So, I'm a lower middle class dude living in a suburb of Peoria Illinois. There's not a lot of violence here in our town, or in the surrounding towns that we ordinarily visit. Peoria has it's problems for sure. Mostly drug related shootings and crimes of opportunity that occasional visit the "good" parts of town. So, when Illinois was finally forced into offering concealed carry of firearms a couple of years back, I thought I'd do it someday, but not today. Our financial situation has been shit for the last couple of years due to my Wife's health issues and the fact that my wages basically have remained pretty much flat. Truth be told, my Wife's ability to earn money has always been hampered by her health. We've never been what I would consider comfortable. But, I digress. At least I have a roof over my head and food to eat. And, for that, I am thankful.
So, the whole concept of spending $150 for a five year permit to exercise my second amendment right to protect myself, plus the $100-$200 people are charging for the class, was not exactly on the front burner. In fact, I spent what little cash I could scrape together to build my AR. Yes, I built it out of fear of a ban. I guess I saw a CCW permit as more of a want than a need.
That was until recently. Last Sunday, My Wife and I had just dropped my Stepson off at his Dad's and were headed up to the gas station about 2 miles from our house. I stopped at a stoplight and noticed a Jeep Cherokee next to us. The light turned green and we both started to pull away. The Jeep was accelerating slowly and I needed to be in his lane to get into the gas station up ahead. So, I turned my signal on and accelerated to get in front of him. Rather than see the obvious and let me in, the driver accelerated so that I had a hard time merging into his lane. I was able to get in front of him and it wasn't even real close. But, upon me entering the lane, the guy laid on his horn and flicked me off screaming. Damn dude, calm down, I thought. People do stuff like that, so I didn't think a whole lot of it until he jumped on my ass and kept honking and screaming. I didn't exactly appreciate his endangering me and my family so I tapped the brakes to let him know to back off. Well, that didn't work. He continued to ride my ass and honk, scream, and flick us off all the way into the parking lot of the shopping center. This guy was clearly off his rocker. I was relieved when he failed to follow me to the gas pumps, but instead continued into the shopping center. But, as he did so, he screamed one more epitath about me being a "fuckin student driver". (We have a student driver sticker in our back window for my Stepson.) At this point, my Wife and I were both shaking. I fully expected the dude to come back around to ram us or pull out a gun. The guy was that pissed off. And there we were, defenseless. That shook me up, not only at the time, but as I thought about how defenseless we were just sitting there waiting to be murdered by this crazy SOB. That pissed me off as much as the guy had. We called the cops and gave them the tag number. What good that did, who knows?
Fast forward one week to Saturday afternoon. My Wife and I went down to the local Target in East Peoria. We did our shopping and exited the store. As we were walking to the car, I noticed a young couple walking through the parking lot. As we neared our car, they approached us, the young woman asking for bus fare. She started in on some story about her friend's boyfriend was slapping her around and they ended up dumped off at Target. They just needed a couple of bucks to get home on the bus. I told them I didn't carry cash. My Wife did too. We suggested that they download the uber app because you get the first ride free. "Oh my phone is dead". The girl was spouting all kinds of hard-luck stories about getting her hours cut. She couldn't seem to remember what the name of her employer was, but it was next to the hookah shop. Ok, now I know you are full of shit. My Wife started digging in her purse for change, when an East Peoria cop pulled up, got out, and started yelling, "Don't give them a dime, they're heroin addicts." Bingo.
The cop put them on the hood and frisked the guy. As he started to frisk the girl, the guy took off running like Usain Bolt across the lot. The cop gave chase, but couldn't keep up. The whole place swarmed with cops looking for the guy. My Wife advised the girl to stay put, which she did for a little while, then ran off. My Wife was freaked out. I was more annoyed than anything. But, it did make me think how we had just been in two freaky situations in less than a week. People who are looking for a fix are desperate. What would have happened had I prevented my Wife from getting the change? Would they have gotten violent? Would we have been knifed? Again I was out there with my cheese in the wind, defenseless.
I WILL be pursuing my CC permit. Period. Money be damned. It's just not worth being empty handed.
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