For every story the NRA can tell of the "little old lady," who fought off the marauding horde with her trusty .38, there are at least 1000 of what I like to call, "Dumbasses with guns." The Dumbass with a gun has three mantras. 1. "I didn't know it was loaded." 2. "I thought the safety was on." and 3. "I forgot about the one in the chamber." And the dumbass with a gun is much more likely to harm Americans than any Islamic terrorist, simply because there are far more dumbasses with guns in the US than there are Islamic terrorists. (If Trump were to bloviate about getting rid of all the dumbasses with guns, I might listen to him
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Sadly, most of the people who claim more guns in public situations will make us safer are precisely the people who would make us MUCH less safe, were they to be in a crisis situation. Take, for instance, the Colorado theater shooting. Let's say the deep minds on Faux News got their way, and 10% of the people in that theater had a handgun, and let's say the lunatic bursts into the darkened room and opens fire. In the dumbass with a gun's mind, he or she would simply stand, and fire back and they'd be the Rambo hero. HOWEVER, they're not taking the tactics of panic and circumstance into play. When the gunman opens fire, panic is the first thing that happens. Which means hundreds of people are on their feet, pushing, screaming, creating a ruckus. And then let's add the others in the theater, who have guns, and who, after the original panic, have drawn their guns, and have opened fire, but on whom? It's a confused situation, with more than one gun and one gunman in play. Who do you shoot at? And more importantly, who's going to be in the line of fire. Which is to say, how many panicked people are going to be in your line of fire? I'd say if only ten people had guns in that theater that night, instead of the dream of saving the day, I'd be willing to bet the story would be of a HUGE number of friendly fire deaths and injuries. So no, buttmunch with the concealed weapon in the mall. I most definitely do NOT feel safer with you in the building. You're only going to make any crisis matter MUCH worse.
