Virginia vs. Iraq

[Strangler Lewis]

We can't eliminate all risk, so the question has to be what risks do we accept and what kind of a society do we want to become to eliminate certain risks? Personally, I can't equate concealed carry with other forms of risk management such as auto insurance because you simply cannot forget that you have that gun and go on with your life.

Yesterday I was in line behind a police officer at Peets. I gave him a wide berth, and I stopped my four year old from running around. Personally, I don't want to have to worry that if somebody bumps me in the coffee line, they're going for my gun, and I don't want to live with the operating assumption that life threatening violence can happen around every corner in a good neighborhood the same way I live with the assumption that car accidents can happen.

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by Strangler Lewis

We can't eliminate all risk, so the question has to be what risks do we accept and what kind of a society do we want to become to eliminate certain risks?

Exactly. Individually, we all make different choices as to the risks we are willing to take. Some enjoy recreation drugs, but there are risks involved and I have never been one to want to take those risks. Even though I am a staunch gun rights advocate, I do not possess a firearm because I have not taken the time to get the training I feel necessary to be a responsible gun owner.

But I like to jump out of airplanes. Go figure.

So we get back to what is deemed best for society. There are a lot of screwed up laws and regulations that are deemed best for society, and everyone here would agree with that I'm sure, but not on which laws and regulations fit that description.

[Strangler Lewis]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Even though I am a staunch gun rights advocate, I do not possess a firearm because I have not taken the time to get the training I feel necessary to be a responsible gun owner.

While such statements partake of restraint, I do wonder how much they actually fetishize firearms to an unhealthy degree. My father always had handguns, which he kept in his sock drawer. As a little kid, I would help my mother fold laundry, and I would put away my dad's socks in the drawer where his guns were. At some point, I assume that I was told "Don't touch these." So I didn't. As I teenager, long after I stopped helping my mother with the laundry, I still went into my dad's sock drawer a lot because that's where he kept his porn. I left the guns alone just as I left the papers in his den alone.

My dad was in WWII, but I'm fairly confident that he never took a course in responsible gun ownership or spent hours practicing to shoot the little girl with the switchblade instead of the masked thug with the flower. He knew where the safety was.

Now, my friend who is the most passionate Second Amendment advocate, hunter, etc. has a number of handguns. He keeps them in a safe by his bedside. This safe has a door that has been customized with the imprint of his right palm so that, supposedly only he can open it. To my mind, spending so much time thinking about guns and devising neat gadgets related to guns and devising courses related to guns only makes guns that more attractive and mysterious to inquisitive young people.