In response to my recent post on gun carrying as akin to Pascal’s Wager,  a colleague pointed to a song called “Pistol Pistol” by the Detroit-based rap group D12 (best known as the group that Eminem used to be a member of):

http://youtu.be/O4Dm7X40FTA

If you can make it half-way through the song, you will hear Kuniva rap:

The only time that I’m at piece/peace is when I’m close to one
cause I don’t know what’s waiting for me when my vocals are done
Tote the gun, it’s my way of life and it works
these cowardly n&##@s’ll put your f-ing life in the dirt
Cause it was wrong how they left my dog, he was priceless
alone in the streets, bleeding, staring, laying lifeless
That’s why I’m heated, you never know who starts creepin
waking you up with AKs while you lie sleeping
I’d rather pack the heat and not need
rather than need one and not have it, I married this Glock-matic

h/t JDC

Of course, I don’t know whether Kuniva is just waxing poetic about a fictional life in the streets, or is licensed to carry a concealed firearm in Michigan, or open carries without a permit in accordance with Michigan law. His D12 group-mate, Proof, was shot to death in a bar fight in 2006, though.

Which recalls another earlier post in which I reflected on criminals viewing gun carrying in much the same way that the law-abiding do, down to phrases like “Rather be tried by 12 than carried by 6.”

Which is not to say that criminals and the law-abiding who carry guns are the same. To the contrary, according to one analysis, where more criminals with guns there is more homicide and where there are more law-abiding citizens with guns there is less. (More generally, see this.)

But the cultural logic of carrying has some striking similarities, including the calculation, “I’d rather pack the heat and not need, rather than need one and not have it.”