This is liable to be a hot topic, especially in light of recent media coverage. Many advocate everyday carry, concealed or open depending on your state’s laws, but relatively few people practice this.

Some carry all day long, indoors and out, everywhere they go; some only when they’re traveling in a “bad” area or out in the woods, and some, of course, have weapons available at home for defense.

For myself, I’m do a little of all of these things: in town, I have Bob—that’s his name—next to my bed, unless there’s rioting going on in the area. Hey, I live in the STL metro area, it happens . . . if it’s going on, Bob moves around the house with me, usually sitting on my desk when I’m working in the office. He definitely travels with me to certain areas, but not to the grocery store or on most errands.

Out at the farm, Bob sits on my desk or the kitchen table, or he goes to the barn or garden or out in the woods with me. Not because I’m afraid of people, but we do have a good-sized snake population. If it’s a venomous variety, it dies.

In either location, if someone comes to the door who I’m not expecting, Bob comes along for the ride.

And you might laugh, but I don’t carry loaded. See, my Glock’s safety is in the trigger and I really don’t want to accidentally shoot someone—or myself. But I practice changing out that mag constantly and I’m very, very fast.

I don’t yet believe that we’ve come to the point where carrying a weapon all over town is necessary. Concealed or open. In fact, I’m not real big on open carry—to me, that’s kind of like having a huge, jacked-up truck. We all know what you’re really concealing there, dude.

The odds of being in a situation where you need to have your weapon, out in public, are really quite small, at least for the time being. And if you’re in a situation like that, you might want to think about where you’re traveling and why and even when. Statistically, if you’re walking down a dark alley in the middle of the night, you’re much more likely to be attacked. So, um, don’t do that, ‘kay?

Sure, there are incidents, recently, where a weapon may have come in handy—and I say “may” because this isn’t Hollywood. Not the movies, ‘kay?

You can practice for and mentally prepare for a situation such as San Bernardino, but until something actually happens, it’s very hard to say how you’re going to react. Believe me. Unless you have a military or LEO background, you’re just a person with a weapon that might make you feel safer, but again, the odds of having to use it and being able to do so are pretty small.

Think about it: a guy jumps in front of you, a big, hulking type, and waves a weapon in your face. Are you really going to be able to pull out your own gun and shoot first, or are you going to be hoping that he doesn’t notice you just peed your pants?

Or what if you’re at the movies and someone starts shooting? Duck and cover, right? Would you really have the presence of mind to pull out your gun, look over the back of that seat and fire back? Think of all the noise, all the confusion . . . I’m not saying you couldn’t, but a real situation is much different than daydreaming about the potential scenario.

It takes a lot more than merely being armed to be effective in an active shooter situation.