What good are gun bans?
After all, omg, CRIMINALS DISOBEY THEM! And they mean the 'good guys!' don't have them close to hand!!!!
Ok, here's one reason off the top of my head why oh, hey, gun bans in some public settings and also better gun control where people who might have dangerous histories or not know how to use a goddamn gun responsibly can't easily grab one off a shop shelf are nice:
Because the 'good guys' who obey the laws don't always make the best damn judgement calls either, or all have the best tempers either, and because as others have pointed out:
Cops are called to office building! There is a shooter, he has a gun! The scene they stumble onto has mutliple people shooting out of doorways and there's chaos and they were told it was a dude in a blue shirt and... oh hey, more people are wearing blue and shooting and...I know, they can yell for weapons to be dropped and wait to see which person shoots at them!
Someone's at a game or in a bar and they're legally carrying their gun, and in all the excitement or drinking or other impairing things and hey, here's some other person getting all up in their face and they can just 'scare' them by firing in the crowd or into the air (forgetting that whole what-goes-up-rule) SURELY, even if they don't really mean to shoot him, or even by not-shooting- but the not-shooting plan can still go awry, and a finger can get too twitchy or things can go further, what have you.
And that's not even going into how the other people carrying their guns-that-are-allowed-there get upset and do pull them out and how not all of them are currently up to training and responsible and so they're shooting and maybe hitting where they mean to, maybe not, maybe they're not even sure where they're trying to hit, and well, hey, saves the original criminal/murderer a lot of trouble doesn't it, people're hitting each other and the scenery FOR HIM. Woo.
Brilliant ideas for big public buildings and official government buildings and all, letting people wander around armed. Sure would make me feel better if I ever went to a major-rivalry-sports-event. Or got into an argument over a fender-bender on campus. Or turned down that rather skeevy creep guy who keeps following me around and trying to make me 'date' him.
Of course sure, I could have a gun too, but let's see, a) I don't have the time to do all the training and crap myself, oh hey I also don't have wrist strength that I think a lot of firearms'd call for, and I've got horrible vision and... uh. It'd be useless.
Plus there's the baggage that often comes when a woman defends herself forcefully against some guy when there's not a bazillion witnesses necessarily who all agree on what they saw or how dangerous HE was, because hey, he just meant to SCARE her, the bitch, or whatever. Bleh.
Why yes, I can find myself threatened by a criminal breaking the law. I like that better than knowing I can easily be threatened and killed by a non-criminal not-breaking-laws-til-he-actually-fucking-shoots-me-in-that-heated-moment-with-no-premeditation.
Wait, no it wouldn't.
People are stupid sometimes, even when lawful-usually. I'd rather less of the stupid involved something that can kill another person, stupid or not, in the blink of an eye and a very loud noise. I suspect people not always having that much power right under their coat or in their purse EVERYWHERE they go kind of helps with that.
Ok, here's one reason off the top of my head why oh, hey, gun bans in some public settings and also better gun control where people who might have dangerous histories or not know how to use a goddamn gun responsibly can't easily grab one off a shop shelf are nice:
Because the 'good guys' who obey the laws don't always make the best damn judgement calls either, or all have the best tempers either, and because as others have pointed out:
Cops are called to office building! There is a shooter, he has a gun! The scene they stumble onto has mutliple people shooting out of doorways and there's chaos and they were told it was a dude in a blue shirt and... oh hey, more people are wearing blue and shooting and...I know, they can yell for weapons to be dropped and wait to see which person shoots at them!
Someone's at a game or in a bar and they're legally carrying their gun, and in all the excitement or drinking or other impairing things and hey, here's some other person getting all up in their face and they can just 'scare' them by firing in the crowd or into the air (forgetting that whole what-goes-up-rule) SURELY, even if they don't really mean to shoot him, or even by not-shooting- but the not-shooting plan can still go awry, and a finger can get too twitchy or things can go further, what have you.
And that's not even going into how the other people carrying their guns-that-are-allowed-there get upset and do pull them out and how not all of them are currently up to training and responsible and so they're shooting and maybe hitting where they mean to, maybe not, maybe they're not even sure where they're trying to hit, and well, hey, saves the original criminal/murderer a lot of trouble doesn't it, people're hitting each other and the scenery FOR HIM. Woo.
Brilliant ideas for big public buildings and official government buildings and all, letting people wander around armed. Sure would make me feel better if I ever went to a major-rivalry-sports-event. Or got into an argument over a fender-bender on campus. Or turned down that rather skeevy creep guy who keeps following me around and trying to make me 'date' him.
Of course sure, I could have a gun too, but let's see, a) I don't have the time to do all the training and crap myself, oh hey I also don't have wrist strength that I think a lot of firearms'd call for, and I've got horrible vision and... uh. It'd be useless.
Plus there's the baggage that often comes when a woman defends herself forcefully against some guy when there's not a bazillion witnesses necessarily who all agree on what they saw or how dangerous HE was, because hey, he just meant to SCARE her, the bitch, or whatever. Bleh.
Why yes, I can find myself threatened by a criminal breaking the law. I like that better than knowing I can easily be threatened and killed by a non-criminal not-breaking-laws-til-he-actually-fucking-shoots-me-in-that-heated-moment-with-no-premeditation.
Wait, no it wouldn't.
People are stupid sometimes, even when lawful-usually. I'd rather less of the stupid involved something that can kill another person, stupid or not, in the blink of an eye and a very loud noise. I suspect people not always having that much power right under their coat or in their purse EVERYWHERE they go kind of helps with that.