Download This Issue - US Concealed Carry
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When choosing a<br />
handgun, you must<br />
find one you can<br />
physically operate.<br />
efense,<br />
ealed <strong>Carry</strong><br />
[ B Y C A R O L Y N B O Y L E S ]<br />
it will be as a last resort, not a first.”<br />
You need to be able to read people<br />
and situations, says LaHaie. You need to<br />
know what to pay attention to, understand<br />
how to pay attention to safetyrelated<br />
details, and be able to match<br />
the degree of your awareness to your<br />
circumstances. He continues by saying<br />
you must accept full responsibility for<br />
your safety. You must identify situations<br />
in your own life that require a higher<br />
level of vigilance, build and refine your<br />
self-defense maps by continuous learning<br />
and analyze the news to familiarize<br />
yourself with criminal patterns and factors.<br />
You need to practice your observation<br />
skills and establish self-defense<br />
habits. 4<br />
So how does all this come into play for<br />
a disabled person? One of the best ways<br />
to avoid becoming the victim of a crime<br />
is to be aware of your surroundings at<br />
any given time, even in your own home.<br />
Situational awareness is even more important<br />
for a disabled person because<br />
they may not be able to flee. Many of<br />
the factors to be considered in protecting<br />
yourself from personal harm or from<br />
harm to property are different for the<br />
disabled. As Dr. Eimer has bought up<br />
many times, having a disability brings<br />
with it problems a non-disabled person<br />
does not have. <strong>This</strong> affects a person’s<br />
ability to accept full responsibility for<br />
his or her own safety. A disabled person<br />
is more distracted than a non-disabled<br />
person. <strong>This</strong> may be as a result of pain,<br />
spasms, medication, financial worries,<br />
or other reasons, depending on the disability.<br />
A disabled person may not be<br />
able to assess a situation and avoid it<br />
in the same way a non-disabled person<br />
can.<br />
Now to my own situation. I have a<br />
spinal cord injury in my neck. I am an<br />
incomplete quadriplegic. <strong>This</strong> means<br />
the injury affects my entire body. While<br />
I do have some feeling and some mobility<br />
below the level of the injury, I have<br />
very limited range of motion in my<br />
neck. I get around using either forearm<br />
crutches or a walker. I want to discuss<br />
my decision to obtain a concealed carry<br />
permit and some of the factors a disabled<br />
person needs to consider in selecting<br />
a firearm.<br />
I live in Arkansas, which is a shall-issue<br />
state rather than a may-issue state.<br />
A shall-issue state is one where the issuing<br />
authority processing the application<br />
is required to approve it unless<br />
the applicant is disqualified based on<br />
the law. 5 If I lived in a may-issue state,<br />
I would be worried about being denied<br />
a concealed carry permit because<br />
I am disabled, especially if the issuing<br />
authority had decided it did not want<br />
disabled individuals to have concealed<br />
carry permits.<br />
Given my disability, I realized I had<br />
few alternatives to self-defense. I did not<br />
want to become a victim. I knew I was at<br />
higher risk to be victimized. I knew that<br />
crimes in my area were increasing, as a<br />
result of meth use and production. I also<br />
knew there was insufficient jail space to<br />
house all the criminals and that as a result<br />
jail was becoming a revolving door<br />
JULY 2008 n CONCEALED CARRY MAGAZINE n <strong>US</strong>CONCEALEDCARRY.COM<br />
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