Reply to Does anyone else find it upsetting that people are walking around in Target with guns?

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Reply to "Does anyone else find it upsetting that people are walking around in Target with guns?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
You know, it's funny that you say that. Until I was about 18, I felt exactly like you. I was completely opposed to guns, and wondered why anyone had to own them at all. I thought the whole thing was horrible. [b]I also laid in bed at night as a kid, knowing that my mom had gone out to walk the dog, and listened for her to come back, worrying that she'd get murdered.[/b] (I watched the news too much, I think.)

Then I really started to look at the world, without allowing pure emotion to lead me. Truth is, as awful as it is, SOMEONE is going to be armed. Lock guns down all you want, the bad people are going to have them. There's no changing that fact. For me and my family, I would much rather, as I said, "even the playing field". Is it sad? Maybe. But it is what it is, and this is the world today. [/quote]See here's the thing. I live in a poor neighborhood where 10 people have been murdered nearby in the 9 years I've lived there.  In every case, the victim was killed by someone they knew and/or who had a personal beef with them - either a family member or a boyfriend or a competing drug dealer. Obviously no one wants to get caught in the middle of that. I do worry about that. But the reality is that none of those murderers were out to get me. In fact, the sad thing is that no one cares much about the typical murder victim in my neighborhood but if someone like me got killed - all holy hell would break loose.

I'm so sorry you were scared about your mom.  But the reality is that women are more likely to be killed by the men in their lives (husbands, boyfriends, fathers) than by some stranger on the street. I understand your concern and I can see you're a careful gun owner but I think that gun owners like George Zimmerman (eg, fired from being a bouncer for being too aggressive) make the world less safe because they are more likely to make a mistake in judgment.  What if George Zimmerman had followed you and demanded to know why you were in the neighborhood? You wouldn't have known who he was.  What would you have done? Would you have pulled out your gun? Would you have escalated the situation? It's possible you would have spoken calmly and reassuringly (all the while ready to pull your gun if you needed to) and therefore de-escalated the situation. But what about other gun owners who don't have your sense of calm and good judgment?

There's just no guarantee that a legally carrying gun owner is going to have good judgment.  You can't legislate that only smart mature people get to own guns.  That's why I don't see this as evening the playing field.  That's making the playing field considerably more dangerous.[/quote]

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