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According to recent statistics, roughly 9,484,417 concealed carry permits have been issued, in sum, in the United States (1). That, of course, doesn’t count the applications currently in-process and those who have applied and were denied. By all other indicators, there is a sharp spike in those applications in just the last year. Crime rates go up and down depending on what study was published so I wish to forego a spirited debate on the correlative values of guns and crime for another article. I’m more interested in motivations behind the applications---is it real violence or only a perception? Is it real fear or just propaganda?
In today's society, we fight a broken criminal justice system, denial, apathy, a loss of faith and hope, and a disintegration of our American ideals and values. We have political division, moral relativity, secular humanism, a poor economy, war, terror, crime, and people are pessimistic and cynical about the world and their place in it. Have fear, loathing, and hatred reached maximum proportion dividing neighbor against neighbor? Is government intrusion and economic conditions a cause for relative deprivation and thus violence a response to public safety professionals working for those agencies or against our already multicultural society? Are we reaching critical mass with social unrest?
As a community held together by a social contract where we have surrended part of our liberty for security, there is a paradigm shift that we must now consider in our response to crime, terror, and all that we stand to protect and it begins with ourselves.
Moving forward commands a tactic that takes no budget, travel, application, or expense beyond that of our own attitudes and perceived limitations—a personal reflection to answer a rhetorical question, “To be or not to be”? I’m not talking about Shakespeare but a challenge to consider a singular declarative statement in your life as a law enforcement officer, firefighter, paramedic, military soldier AND vested citizen of the public-at-large who often find themselves managing violence on their own---and that is to BE safe!
How often are we vulnerable and brave enough to say, “I don’t have my stuff together…and I need to do better.”? We are often lulled into complacency by the apathy and denial of violence and, further, by people who pat us on the back and say “You do good work.” Maybe you do good work, but do you always do good work?
In our scientific community, there is no truth, but only the most probable truth. I say all of this as a challenge for forward and progressive thinking. From now on, I call each and every one of you to BE safe vs. asking others (or being asked) to STAY safe or waiting around for someone else to make your environment hunky dory. It’s not lip service or a semantics issue. Have you ever told anyone (or have been told) to stay well, good, or right? With an underlying anxiety born out of fear from friends and family being hurt (and not having control of that environment to ensure their safety), we say things like “be careful” and “be good.” Even Sgt. Esterhaus from the 80s television drama Hill Street Blues used to end roll call with the familiar “Be careful out there.” The reality is that bad stuff can and does happen and we neutralize our own fear through those words—an expression of love, goodwill, and a desire for them to be in a safe environment and make safe choices.
Consider that in most dictionaries and laws of philosophy, the idea of staying safe is a continuance of a “place or condition” that already exists. Staying safe presupposes that we have met some excellent or peak condition and simply work and live from that foundation. This is a difficult task when met with less-than-static and unfavorable conditions inherent to our work and lives. In the police business, we call it “tense, evolving, and uncertain.” Even in survival training, our best trainers and psychologists have taught us to not stay in one particular condition.
Now consider the idea of “being” safe. To be expresses a futuring. It’s an arrangement in advance or a future predicated on history. When you kiss your family goodbye before heading out the door, consider a possibility of existing in a progressive verb tense. I see it as a constructive way to solve problems as a prospective function. Being safe requires reflection—where we were, where we are, where we want to be. It requires us to see ourselves as others see us. While Mom always told us not to worry about what other people think, the fact of the matter is that people do see and think things about us. From it, act and actor become one and what comes next is not always a good thing, as our socialization-by-perception may not serve us well. It confuses our self-confidence and intuition against the rules of society and, more importantly, against those who do not conform to the rules of society.
As warriors in our great country, I ask you to be safe. It makes us look for the more desirable. It’s a process of coming “to” and a mindset that can serve us as a flexible idea of what "can be" while maintaining integrity in both the service we provide to our communities and the love we provide to our families. Be safe. You are more than flesh and blood. Behind them exist ideas and ideals---all of which are bulletproof!
Copyright © by Brian A. Kinnaird
Brian A. Kinnaird, Ph.D. is a former law enforcement officer and current criminal justice professor. He is active as an author, trainer, speaker, and consultant and can be contacted at brian.kinnaird@gmail.com.
References and Suggested Reading:
1.) Retrieved 08/25/2013 [http://www.legallyarmed.com]
