Can We PA-leez Put the Sheep Dog Myth To Rest?

[Punch]

I have to agree . A large part of the problem is people not willing to help each other , it doesn't have anything to do with playing Rambo. Could you look at yourself in the mirror or explain to your children why it was ok to let someone be attacked or killed when you could have stopped it?

Easily. All three of my children and my wife own handguns. In the case of the kids, many. And they have known how to load and shoot them since they were in the single digits. Two currently have CCWs and one OC's and is about to take a CCW class with my wife. They understand fully the need to protect themselves and have been trained to do so from a young age. Why should any of them die in order to save sheeple that are too stupid or cowardly to defend themselves? I may think differently if I see a brother or sister trying to defend themselves against a disparity of force. But to enter an area with an active shooter when the only defensive strategy of the "prey" is to hide and hope for the best? Sorry, I'm not stupid. I would rather face my wife and kids and explain why I did not enter than not be there to explain to them why I made their mother a widow and left them fatherless. If you care that little for your own family, I can't help you. A person who chooses strangers over his own family is no hero to me. He is sick.

[Ringo]

To be perfectly honest “sheep dogs” scare me, they strike me as the type of person that is carrying a gun just waiting for a chance to be “a hero”.
Sheep dog is not an appellation I would care to have applied to me.

It has been my experience that those, in the permit holder community, who seek the title of sheepdog, tend to be authoritarians who use it as a means of self aggrandizement. They tend to derive their feelings of self worth from the position of quasi authority they assume their permit gives them.

Couldn't agree more.

[JJFlash]

Treo, could you cite some statistics that would justify your fear? I'm thinking a lot of people have been carrying for a lot of years in a lot of states and the streets don't seem to be running with blood shed by any self-styled Sheepdogs. But maybe I missed it or something.

I'm a sheepdog, by any definition I care to choose.

I'll gladly try to save your daughter's life if I have a reasonable chance to do so.

You're welcome.

[jg1967]

I had some discussions with "sheepdogs" and found that some may be gung ho wannabe heroes but not all of them.

What emerged to me was a different picture of what most of them are about which is more along the lines of preparedness - in relation to carrying a gun, equipment, training. A lot of them also have some emergency medical training.

The analogy really is very much flawed to begin with, I could not agree more.

[FN1910]

This discussion just ties in with my thoughts about how so many people seem to comb through the laws on guns looking for an excuse to use their gun rather than a reason to use it. Just like the argument about if you find someone in your kitchen at 1:00AM you should shoot them before checking to see who they are. It seems that once some people strap a gun to their side their whole attitude about themselves and life changes. Remember that a gun is just one more tool in your self-defense arsenal and not the most important, it is not a magic talisman.

[RJ_Whitlock]

This discussion just ties in with my thoughts about how so many people seem to comb through the laws on guns looking for an excuse to use their gun rather than a reason to use it. Just like the argument about if you find someone in your kitchen at 1:00AM you should shoot them before checking to see who they are. It seems that once some people strap a gun to their side their whole attitude about themselves and life changes. Remember that a gun is just one more tool in your self-defense arsenal and not the most important, it is not a magic talisman.

I couldn't agree more! IMO, the most important tool in your self-defense arsenal is your brain and how you use it.

[S&W645]

Exactly! Where the did help your fellow man mentality go?

It went away when the sue you and win mentality came in for the criminals/criminal's relatives. Not saying I won't help but you do need to pick your situations where you do.

[B2Tall]

Treo, you have clearly become the sheepdog who is defending us all against this evil sheepdog myth.

[Iam2Taz]

There are a hundred reasons to be a sheepdog and a hundred why someone shouldn't. Many of them have been shared here. I don't pretend to be a sheepdog, but I could be one given the right circumstance. I think everyone in this forum has that potential given the right situation. (Such as a bunch of children being killed.) But that is not a "sheepdog" as much as it is just doing what is right and has to be done at the time.

I don't want the title. I have a cell phone. I will help if I can, but I will not overtly put myself in danger unless there is no other way. When my brain tells me there is no other way, then I'll be 100% committed.

The mentality for some folks to wanna be the "watchdog" for everyone is a little absurd. It is amusing, many times, to read what they would have done in a given situation. If we ever stop having those reads it will take all the fun out of everything! As those folks get older and wiser, perhaps they will have this same discussion with their "sheepdog" friends.

[walt629]

I have to agree . A large part of the problem is people not willing to help each other , it doesn't have anything to do with playing Rambo. Could you look at yourself in the mirror or explain to your children why it was ok to let someone be attacked or killed when you could have stopped it?

Take this with a grain of salt, but if I am having that discussion with my children, at least I didn't end up with 2 in the chest from the BG's gun.

I know what you're saying but my responsibility to "help my fellow man" ends where I have to put my life in the way of the BG's bullets. I'm not a LEO and I don't wear kevlar. Helping a stranger went out the window when the lawyers got involved. The possibility of loosing everything you own to the BG's family is a very high probability in the real world of our fu@ked up judicial system.

And before you ask, I carry to protect me and my loved ones. Not Waffel House's profits. I still believ that if the GB's gun swings my way, it's time to get dirty. And by the way, at the point when the BG comes at me and tells me to get on the ground (look at the pictures in the OP) that's when all hell will break loose.

Let me interject something here. Has anyone stopped to think about the possibility that there may be a back up BG in the House just waiting for the Sheepdog to jump out of its collar?

Before I decide to jump in I will consider more than how it will look in the morning news paper.