Dangerous Mistake People Make When They Think One Rule Explains Everything

A Simple Facebook Post That Proved a Dangerous Point

A few days ago, I came across a Facebook post about housing.

The author argued that if people would just accept smaller homes like they did in the 1970s, housing would suddenly become affordable again.

They listed square footage.
They listed build costs.
They showed pictures.

It looked convincing.

I commented one sentence:

“This is not true.”

That was it.

The author responded by asking me to back it up.

And that moment is exactly why I am writing this.

Why I Did Not Argue the Details

I could have written a long response.

I could have explained that housing prices are not determined by build cost alone.

I could have listed:

• Interest rates

• Wage growth

• Credit availability

• Zoning laws

• Land scarcity

• Investor demand

• Population shifts

• Government policy

There are dozens of variables.

But the problem was not missing information.

The problem was how the argument was built.

The One-Variable Mistake

The Facebook post took one factor and treated it like the whole explanation.

Build cost went in.
Conclusion came out.

That feels logical.
It feels neat.

It is also dead wrong.

And here is the important part:

This same mistake gets people in serious trouble with firearms.

Why This Matters to Gun Owners

Many gun owners are taught simple rules:

Train more and you will be safer.
Take classes and you will be protected.
Do the right thing and the law will be on your side.

Those statements are not lies.

They are incomplete.

Just like the housing post.

Training Is Only One Piece of the Picture

Training matters.
I teach training.
I support training.

But training is one variable, not the outcome.

In a self-defense case, many things are evaluated at once:

• What the law allows

• What you knew at the time

• What you did before the incident

• What you said after

• How your actions are explained to others

• How your training changes expectations

When people ignore those variables, they misunderstand risk.

A Simple Example Anyone Can Understand

Imagine two drivers in the same accident.

One never took a driving class.
One is a professional driving instructor.

Who do you think will be judged more harshly?

The trained driver.

Not because training is bad.

But because training raises expectations.

Firearms work the same way.

This is something most concealed carry classes never explain.

What Training Can Quietly Do

Training can help you survive the moment.

But it can also change the question asked later.

Instead of:
“Did this person reasonably fear for their life?”

The question can become:
“Given their training, should they have handled this differently?”

That is not a small shift.

That shift can change everything.

Why Simple Answers Are Comforting

People like clean explanations.

They like rules that feel solid.

They like being told:

• Always do this

• Never do that

• More is better

But the real world does not reward simple thinking.

Especially when lives, freedom, and families are involved.

What Responsible Gun Ownership Really Means

Responsible gun ownership means understanding systems, not slogans.

It means knowing:

• The law does not care how confident you felt

• Juries do not see the moment, they hear a story

• Training changes how that story is told

This is why I wrote Arizona Guide for Gun Owners.

Not to scare people.
Not to discourage training.

But to help gun owners see the full picture.

The Lesson Behind the Facebook Post

That Facebook argument was not really about houses.

It was about how people think.

They grab one idea.
They stop asking questions.
They feel certain.

That kind of thinking is harmless in a comment thread.

It is not harmless in self-defense.

Final Thought

If someone ever tells you:

“This one thing solves everything,”

Pause.

Because the most dangerous mistakes are made by people who thought they understood enough.

And in self-defense, enough is rarely enough.

If You Want the Full Picture

Most gun owners are taught how to shoot.

Very few are taught how their decisions will be examined after the incident is over.

That gap is where good people get blindsided.

Arizona Guide for Gun Owners was written for people who want to understand more than mechanics and marksmanship.

It walks through:

• How self-defense decisions are evaluated

• How training, words, and behavior are interpreted

• How to think clearly before something ever goes wrong

Not to make you fearful.
Not to overwhelm you.

But to help you see the whole system, not just one piece of it.

If that matters to you, the book is available here.

Read it slowly. Think through it carefully.
That alone puts you ahead of most people.