My state has it, but I don’t own one. I have no need for a gun.

Florida. Yes. I live on a boat, at times not in the best marinas and not in the best parts of towns. If you own a handgun, there is a chance you’ll use it against another human being sometime. If you do, things go a little easier if you have a carrying permit and know the laws in your state.

I have lots of firearms but never felt the need to be armed in public. I always figured I could take care of me and my loved one’s without one. But I live in a safe place, that might change if I lived in a city with a serious crime problem. I’m good with a pistol, so it’s nothing at all to do with confidence. Just never felt the need.

Ohio allows it, but I don’t have one. Why not? I don’t think that I have enough skill or control with a firearm to handle one in a dangerous situation. If I’m not going to be able to use it correctly and well, I shouldn’t use it at all. Yes, to be fixed with practice, but I haven’t had time.

@tedibear Excellent point. If you’re not proficient in the use of a weapon it only adds to the danger in a bad situation.

My state has concealed carry permits. i don’t feel the need to carry a firearm on the street . i have handguns, rifles and shotguns and I am proficient with all of them. i do keep a 18½” barreled 12 gauge pump loaded with 00 buck for home protection use.

My state allows it, as does the county. I have one.
I live in a very quiet and safe area and do not carry in public most of the time.
When I go into the woods alone, I carry. It is a tool I can handle well.

Never owned a gun, although I wouldn’t mind acquiring one just to have in the house for protection. If I had a gun, it would never be carried outside the house, so a concealed carry permit isn’t in my plans.;

Georgia does allow me to carry, if I wanted to.

My state does not have one. A neighboring state does, and I dated a guy who had it. If we had stayed together, I’d have learned how to at least handle the weapons and get licensed, but I don’t know if I’d have gotten a carry permit if I moved to that state. My fiancé is anti-guns, and I respect that.

My personal opinion straddles the lines: I believe that we should have the right to own firearms, but I believe that licensure should only be permitted to those who have passed mental health checks, and who have had training and proven proficiency to be able to control each weapon they want to own, and that proficiency should be retested at least every 10 years (and every 5 years over 60 y/o). Concealed carry permits should have even higher proficiency and mental/emotional stability standards.

Similarly, I believe people should be tested and prove proficiency to handle every vehicle that they purchase. A driver’s license demonstrates knowledge of the rules of the road, but some people can’t handle the higher HP or rear-wheel drive sports cars, or the higher center-of-gravity and bulk of some trucks and SUVs. Heck… many people don’t even know how to park! And just because I have a Motorcycle license doesn’t mean that I could handle every bike that’s on the market, either. And I would like that to be tested with each new vehicle purchase or every 10 years (5 years over 60 y/o), whichever comes first.

No. Because the only reason to have a gun is to kill somebody.

There may be a way to say “I need it for defense” yet having a gun means the only way to defend myself is to kill someone.

There is no other reason to have a gun. Guns are designed and highly efficient at killing people.

My state has voluntary CC permits; I don’t have one. I have firearms, but rarely carry. The permit process is administrative only: no classes or testing required.

Several years ago I asked a local city cop if I should get a permit, and he was totally noncommittal.

I don’t own a gun, but if I felt I needed to carry one I would get a concealed carry permit. It’s legal in my state and the last few I have lived in. I saw a show once where a woman lived in a state she couldn’t get the permit so she walked with her gun out. She had been stalked or raped, I can’t remember, and was terrified legitimately for her life. She carried her gun from her car to her workplace and back, just held it out in her hand, because she was alone in the parking lot and felt vulnerable. Perfectly legal, I don’t remember what state.

I never owned a handgun and I’ve been safe for 50 years.

I’ve gone this long without one, I’ll be fine for a few more years.

