Apparently a Utah man decided to do just that today and in the process of doing what he can "legally do", he managed to scare the crap out of a lot of customers. Who can blame them? How would you distinguish between a mentally deranged mass shooter and someone who has no common sense?
Why do I say he has no common sense? Common sense dictates that someone carrying two guns, one an assault riffle that has been all over the news for being used in mass shootings and is adorned in ammunition as a matching accessory, is going to cause a stir.
I'm going to take a stab in the dark and say no one, or at least very few people are going to see it as "his right" when he is in the middle of a department store that is full of men, women and children of all ages shopping. Maybe if the self-proclaimed gun advocate had choose Dicks Sporting Goods over JC Penney, he would have blended in better, but then again, some may still wonder if another customer or employee wouldn't have grabbed a gun themselves and shot him. Who knows what his intentions were?
This ladies and gentleman is where a good portion of the problem is when we have a solution to gun violence that adds more guns to a society that already has enough guns for every woman, man and child living in it. Mass shooters don't have a specific "look," unless you count the 'gun they are caring' as a "look." How can anyone determine if the person coming at them wearing a gun isn't going to open fire on them? A police officer is going to tell you the time you take to make that decision is putting your life in your hands. I don't know about you, but if I see someone I don't know, not in any uniform coming at me with a gun, I'm going to run. Good-bye, I'm out of here!
Now I'm the peace-loving liberal who doesn't own a gun, doesn't like guns but understands the necessity and rights surrounding them. But I can name plenty of people (Heck, just look in the news!) that believe they need to play hero if they see someone unknown coming at them with a gun and will shoot. Let's say this is in a mall or store and state where you can carry a gun legally, so now you have one guy with a visible gun and a dozen or more "heroes" with guns. I don't think I have to tell you what is going to happen next and you can be assured it won't be pretty.
Is that what America needs to happen before common sense will reappear and people will say, "More guns won't stop gun violence."
No comments:
Post a Comment