 There's a question that I'm very frequently asked and I thought I would answer it by asking another question, and this will kind of be a step in our conversation for helping decide what the right answer is for you, and there is no correct answer that works for everybody, so we're just gonna kind of play with it a little bit and have some fun. So first thing that we should ask ourselves is well, do we want to have a gun? Well, that's what you've already asked me if you're listening to this video, and that's why I sent this video to you. Next question. Why? Who do you think you're gonna shoot with this gun? And I don't mean that in like challenging you that you think you're gonna go shoot somebody. No. But it is kind of an important thing to consider. Who do you think would be the most probable person or type of person or other mammal that you would have to use this gun to shoot? And I get a lot of different answers when I ask people this, and it's a rhetorical question. That's just fine. If you do want to give me answers, I would love it because then I can add them to the ones that I share with other people and kind of give you my perspectives. Most common are robbers. Somebody's gonna come into my house and try to rob it and I saw something on news and it was really scary and I'm worried that this is gonna happen to me and my family. That can be a legitimate concern. Other things that I hear is, well, if they ever come and try to take my guns, I am going to need guns to be able to fight off those guys. Whether it's the United Nations or the US government or thugs or whomever, I might want to be able to fight them off. Another common answer is I want to get a gun so that my wife and daughter are able to protect themselves and never have to go through a sexual assault. That's a common reason to have a gun. Another reason is I just want to have one and I have a right to by golly and I'm gonna do it. Another common reason is a more general belief that things are looking kind of rough in the world and I realize that whether humans have been around for 6,000 years or 20,000 or 50,000, whatever your worldview is, things are getting kind of scary for the first time in my short life of 20 years or 70 years or whatever. This is the first time that I'm kind of worried about stuff and I just want to have a gun for general safety. So those are some of the common reasons. What are your reasons? What are you thinking? Perhaps a combination of some of those? Perhaps you could pick one or two of those out and go, that's ridiculous. Nobody should be worried about that. Well, I caution you that everyone should be able to manage their own risk and make their own decisions and we all have different fears. We all have different things that we think are probable, etc. So that is the first big question and don't gloss over this one. If your answer is just a very general, yeah, I just want to have it just make sure in case anything happens. I would get more specific than that. I would really sit down talk about a rational answer. Who do you really, truly think you might need to shoot with that gun? The next big thing that I think it's important to consider is probability. So take a look at the last question that I asked you. Who do you think you're going to shoot with that thing? Think about your answer to that, the one in your heart of hearts, when you really think about it from an emotional and logical reason-based standpoint or with that kind of mindset. What is the probability that your worst case scenario or your second worst or third worst case scenarios, what are the probabilities that those things will actually happen? Is it a high probability? And so for example, I could look at myself and say I'm a good-looking, chubby, middle-aged, small businessman in Jackson, Wyoming, who I know a lot of people in town. They know me. I'm mostly liked or if people don't like me, they don't really hate me. They just don't agree with me and they ignore me. So I don't have any real enemies as far as I know. And I try to conduct my life in a way that I don't have any. So what is the likelihood that someone would break into my home and armed robbery or the first thing of somebody wanting to assassinate me? I think that probability is pretty low. What about the robbery? I think that's a pretty low probability. It could happen, but I think I'm much more likely to be injured in a car collision or get punched by someone who I give a radical idea to that doesn't like it or slipping and falling on the ice or I think there are so many things that have a much higher probability of hurting me or killing me than folks breaking into my house and trying to steal something and shooting me in the process. So I think that's a pretty low probability. What are the other concerns that you have? Think about them from that perspective. Is there a high probability? Now if you are listening to this and your job is as a bartender in a cash-only bar in a bad part of town and every early morning at 2 a.m. when you shut down you take the money and you walk through the alleys for three miles to go and put the money into a deposit box at the bank and you're walking with $20,000 of cash in your pocket every single night at 2 in the morning through dark dangerous alleys and everybody knows you do this, okay you have a higher probability of being robbed than shepherd in Jackson, Wyoming. So what is your unique situation? Is there a high probability? That is the big question and then I guess I would also say that I don't know equally as important but what are the negative consequences? How serious would the negative consequences be? When I go out and start my wife's car for her to head to the gym in the mornings and I wear my leather slippers with a slick bottom and I'm walking on snow and ice the probability of me falling is probably 10%. I haven't yet but I'm sure I will. How bad would the result be? Well probability is it won't kill me. Probability is that I know enough about martial arts that I'll be able to fall in a way that I don't get injured too badly but I could forget and just put my hand down and break my wrist. So how serious would that outcome be? Then how big of a hassle is it for me to do the smart thing, the stoic thing and say what could go wrong and what could I do to prevent it from going wrong and actually put on a pair of shoes with some grip before I go out? So as I analyze that whole thing then I get to make an intelligent decision or in my case sometimes I don't make a very smart decision but I get to make that decision and move forward from there but it's based on probability of it happening, how serious the negative outcome would be and the hassle, trouble, how much of a hassle is it to do a certain thing to prevent that from happening? How big of a deal is it? So that would be the next big set of questions that I would look at and now I think it's important that we consider a third big question. I guess that's fourth on our list. First question is should I have a gun? Second question is why would I need one? Who am I going to shoot with that thing? Third question is what's the probability that a bad thing is going to happen and if it does how serious is it going to be and how much of a hassle is it to keep it from happening? And then the fourth thing that is pretty important in most of our lives are accidents or somebody getting a hold of the gun that shouldn't and using it in a bad way. So what's the probability of this happening? What's the probability of a child that lives with you finding your gun that you think is perfectly hidden? Well if you have kids in the house let's just assume they are going to find the gun. You think they won't, they will, they always do and you think that that one time when you said oh here go get the key off of the top closet shelf under that sweater and go open the safe because I need to get the whatever out of it. A kid remembers and they go oh that's where they hide it under a piece of clothing on a shelf. You're gone for four hours, the kid's going to find the key to the safe or find the combo or whatever. We think we're going to outsmart the kids or not. Just assume your kids are going to find, are able to gain access to your safe. Let's just assume that. So what kind of kiddos do you have? Do you have suicidal kiddos? Do you have a 14-year-old who is prone to depression who just might have a their first date with someone and then when they break up in three or four days that's just devastating because they'll never find anyone again? The teenagers have some emotions like that? Yeah of course they do. That's pretty serious stuff. Imagine how you would feel if somebody whom you love was able to use your gun to kill themselves or seriously injure themselves. This is serious stuff. Imagine you're gone for a few days and the neighbor kid who does your plant watering finds it and does something. That's serious stuff and I'm not saying that because you're worried something will happen you're not going to have a gun but this is definitely worth seriously considering. Then let's start comparing probabilities here. What's the probability that my depressed 14-year-old son is going to get access to my gun on a day that he's feeling suicidal and kill himself? One in a thousand probability? I don't know. One in 10,000? What's the probability that I am going to be robbed in my Rafter J Jackson, Wyoming home? One in 100,000? I don't know. Maybe even a smaller probability than that? I don't know. Now these are just, I'm tossing out rough numbers but it's worth you thinking about and you might not come up with an exact to the last digit probability here but it's worth contemplating. So then I have to decide should I or should I not get the gun based on all of these probabilities? Should I or shouldn't I? Is it worth it? What was my last sentence? What did I start with? Then you have to decide. I can't decide that for you. You have to and that's the tough part.