Concealed Carry Class

Last Sunday, Jason and I attended a Concealed Carry Class at a gun club. We both passed, so we were eligible to apply for concealed carry licenses. If we survive the CBI background check, we'll be able to carry guns around lots of places in public, hidden in clothes or pockets or purses or cars or fanny packs. They make all kinds of dorky clothes with secret gun pockets built in! And specialized fanny packs that unzip instantly so you can get your gun in a hurry.

I had comically imagined the other students as conspiracy theory freaks, looking like Zed from Pulp Fiction or Herman from The Simpsons.


In reality, no one in the whole gun shop looked anything like them. The entire place was incredibly clean and polite. The workers were clean cut and wore red polo shirts with the gun club's name embroidered on them.

Even the women's bathroom was spotless, and with nicer toilet paper than I buy for my home.

I thought I would hear all about Obama trying to take away our guns, but I did not. I did not hear much at all about the NRA.

We mostly talked about Colorado law, especially when you can shoot someone and get away with it. I disagreed with the instructor several times, thinking that he was giving people a false sense of a RIGHT to kill people. I never practiced law, and I'm definitely no expert on gun laws, but killing someone usually means you are going to prison. It's true that sometimes you won't even be arrested if you shoot an intruder inside your Colorado house, but I wouldn't count on it!

There are just so many factors that go into it. Law is almost never simple, so you can't count on making a clear prediction of what will happen.

Yesterday, we went to the courthouse to apply for our licenses. The clerk who helped us did not act at all surprised or anything. Well, she was surprised that we had brought everything we were supposed to bring, and that we had filled out our forms correctly. Now we just have to wait up to 90 days, and we can go get fingerprinted and photographed and then maybe receive our licenses.

Two things about going to the courthouse:

We tried to get into some news camera shots. The Court had sentenced a child-killer to 16 years in prison before we got there. Three newsvans were present, and I tried to get right in the way of their cameras. No one called to tell us they saw us on TV, so I guess it didn't work.

One woman who worked in the records department was kind of frumpy looking, with a sweatshirt and jeans on (it must have been casual Friday). Then we saw her in the parking lot, putting the top down on her BMW 2-seater. Oh, Boulder! Such a mish-mash of a city.

Two things about being in Boulder:

It is so cool to be that close to the mountains. I got used to it while I was in school, but it was incredible all over again after not spending time in Boulder for about a year.

We ate dinner at a place with a view of a busy road. I've never been anywhere else where traffic contained such a high percentage of SUVs with dogs sticking their heads out the windows.