From: Tim Schmidt
Founder – U.S. Concealed Carry Magazine

Tim discusses his inspiration for creating Concealed Carry Magazine: Chapter 20 in Living with Glocks by Robert H. Boatman

I’d like to tell you a story. I hope it will inspire you. It all started for me about four years ago. It was a sunny, yet cool, October morning. I was sitting on an airplane reading an article called The Constitutional Right and Social Obligation to Carry A Gun, by Robert Boatman. A good friend of mine had given me the article and said, “Tim, you just have to read this!” I wish you could have been there with me. I couldn’t’t believe some of the things that I was reading. This Boatman guy had written words that were going straight to what matters most to me. His words were inspiring to say the least. You see, I was a new father at the time and the responsibility of taking care of my wife and new child were weighing heavily on me.
I shifted uncomfortably in my chair as I continued to read. Boatman wrote,

“Carrying a gun is a social responsibility.”

A social responsibility? Come on. I always thought that only cops were supposed to carry guns. Heck, I grew up around guns. My Dad had me shooting is .357 Magnum when I was 10… but carrying one everyday? Now that seemed a little intense. Well, I kept on reading.

Boatman:  “A citizen who shirks his duty to contribute to the
security of his community is little better than the
criminal who threatens it.”

Wow. What he was saying was astounding. I had never really thought that carrying a gun was really that important. And now this guy was telling me that I am “shirking my duty” if I’m not willing to arm myself? Hold on for just one second… Could It Be True? No one had ever told me I wasn’t responsible. Could it be? Was it possible that Boatman was pulling my head out of the sand? Heck, I live in a small town with almost no crime. We sometimes forget to lock our front door! The article went on to cite many interesting statistics regarding the effects of “good guys” carrying concealed guns.

Boatman:  “Even though most people do not carry guns, the
mere possibility that an intended victim could be
armed with a handgun eliminates millions of crimes
every year” “According to the FBI, states with “shall-issue” right-to-carry laws have a 26 percent lower total violent crime rate, a 20 percent lower homicide rate, a 39 percent lower robbery rate and a 22 percent lower aggravated assault rate than those states that do not allow their citizens to legally carry guns.”

“Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at
Florida State University, Gary Kleck, in Point
Blank: Gun Violence in America found that ‘robbery
and assault victims who used a gun to resist were
less likely to be attacked or to suffer an injury
than those who used any other method of self-
protection or those who did not resist at all.’”

I sat in my chair utterly dumbfounded. The harsh words from Boatman, coupled with the mind- blowing statistics, had really opened my eyes. I’d always been fond of saying, “You’re either part of the problem or part of the solution.” It was pretty clear to me what side I was on.

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