Guns in Public, and Out of Sight

[Atypical Liberal]

23. No, it's refreshing to know that not ONLY the bad guys can carry guns.

So refreshing and reassuring to know only the good guys carry guns, isn't it?

No, what is refreshing is to know that in addition to bad guys carrying guns, good guys can, too.

We know the bad guys probably always will have guns. And even if they didn't, it's good to know that good guys won't have to resort to fleeing, submitting, or engaging in a physical contest of strength with their attackers if they are victims of crime.

Of course, our toting friends will declare such incidents as statistically insignificant, like the 10,000 gun suicides and the 10,000 annual homicides. All statistically insignificant. After all what's a few thousand gun deaths and a few tens of billions of public healthcare dollars, compared to the rights of a few insecure people to tote their guns everywhere they go. Hey, it's apparently in the Constitution.

I am not going to allow you or anyone else to restrict my right to keep and bear arms because people use them to commit suicide. The simple fact is, anyone who really wants to commit suicide can do it with a small piece of rope looped around their neck and a doorknob and simply sitting down on the floor.

And yes, it's tragic that 10,000 people are the victims of homicides every year with firearms, but given that there are 40-80 million firearm owners, that means that only .025% - .013% of firearm owners are involved in firearm homicides every year. This means that 99.98% or more of firearm owners don't commit homicides each year.

So. Given the fact that this is a Constitutional right we are talking about here, and given how few firearm owners are involved in homicides every year, I'm not going to support any crusade that affects all of us who aren't doing anything wrong on behalf of the few people who are.