Country singer Jay Allen isn’t a household name, but he’s not exactly a nobody, either. He’s had some significant attention over the years and is one of those people who is poised to potentially be a huge star. He appeared on The Voice and has popped up in a lot of places since then, all suggesting at least the possibility of him breaking out.
Advertisement
Among the attention he’s gotten was an invite to the White House by First Lady Jill Biden. He’s really known more for his philanthropy, performing a lot of charity work to combat Alzheimer’s, which his mother died from.
With all of that, it would be easy to look and think that he’s probably anti-gun and he might well have been. Reality, however, has disabused him of that position if that were the case.
Country singer Jay Allen has reconsidered his stance on gun ownership after being the victim of an armed robbery at an East Nashville grocery store.
…
But what really distressed him wasn’t the loss of the money — it was the feeling of vulnerability and terror that stuck with him, even after the danger had passed.
“Even with having a muscular stature and being covered in tattoos, it didn’t matter,” Allen reflects. “He had a gun, and I didn’t. I felt helpless, taken advantage of, and mad at myself more than anything.”
In the wake of the incident, Allen says he made a big decision: To purchase a firearm for protection.
It was a wise decision.
Allen also got training from a friend who was also a veteran, so he didn’t just buy a gun and figure he had all he needed, which also shows at least some wisdom. I’d love to see him take that basic level of knowledge and get some professional training–his veteran friend might be a competent trainer, but being a veteran doesn’t make you an expert in teaching people how to shoot, much less how to do the other things needed to survive a gunfight.
Advertisement
I’m sure a lot of people will take issue with his decision, arguing that gun control would have disarmed his attacker, but I’m willing to put down money that the attacker didn’t have a firearm lawfully. In fact, based on what we know of how people like that get guns, it was probably a stolen firearm that he either stole himself or bought from someone who stole it. Gun control won’t stop that.
What will stop it, though, is meeting an armed citizen who isn’t ready to just let himself be shot.
Allen emerged from the incident unscathed, but I get his feelings on this. He was unscathed not because he was somehow impervious to injury but simply because this man with a gun chose not to hurt him. That’s not a great position for anyone to be in and I sure wouldn’t want to trust that to be the case should something like this happen again.
I, for one, welcome Allen to the world of gun ownership. I hope he takes the time to become an informed gun owner so that he can be as safe as possible, and I hope he takes the time to understand the threats to gun ownership that we constantly face in this nation.
