Your Obligation to Bare Arms — Part III: If You Carry, You Must Train
Carrying a firearm, open or concealed, is not the finish line. It’s the starting pistol (pun intended). If you choose to carry, you owe the people around you competence: safe gun handling, sound legal judgment, performance under stress, and most importantly, the self-control and willpower to know when NOT to act. That standard doesn’t come from gear. It comes from training and repetition. Why training isn’t optional 1) Safety isn’t “common sense.” It’s a learned, repeatable behavior. The core rules of safe handling and secure storage are simple, but they only become automatic through practice. Industry programs like NSSF’s Project ChildSafe exist for a reason: preventable errors still happen when people skip fundamentals. Train the rules until they’re reflexive at home, in your vehicle, and on the range. 2) Real events unfold faster than your untrained brain. Under stress, perception, decision, and motor response are racing a clock you don’t control. Force-science research documents ho...
