When only bad guys have guns...

[gwendally]

The most depressing thing I've seen coming out of the tragedy in Connecticut is my friend Heather saying that an armed Good Guy would have made it MORE likely that more children would have been killed.  The belief that Guns Are Evil and Only The State Can Save Us is so strong and so closely held that the concept of individual agency using a tool

Comments

[commander_zero]

:::shrug:::
I live in a state where the average resident, according to one source, owns an average of 26 guns. Folks here keep guns in their vehicles, can carry a pistol around openly on their belt, and any home without a firearm is an oddity.

Everyone here feels quite safe.

[gwendally]

And I live in a state where the population put up a request to change the laws to allow people the right to commit suicide. Pretty please, State, won't you PLEASE let me kill myself?

Because, you know, it wouldn't be right to do that yourself without the state's license to do so.

[wyllenn]

So are we saying that the only way to feel safe is for everyone to have a gun?

[gwendally]

When everyone has a gun you have a sort of herd immunity to crazed spree killers.

When you have a "gun-free zone" like that elementary school, or that theater, or a college campus, it just means that the crazed spree killer can feel safe walking around shooting people, content in the knowledge that no one will be able to take them out.

The prestigious women's college that B. works at does not allow campus security to carry weapons. A spree killer would feel much safer going there than, say, downtown Missoula.

Also, there actually *IS* no way to feel safe. You are NOT safe. Crazy people exist, for one thing, and there could be an earthquake or a bolt of lightning or an aneurysm at any moment. Sorry.

[commander_zero]

No, we are saying that since the mass shootings don't seem to be occurring in venues with huge amoutns of guns, such as this one, the so-called 'easy availability of guns' is not the cause.