Like others here, I have a permit to carry a concealed weapon. I have had one for many years now. I very rarely do so -- once, for instance, when I accompanied a friend to the bank as she made a deposit of the money from a festival (around USD 30,000), I carried concealed. There have been other times, few and far between.

If I felt the need to pack a gun, I'd much rather do it openly. I can shave a bit off my draw (measured time, on a police range) that way. But ranges (and far too infrequently hunting) is where I carry a weapon (well, to fencing, but that's not the sort of thing I talking about here).

Like Big Mick, I grew up with firearms. They were used to feed my family when I was young (yes, I kid about it, but we really WERE extremely short of cash). They are tools to use, like a hammer or a sickle, not solutions in themselves. And I hold those who present them as solutions instead of tools guilty of many things.

By the way, an arrow kills by hemmorhage and a bullet by shock. An animal will die quicker and more humanely from a well-placed arrow than from a well-placed bullet -- and it is very rare indeed for an animal (including humans) to drop dead immediately. And a .50 caliber, 250 grain lead ball or Minie ball propelled by (perhaps) 70 grains of black powder WILL drop a 200 pound deer as effectively and quickly as a .30-06 with a 150 grain bullet.