I won't actually carry it, but sometimes I have to drive 
through really bad neighborhoods . . ."

"I don't want a gun, but my husband thinks I should have 
one . . ." 

And so on.  Ad nauseam . . .

Each student acts somehow furtive, somehow ashamed, as though 
they are doing something they wouldn't want to tell their 
mothers about.

Their mother's mothers would be turning in their collective 
graves over this ridiculous attitude!

A firearm is a tool, and our grandparents and great grandparents 
knew it very well.  Yes, a firearm can certainly kill.  So can a 
power saw, and I know what I'm talking about.  I almost watched 
my adopted brother bleed to death from such a horrific accident. 
Screwdrivers and ice picks are among the most popular murder 
weapons.   And an automobile is the deadliest machine of all!   
Automobiles kill many, many more people than those killed by 
firearms each year.

So which of these devices do you think we should ban?

Tools, including firearms, do not get up and do evil deeds by 
themselves.  I tell my concealed handgun students, again and 
again, there is no such thing as an "accidental" discharge.  
There is only a negligent discharge.  If you learn the safety 
rules, and make them a part of your every instinct, firearms 
are no more dangerous than any other tool.  And they are far 
more useful!

Oh, I can hear your collective gasp of horror all the way down 
here in Texas.  Yes, dammit, firearms are useful!

You constantly hear claims that firearms are killing kids left 
and right.  The simple truth is that more kids are killed 
playing high school football each year than die from firearms 
related incidents, including suicide!  Another fact that might 
interest you is that zero percent - that's zero percent - of 
kids who are given firearms and proper training in their 
responsible use ever commit crimes with those firearms.  The 
firearms used in juvenile/young adult crime are all illegally 
obtained anyway.

Yet firearms are used by law-abiding citizens to prevent a 
staggering 2,500,000 crimes each and every single year!  And 
on almost every single occasion, no shot is ever fired.

Now tell me the truth.  If someone told you about a tool that 
could prevent 2,500,000 crimes per year, and didn't tell you 
it was a firearm, you would definitely call that a useful tool, 
wouldn't you?  Of course you would!

So why does everyone choke on the idea that firearms are 
useful?

My students have come to me because they each have made a 
decision to take responsibility for their lives and the lives 
of their loved ones.  It is a difficult and courageous decision, 
the mark of a true adult.  They have faced and accepted the 
reality that police nearly always come anywhere from minutes 
to hours after the crime is committed, and therefore are 
incapable of protecting the victim.  

The men and women who come to me for concealed handgun 
instruction have recognized this, and they have decided not 
to be victims.  They have decided, like the courageous five 
aboard Flight 93, not to go quietly to the rear of the 
airplane and call home.

They have decided, like the founding fathers of this country, 
to bear arms for lawful and moral purposes.  This is not an act 
of cowardice.  It is an act of great courage.  Our forefathers 
who took up arms pledged their lives, their fortunes and their 
sacred honor.  Those were not mere words then, and they are not 
just words now.  Everyone who chooses to bear arms today is 
making the same pledge.

You don't believe me?  Well, look at it this way.  If I observe 
an unarmed citizen in life and death trouble, and I am armed, I 
have a moral obligation to step in and at least try to save his 
or her life.  In doing so, I am almost certainly risking my own 
life on his or her behalf.  If I am so unfortunate as to be 
forced to shoot someone in the course of offering said citizen 
my aid, I will be paying lawyers and fending off civil suits 
for the rest of my days - which should effectively wipe out 
any fortune I am ever able to accumulate.  Finally, the very 
subject of firearms is so emotional that it is entirely possible 
that a jury may convict me of an actual crime even though I was 
acting in clear self-defense or defense of a third party.  This 
may not touch my "sacred" honor, but it certainly affects my 
public honor if I am so unlucky as to be convicted of murder!

So choosing to bear arms is indeed an act of great courage.  It 
is a decision and a stance that any human being should be proud 
of. 

Yet my students do not come to me with pride.  They come to me 
furtively and ashamed, desperately making excuses for their 
decision as if the mere association with firearms will somehow 
damage their integrity as human beings.  Before I can even 
begin to teach them what they must know to bear arms safely 
and legally in this state, I must teach them that armed 
self-defense is their right, not a privilege they must ask 
for - and never, never something they should apologize for.  
They are requesting a concealed handgun license from the state 
for the sole purpose of remaining out of jail, but they were 
born with the instinct and the right to defend their own lives. 
 This instinct is not immoral, and it never will be.  And there 
is nothing nobler than the decision to risk your own life to 
defend someone else.

It is interesting to watch the process.  They sit a little 
straighter now.  

The next step is to teach them Texas law and a few simple rules 
for resolving conflicts without violence.  We cover some firearm 
safety rules, and they take a range test so unbelievably easy it 
only proves that they know at which end of the range the target 
is located.  That test is meant to be easy.  It should be easy 
for an 80 year old grandmother to pass.  It was designed that 
way!

After the state requirements and testing are completed, they 
take their first steps on a lifetime journey together.  I would 
not presume to tell my students what is right and what is wrong. 
 I tell them about Texas law, that's all.  But I do have an 
obligation to make them think about right and wrong.  They must 
begin to set their personal boundaries and define what they are 
and are not willing to do.

In the midst of a firefight is not the place to make these 
philosophical decisions!

For example:  If a burglar broke into your house tonight and 
tried to make off with your VCR, would you confront and try to 
stop him?  If he attacked you then, would you shoot to defend 
yourself?  You had better know the answers to these and many 
other questions before you choose to keep and/or carry a 
firearm.  When the situation is happening, it is already much 
too late to think it through.  I ask my students to try imagine 
every possible circumstance and decide what they would and 
would not do.  The thinking process is never complete.  It 
is ongoing.

There is self-defense, and there is murder.  Much of the time 
that line is clear and obvious.  But many circumstances can 
blur the line between self-defense and murder to the point 
where there is no clear cut right and wrong answer.  Personal 
boundaries must be set in that gray area.  In fact, I can't 
imagine any decision more personal except possibly the decision 
of what deity to worship.  

That idea sinks in, and my students leave the classroom with a 
lot of thinking to do.

What they do not yet realize is that the thinking they will do 
over the coming months and years is going to change them forever 
- and for the better.  It never fails.
  
That is the hidden virtue of firearms.  We do very little 
moral thinking in our society.  Most kids today are actually 
embarrassed at the mention of "right" and "wrong."  Yet 
concepts of right and wrong, of duty - and of sacrifice - 
go hand in hand with the idea of lawful carry.  Training 
your kids in the use of firearms offers a golden opportunity 
to teach them moral values.

Thomas Jefferson, one of the great architects of our nation, 
understood this very well.  In 1785, he wrote a letter to Peter 
Carr, then attending school in Paris, in which he offered warm 
advice on how best to seek success, both in college and in life.

In Jefferson's own words:  "A strong body makes the mind strong. 
As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this 
gives a moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, 
enterprise, and independence to the mind. Games played with 
the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the 
body, and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore 
be the constant companion of your walks."

Excellent advice.