So, I've been thinking - a lot - about the current spate of gun control/2nd amendment posts running amok on social media... This is NOT one of them, but rather a few questions to ponder for the 'arm everyone, all of the time' proponents. For the record, I’m a gun owner and occasional recreational shooter; I have absolutely NO problems with the Ebil Gubmint coming up with any number of reasonable restrictions on gun possession, such as licensing/registration, insurance requirements, limitations on ammunition purchases, etc. But, as I state above, that’s not the point of this diary.
Let’s posit that YOU are one of the 'good guys with a gun' when the next Orlando happens.
How many drinks have you had tonight?
In the confusion, when shots are ringing out in a dark, you see several other people with guns drawn. Which ones are accomplices? Which ones are other 'good guys'? What do ALL of the other good guys think YOU are? How many drinks did each of THEM have?
You see the shooter... You KNOW it's him, because 'reasons' I suppose. Can you hit him through the panicking mob? How many casualties are you willing to create in order to be that 'good guy'?
When the SWAT team arrives, M-4s and MP-5s out, tossing flash/bang grenades hither and yon, what makes YOU stand out as the 'good guy' and not the assailant?
Think this through, realistically. You aren't an action-movie hero. The Script is not With You.
Maybe you can get together with a few dozen of your friends, hire a DJ and a few hundred extras, rent a laser tag arena, and run the experiment ála Mythbusters. See how your body count varies as you adjust parameters... Will there be more bodies when the lone nut job is the only armed party, or will you and your fellow 'good guys' help him more than hinder him? How will things turn out when the most he 6 shots at a time from each of his guns, versus rapid-fire and nearly unlimited shots?
I don't have The Answer. But I'm pretty sure the answer isn't going to be found within jingoistic memes, on either side of the debate.
When I first posed this question on Facebook, it took several days for one (and only one!) of my pro-gun friends to respond, and she missed the point completely (namely that I DON’T have The Answer), commenting on how many people were shot in this ‘gun free zone’. So here are the follow-up questions for her.
There was an armed security guard on the premises; why didn’t ‘the good guy with the gun’ immediately neutralize the shooter?
Florida has some of the most lax restrictions on firearms in the nation; how well did that work out?
The Republicans in Congress have repeatedly stopped legislation that would have prevented the Orlando shooter from purchasing his firearms; so how many people would’ve been killed if he’d been unable to buy firearms and had only a knife for his killing spree? Or maybe he’d have attempted to make a pipe bomb and been stopped because we’ve put tighter controls on the supplies that he’d have needed post-OKC?
P.S. Why am I avoiding naming the shooter? nonadventures.com/… has the answer.
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