Clete Purcell (described beautifully here) on why he carries a gun, from James Lee Burke’s Light of the World.

She looked at the shoulder rig he was wearing and at the snub-nosed blue-black .38 he carried in a nylon holster. “Why do you carry that?” she asked.

“Because not to carry it is to say I believe in the world. I don’t believe in the world, at least not the one I’ve seen. I don’t like authority, either. Anyone who wants to control other people is out to fuck you over. So I carry my own authority.”