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Pulpsmack -> RE: Gun Control And Tragedy (4/17/2007 8:16:20 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: juliaoceania
quote:
Or would there have been additional senseless accidental killings by college kids who were scared for their lives firing guns they were carrying.
And what about on days when there is no mass murderer stalking the school... On these days, would guns go off for trivial incidences the way they often do. Jealous rage, bar fights, road rage?
We can't give everyone a gun. We spend a lot of time on these boards talking about how so many people in this world are so unintelligent, uneducated, uncaring, etc)... but then we want to put guns in the hands of people just like this.
High schools have had many shootings, even elementary and middle schools... shall we just keep giving guns to more and more people.... will we then all be safe? I don't think so.
I think this is a good point. The idea of a bunch of adrenalized 20 year olds gunning for someone makes me wonder how many stray bullets would be flying. Look at it this way, cops will fire round after round at someone and most of the bullets do not hit their mark. These people are trained, so no the idea of arming everyone and feeling safer as a result makes no sense at all to me. In fact it scares me to contemplate adrenalized people responding to an event like happened yesterday...
I think the fundamental misconception here is associating the unhindered right to carry with the idea that everybody will. Look at the states that issue permits to carry and the actual amount of permits issued. While the right is available to all qualified applicants, very few people make use of this. Again, it's a wild west fantasy that has been debunked by those states who have issued permits. We don't have widespread shootouts with permit carrying yahoos over fender benders, like some naysayers speculated.
Moreover, college students are not the wealthiest individuals. The number of students that qualify (which by age is already is the extreme minority) must purchase a handgun, accessories, and the license (which requires training at the cost of the applicant). This is a long, committed, and expensive process. There are very few people who are willing to pony up the $ and jump through the hoops.
Also the stray bullet idea is quite a "what if" game. It is true that people can be injured or killed by return fire, but it is more likely that return fire hits the bad guy (or nobody at all) in these situations. Looking at armed robberies where the clerk drew a weapon, or shootings where a citizen responded, how many stories do we read where bystanders were killed in the crossfire? One internet board posted the "Darwin Awards" for the true stories of stupidest people in america. One such "nominee" walked past a squad car to enter a gun store that he robbed with a .22 pistol. I don't recall the exact numbers, but it was something like 2 clerks and 5 patrons drawing their weapons and ventilating this guy. Over 70 rounds were fired and the guy did NOT have 70 bullet holes in him. Nevertheless, this is the exact scenario you envisoned, and other than the idiot robber, nobody was killed in a 7-way crossfire.
Then you can apply the situation here. Again, it's all speculative, but if a permittee intervened after 6 people were shot and exchange seriously injured or killed one innocent bystander along with the shooter, isn't this the lesser evil?
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