All of your ideas and visions of a kinder, gentler place are way off base. Place the blame on the criminals and no where else, please. These problems in our society go way deeper than the stance of….”is it right or wrong to own a gun”….that’s a cop out, the easy way out. You never address the deeper problem with our society in general, just put a band-aid on it and hope it gets better.

Now……..where did I leave those hollow-points?

On the flip-side, I would think that the number of times that an armed citizen could positively impact a crime in progress, compared to the number of crimes that occur where someone would be justified in using a gun to apprehend a criminal is pretty minuscual.

Does it mean that, in order to protect ourselves, we all need to start toting concealed weapons with us everyhwere we go? You never know where a crime may be perpetrated, so to be effective, wouldn’t we need our gun with us at all times? We’ve all heard plenty of stories of disgruntled employees trying to take out their co-workers in the office, so do we all need to start bringing guns to work? We’ve heard stories of crazies storming into a place of worship mid-service, so do we all need to start bringing our guns to church? And, as we’ve most recently been discussing, unfortunately all too often these crimes are taking place in classrooms, so do we need to start sending our kids off to school with weapons. When you’re packing Susie’s lunch, don’t forget to pack the heat! Or if that’s too ridiculous, what do we do – arm the teachers? Clear a place next to the fire extinguisher and the pencil sharpener for the Glock?

I may be getting carried away but I’m asking the question in all seriousness. Is there any place we would exclude from the conceal carry law, or would every place be fair game?

As M.B. pointed out, there are already people throughout society carrying concealed weapons (legally as well as unlegally). I believe that’s true. So aren’t would-be criminals already faced with the possibility that their victim is carrying a gun? But it doesn’t seem to stop them, so how much more effective would a conceal carry law be?

Here’s the standard NRA-issue response to such assertions:

If someone steals your car and then commits vehicular homicide while fleeing the police, should you be held partly responsible for the crime?

Now, I’m not saying that’s a good analogy, but that’s what you’ll be asked to address if you’re ever elected to implementation office and try to enact a lifetime responsibility law for guns.

You raise a good point with gun safety, which is a sticky issue for gun rights activists. Perhaps a firearm owner can address this quandary.

For a gun to offer protection against surprise intruders, it has to be loaded and readily accessible.

To ensure that a gun isn’t stolen or doesn’t pose a danger to a child, it needs to be locked away in a safe place.

How do gun owners achieve both of those objectives?

Thanks for commenting,
Dan

She made the point that illegal guns are most likely stolen from legal purchasers (I’m leaving myself wide open here because that’s only an assumption. If there is a huge handgun smuggling operation going on, then my idea won’t be as effective.)

Here goes: the owner of a legally purchased weapon is forever responsible for damage/death/crime that results from its use. So many gun proponents say that they have weapons to protect their families and property. It is my assertion that the owner and the gun have failed miserably in that mission if it was able to be stolen. If a home is broken into while the owner is home, the weapon should have been used to blast the intruder. However, if the owner wasn’t home, the gun should be locked away in a secure gun safe, unable to be stolen. The NRA boasts of its gun safety education, so it stands to reason that without the licensed owner in possession of the weapon it should be secured properly.

Of course, the punk that stole the gun should be responsible for the crimes too.

If lifetime responsibility for all damage caused by a gun were contractually included in its purchase, I would support gun ownership.