@zenvelo Over the years I have put thousands of rounds through my guns and have never killed anyone or even pointed it at a person.
I’m an engineer and live in a rural area so I might see things a little differently from you.
The gun is a tool that carries a number of 200 ft-pound (~250 Ws) packets of energy, stored in a convenient form that can be released mechanically and reliably in any weather. It also makes noise at well over 140 db and can deliver a payload at extended distances.
Here is how I use my equipment, almost weekly:
– I use the rifle to open up and disperse hay bales I leave out for the deer in the dead of winter. (I can do it from the house rather than trudge outside in snow with windchills below 0F.)
– I scare away deer from the bird feeders I have out back by shooting filled water bottles strategically places nearby.
– I load shotgun shells with a mix of #9 shot (very fine) and insecticide and shoot tent caterpillar nests that are high up, out of reach, in my ancient apple trees.
– I have used the 20 gauge to shake loose a blockage at the input baffle of my septic tank. The shotgun delivers a high volume of gas not unlike a plunger.
– I carry the handgun when I am alone in the woods on my own property using the chainsaw. If I run into trouble I can fire a couple of shots and someone will come.
– I carry the handgun in the woods when I am alone at night putting out food (e.g. turkey carcass) for the fox and other critters. I will admit it right now, the coyote pack out there scare the s*** out of me. If they can take down deer in the snow they can take me down. I’ve watched them with a thermal imager (not night vision) in total darkness, and saw them hiding behind trees watching me and circling. Holy sitting duck Batman!
– When the DEC says there is a bear in the neighborhood I carry and make noise with them.
– I have used the rifle to control pests: squirrels and English house sparrows which are killing the bluebirds. The NYSDEC has issued an alert to destroy House sparrows in any form, chicks, adults , eggs. They have also said to shoot the wild boar (feral pigs) that are starting to spread out from Central NYS and are causing tremendous damage to crops. (They are not in our area yet but they are in @Adirondackwannabe ‘s neck of the woods.)
– I prune out of reach branches that are interfering with my bowhunting neighbor’s deer stand set up on my property.
– I have gone hunting with my FIL, friends, and neighbors but do not care for it. I do like the social aspect of sitting out in the middle of nowhere on our property and talking about life and the issues of the world.
– I performed a demo visually showing the speed of sound to some science students. I fired a weak (about 1000 f/s muzzle velocity) tracer round at night at a distant target about 200 yards away. Beside the speed they could also see the rise and fall of the bullet following the laws of motion S=½ a t^2. Very cool!
And
– In the rare situation where I must go someplace dangerous in the city I will have one of them concealed on my person in such a way that no one will know. Concealed means concealed. This is rare.
In all the years I’ve owned them (>40 years) I have never used one in anger, or drunk, or aimed one at a person.
The guns are tools. I use them about as often as my riding lawn mower, snow blower and my 2 hp air compressor, and much more frequently than my 6 ton trailer, 12 ton winch, and torque wrench set. ;-)

I do not have a concealed carry permit because I do not own a gun. I do own many other weapons, however, and would happily get a concealed carry permit for them if my state allowed it. We had legislation that would have allowed concealed carry for martial arts weapons last year, but it died over some ridiculous concern. We are allowed to open carry just about anything, though, and I have done so on a few occasions.

Have owned guns for years. Do not have a CC permit even though it almost seems like they are required by law here in Texas. Many friends do have them and most who do carry at least some of the time. Not a big deal, I am not sure what they are afraid of but to each his own.

Actually, I do know what they are afraid of but those guys have a bunch of uniformed guys who do their dirty work and with much more powerful firepower, including drones that’ll kill ya before you know your dead; and a Glock 40, even with an extended clip, is not gonna do much against them babies.

After 58 years I have never found myself in a situation that I can look back on and say “That would have went better if I had had a gun and could have got off a few rounds”.

My current situation precludes the need. There is a far greater chance of an accidental discharge or something hurting me because of a gun than there ever is of using it in self-defense.

Of course, if I lived in a delusional red state, I might reconsider. In that case, having a gun might be the safest survival strategy against delusional neighbors who also carry concealed weapons. Or not. I simply don’t know. However, I prefer to simply avoid uncivilized places.

I have one. I don’t carry unless I know I’m going into a dangerous area. I’ll carry when hiking or extended backpacking in the back country. So many places still omit carry even with a permit so it’s basically too easy to screw up and carry where you are not supposed to. For that reason I don’t usually and I really don’t feel like I need to. I like going to the range and plinking and there is less of a chance of getting harassed because of all of the nit-picky nonsense laws that can get you in trouble. Most people around my part of the country are gun owners. I grew up around them and consequently understand them and am not “fearful” of them. Basically ALL of the anti-gun nuts really have not been around them and are usually just afraid of something they don’t understand or misunderstand because of all of the political propaganda. I can’t say I’m comfortable around the gung-ho gun nuts though, mainly because they are annoying.

We have concealed carry here, but I don’t own a gun. Despite being an excellent shot (much to the chagrin of my gun-nut best friend) I know I’m much safer walking around without a loaded lethal weapon. If I get robbed, I’ll just give the guy my wallet (don’t keep much cash on me anyways).

I don’t have one, I live in Texas like @rojo so they’re certainly allowed and occasionally get preferential treatment.

I put a lot of thought into whether or not I wanted to have the option to carry and ultimately decided I don’t really go anywhere I want to be carrying a gun in any situation where I might need to use it. I would honestly feel compelled to “do something” if I was able and felt I was best suited while someone else was at risk and I think that’s the exact situation where people start getting shot.

One of the friendly poker games I used to play in got robbed by three guys with one gun. I wasn’t there, but had a lot of friends in the room. The guys took everything of any value. If I put myself in that situation with a gun I think I’d be trying to figure out ten things completely unrelated to getting through that safely. Without a gun I don’t feel the same responsibility.

My intentions would be good, but almost every outcome from the moment that decision is made to resist or intervene is negative. It’s just the wrong decision to do anything and I guess ultimately I don’t trust myself to make a passive/smart decision in the moment, so I make it before.

If my little girl grows up some and we get to go camping, hiking, rock climbing or some other hobby that takes us out to the middle of nowhere often, I would probably consider getting one then so transporting a pistol to and from wouldn’t be a big deal. There it can be a tool or reasonable last resort. But as a city dwelling civilian I can’t see a situation where it reduces my risk to be carrying a weapon out in public, so I don’t.

Florida and yes. I have had one for many years. Fortunately, only got to use my firearm in a range. I feel a little safer, knowing I can protect myself.