Everyone wants to be the tough guy. Everyone wants to be the hero. But, if you stop and think about it, is that really what you want, to be the guy that everyone is afraid of?

Maybe, maybe not.

If you’re a person into guns (and I’m assuming that you are if you’re reading this), then, the people that know you know that you, generally, have the ability to be dangerous at a moment’s notice. Why? Because there is a good chance that you’re carrying a firearm on your person (or, at least, within easy reach, if you’re at home) at all times.

They know you as a “shooter,” meaning a person who tends to have a firearm and can shoot back if someone with evil intent opens fire.

Is that how you want everyone (even the people who aren’t close to you) to know you as?

If it is, then, consider that you’ve made yourself a target.

If someone intent on killing innocent people goes some place for that purpose, who are they going to target first? Answer: people who are known to be armed and law enforcement (who, often, are presumed to be armed). You’ve lost all element of surprise in the situation, and you may not even get the chance to fight back to save innocent lives by engaging the attacker because they’ve already injured or killed you before you could respond.

That’s why I, personally, only carry concealed and never open carry. I want to be the person who can surprise the shooter because they didn’t know that I was (hopefully) the most dangerous person in the room. And if I’m fortunate that day, those people will never know that I’m that dangerous person because I never show my firearm in public, and I never initiate violence and would only use it to defend myself and others.

That is thinking tactically about how you choose to carry your firearms. You can hear some more thoughts about that, including how Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is relevant for law-abiding gun owners, by watching the video below.

I love the Sun Tzu quote that he mentioned in the video: “Let your movements be as dark and impenetrable as night, and when you fall, fall like a thunderclap.”

That is exactly how you should be thinking when you carry your firearm everyday. Let your carrying everyday be unnoticed (as dark and impenetrable as night), and in the rare and horrible situation in which you find that you have to take action, make that action a surprise and fight ending (fall like a thunderclap) so that the most people possible get to go home alive and uninjured.

Aspire to be a tactician and not just someone with a gun.