That quote kept going through my head Saturday during a concealed weapons course in Pleasant Hill, the beginning of a three-part monthly series that looks into the issue and the class.

While Jay Burch and Brian Simmons made this course humorous, with anecdotes and redneck witticisms, at the heart of it is the knowledge you're being trained on laws that will enable you to carry a concealed weapon and use it on a person who breaks into your home, most likely to kill them.

The end result of covering this will be that I take the test which will enable me to carry concealed, although at this point I don't own a handgun.

To me, that's a weighty issue and one not to be taken lightly and that's why that quote kept running through my head.

With great power comes great responsibility and when you're given a permit that allows you to carry a concealed weapon that is great power. The class tempers that power with great responsibility.

I am not a gun person, don't salivate over them and think they're inherently dangerous, especially when they get in the wrong hands.

That being said, I believe in the Constitution and from the numerous stories I've covered throughout my career, know it keeps getting more and more dangerous out there, seemingly day by day.

This is why, to a person like myself, classes like these are important, because they do teach you that with this great power comes great responsibility.

I have seen so many comments on any given home invasion story that, “If it happened to me, they wouldn't walk out alive,” or, “Come in my house and deal with the wrath of my (insert weapon of choice here).”

Half of this I dismiss as being the bravado of an armchair quarterback, some of it I attribute to overblown testosterone.

Somewhere between the truth and egoism is the fact that what Burch and Simmons, both veteran law enforcement officers, teach is the truth — that law enforcement can only stop what they see happening, that because of the vast area that makes up Halifax County they can't be there like Batman or Spider-Man above to save the day.

So, yes, you may have to take matters in your own hands or else face the consequences and know you could lose your life if the wrong people decide to bust your doors down one day or night.

That's why I don't enter this series lightly because I know myself and my limitations, know that even in a situation where I was in the right, my actions would still bother me. That's just my makeup and I'm not saying that makes me weaker than another person, I'm just saying I believe in that quote which I keep repeating, that with great power comes great responsibility.

The plan for this series is for me to sit in on a second class and talk to more people and then on the third class for me to take the test, which I could have done Saturday but there's a methodical approach to this, more time to glean more details and more questions that have to be asked.

This is just the starting point and I know already there's another facet of this I would want to go through before even thinking of buying a gun and carrying one on me or in the car.

That part is a mental conditioning class that is separate from the one that makes you eligible for a concealed weapons permit.

It is a class that Burch teaches and one that I would suggest people like myself, a little more sensitive and a little more reticent about guns, should probably take before they take to strapping.

All I know is, I want to be armed with all the knowledge I can get before I make such a life altering decision to go armed with a weapon.

Believe it or not, becoming a gun owner is a life altering decision. This just isn't me saying this, Burch even says it in his class.

As I said, if I'm going to make that decision, I want to make one that is not based on a whim, like making a last minute candy purchase while in line at the grocery store, but one that is calculated and based on knowledge and common sense.

I think I've reached that first rung on the ladder because I do realize the great power that comes with such a decision and the great responsibility that must temper it — Lance Martin

Lance Martin is editor and publisher of rrspin.com. His columns appear on a frequent basis.