The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[3894]

Do you have concealed carry in CA?

Wisconsin does.

This sign is in the front row of a family pizza joint in a small town. I took the photo last weekend.

It is difficult for me to understand how someone could feel the need to pack heat to grab a slice of cheese pizza and a Pepsi. But then, I didn't understand the gun and knife very visible on the guy ahead of me at the gas station, either.

For killing Bambi, sure. For self-protection in a scary situation, maaaybe. In a safe small town? I do not understand.

[alphabassettgrrl]

No open-carry laws here that I know about. Was when we lived in Montana, though almost nobody did. My mom says signs like this are showing up in Minnesota now that they allow open carrying.

[innerSpaceman]

I'm not a supporter of Concealed Carry Laws, but I don't understand your point, 3894. Certainly if a gun is not needed to grab a slice, it's also not needed to catch a movie.

Except of course, when it is.



Supporters of concealed carry point out that an armed citizenry is a safe citizenry, and there's a certain insane logic in that (would a crazed gunman shoot up a movie theater if the law of averages says 10% of the audience would be armed?)

Of course, there's the recent Harvard study that shows a distinct correlation between states with lax gun laws and states with higher rates of suicide and homicide.

There are some decent arguments on both sides of the issue, but it's going to be pretty hard from now on to say you don't need to be armed to go about your daily consumer business.

[katiesue]

Do you really want to go into a say a bar, where half the patrons are armed? I don't. And I don't think it would slow down anyone who plans the kind of attack in Aurora. They usually want to be killed anyway they just want to go down in flames.

My former sister in law was always armed (probably still is). I'm not sure why you needed a gun for brunch at the Del but whatever.

I don't feel that having everyone around me armed makes me at all any safer. All my family but my parents are all hunter/gatherer types so everyone's got a gun cabinet in their house etc and honest I have no problem with that at all. I just don't see how having a gun on you all the time makes you safer. Or anyone else around you for that matter.

[Alex]

Or, if you wanted to start ****, you'd wear a lot of armor and attack with a maximum of surprise and distraction.

Then there's the question of how exactly the police should charge into a room containing dozens of armed people in a mood to shoot things.

[innerSpaceman]

No, but Holmes defies so much typically known about mass murderers, and now people want to take this new "type" into account. He did not want to go down in a blaze of glory or take his own life; rather, he's the first to peacefully surrender. Also, he's a very intelligent guy who may be psychopath, but not an idiot. In fact, there's quite a few murderous psychopaths are uber-smart - and yes, might not view a crowded room as shooting ducks in a barrel if it was assumed a few of the ducks could shoot back.


I don't agree with ANY of this concealed carry stuff, or even with the modern interpretation of the 2nd amendment, but I do see how this might be a modicum of deterrent to march into a movie theater or pizza parlor or brothel and start shooting.

[Alex]

Here's my view on what has happened to my risk:

The odds of me being shot in a movie theater were not changed by by what happened in Colorado. At best, all it has done is highlighted that I had never really given any though to the odds of me being shot in a movie theater, and being freshly aware that such odds exist they, through a psychological illusion, seem larger than they were before.

Therefore, since the odds of me being shot in a movie theater are infinitesimally small I suspect that the odds of my life beign saved by 20 people in every given movie theater being armed and prepared to defend me against such an unlikely event is outweighed by the increased risk of one of those guns being in the possession of an idiot who will find a humorous (to everybody but me) way to accidentally shoot me.

However, that's still a small risk. And seeing as we are saddled with a 2nd Amendment that was horribly written in terms of anticipating the technological future, I generally go along with concealed carry and open carry.

That said, if I learn that you're a person who needs to be able to shoot someone at any time to feel safe in a remarkably safe society (even if not as safe as some others) I will probably judge you poorly. Whether you care that I've judged you is at your discretion.

[JWBear]

You're assuming a psychopath would think twice... Or even care.

[Strangler Lewis]

Just as with capital punishment, cases like these are all make weights. We say that we need a death penalty for Hitler or Bin Laden or Gacy when what we really want to do is execute the poor black kid who never had the chance to know better.

With guns, we use absurd cases like Holmes to get to our goal of being Bernard Goetz or George Zimmerman.

I'm also generally struck by the fact--perception?--that the people who want to carry guns in the interest of perfect and impenetrable security are the same people who want to drive overly large vehicles at unregulated rates of speed on the theory that you can't remove all risk--read, risk to others--from daily life.

[3894]