Wow! This is brilliant stuff, holding merit on so many levels.
For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, here's a little primer -- a visionary concept being promoted by braniacs across America.
Here's the idea, plain and simple: If everyone in America had a gun (As our beloved 2nd amendment apparently insisnts we should (source:NRA)), then we'd all be much safer from such horrific threats to society as was perpetrated by the monster at Virginia Tech..
The rationale is that if someone started to shoot at people with their 2nd-ammendment-sanctioned firearm, then any and all armed onlookers could simply reach into their bookbags, change purses, and/or holsters, pull out their guns and halt the violence with a subtle twitch of their index finger.
That makes sense, right? Heck I think most people, if armed, would have put a non-negotiable stop to the catastrophe in Virginia. And I do believe that, if every student and professor had been packing, the number of deaths there would have been significantly lower. But would a totally armed populace be a good idea outside the realm of such aberrant instances?
Hell Yeah! In fact, there are so many other, more mundane, benefits to such a policy (of a fully armed citizenry) that restricting the analysis to a singular event, regardless of how tragic, does the concept a disservice.
With this, we would always have the option, nay the temptation, to settle disputes (right or wrong) with a bullet. No worries about the ambiguity of the situations. No concerns about 'he said, she said'. No wasted time considering context, alternatives, or truth. Guns would be everywhere all the time. Our society would exist in a blissful land of desensitized cowboys and vigilanties, versed in the skills of retribution and unreasoned, but swift action. At last, we'd have the ultimate tool for do-it-yourself conflict resolution.
Just think about it. This could be the solution we've all been searching for. Forget the pro-arms argument that an armed populace would be able to hold back a military takeover either by a foreign government or ours. That's ridiculous. Rifles and handguns have little effect against tanks, bombs and bazookas.
The real benefit from a 100% armed populace comes from its innumerable everyday applications. Just a sample...
Shitty Drivers -- That's right. Shitty drivers can kiss their incompetent asses good-bye. Pistol-packing road-ragers will take care of them. In the past, road-ragers have relied upon the inefficient use of their own vehicle to ram the offender often resulting in unwanted self-inflicted damage. We don't want that. With the 'Everybody Armed' idea, we could significantly increase the efficiency of our national road rage hysteria thus decreasing the number of shitty drivers that put us in peril as we coast innocently along our nations highways. Problem solved.
Assholes in the Bar -- We've all been there -- enjoying a cocktail, maybe doing a dance, when all of a sudden some inebriated asshole(s) start mucking up the fun. Well, that problem will be a thing of the past. Acting with reason (as all drunks do), the drunken asshole will surely realize that his various taunts and assaults will be met with deadly violence if he continues his blustery rampage. Problem solved.
Cheating boy/girlfriends and spouse -- Now come on. Don't tell me you didn't wish you had a sidearm when you caught that cheating sleaze with that 'other person'. No? Well, I bet there are plenty of people who wished exactly that when they were in the heat of that moment. No more cheatin' scum. Problem solved.
Prison punks -- And what about all those hopeless criminals? They deserve guns too -- even when they're behind bars. With the 'Everybody Armed' concept we could load em' up in prisons, lock the doors and let them have at it. That should significantly decrease the American prison population -- at least until untold number of the new gun-toters get in line to refill them -- but then we lock them in and the cycle continues. We should be able to close down many of the prisons in our system -- especially the mega-expensive 'Supermax' variety. In addition, the need for 'appeals' would naturally decrease as the number of appeal-makers meet their prison-born demise. So much of our taxes and legal system resources will be saved . Problem solved.
Creepy Nighttime Walkers -- You've been in this situation before. It's dark out, kind of late. You're walking down the street and you notice a suspicious figure lurking in the distance behind you. You think, "There's no way a person could possibly need to walk down this street at this time of night. They must -- gasp -- be setting up their attack!!" This should take care of those creeps. Problem solved!
In Reality
Imagine relying on the judgment of ALL those around you (even Cheneyesque neo-conservatives) to control themselves, expecting them to restrain themselves in high-stress, but non-lethal situations. In a complex modern world, things are rarely black and white. That lack of clarity in any situation adds profoundly to the potential for catastrophe. And yet the NRA and its supporters want this for America
To be clear, I'm not only referring to the mentally ill when I suggest a strong potential for destructive use of their would-be requisite firearm. When human emotions overwhelm us (a scenario we'd rarely admit about ourselves), rational thought is suppressed and in some, a near-psychotic state can temporarily ensue. Particularly with anger, there is a dumbing down of rational thought and a loss of appreciation for consequences. So pervasive is this phenomenon that psychologists even have a term for it -- "Emotional Hijacking". Intense emotion hijacks a person's thinking ability. So in essence, the angrier you are, the stupider you become.
In these instances, nearly anything could happen -- things that otherwise rational beings would never consider. Thus, when a loaded weapon lies conveniently at a person's side, a mix of irrationality and 'simple-solution' temptation could create a far greater number of tragedies than the number of solutions this concept was intended to provide.