And you nicely ignored the previous article I posted, providing a perfect instance of a civilian protecting others with his gun. Would you like me to link you to an article showing NUMEROUS times a civilian stopped a rampage before it could get started, including saving a cop in one instance? Even if you don't, I'll post it anyway. http://fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/mass-killings-stopped-by-armed-citizens/28307/
By the way, here's what a friend of mine (a police officer and strong advocate of gun rights) wrote.
"The sole purpose of a firearm is not "to kill." The purpose of a firearm is to launch a projectile at a high rate of speed. It is the current most technologically advanced object in a technology tree that more or less started with throwing rocks, progressed to the sling, the slingshot, the bow, the crossbow, the cannon, the blunderbuss, the musket, and so on. The only real difference is the lev...
el of technology involved in each. What makes the bow viewable as primarily a recreational tool but a firearm as something different? Or even an antique firearm as opposed to a modern one? The answer is simple: it's what the police/military currently use. Are any of those other things less lethal? No. Are any of them less appropriate to use to kill something? It depends on your purpose. Honestly, there are a variety of situations where a bow is actually preferable to a gun. The issue isn't lethality, it's what we see soldiers holding or cops holstering. The issue isn't danger, as any of those things can severely maim, injure, or kill someone if misused. There are also a plethora of more dangerous activities than carrying or using guns, such as driving a car, or going to the doctor, both of which claim vastly more lives per year than firearms.
No, what we have as a society is a stigma that disarmament is somehow more morally appropriate than bearing arms. This is the first time in history in which a man's weapons were not only for personal protection, but were also a point of pride. From the sword of a samurai, to the rapier of a nobleman, to the revolver of the cattleman, a man's personal weapon has been a part of his legacy. Society today tells us that somehow this is uncouth behavior. Be it from the feminization of society or the unwillingness of modern adults to take personal responsibility for their actions, weapons in general, but firearms more specifically, have been villainized in the media. Defending yourself has become politically incorrect both on the moral and physical front. As a result, the natural inclination of our society is to become a collective of victims. Gone are the days of individualism and pride in one's ability to care for himself. Now we are a society that begs for handouts and sues at the drop of a hat.
Symptomatic of that deeper issue is the stigma about firearms. Again, it's not an issue of lethality or danger, as people partake in lethal or dangerous activities on a daily basis without a second thought. For whatever reason, whenever someone sees a gun in the hands of a soldier or cop, they feel safe, but in the hands of another citizen, they feel threatened. Somehow society has this idea that those classes of people are different. From personal experience, I can say authoritatively that we are not. The only difference between me as a cop and me as a private citizen is that once I was given a badge, I was officially employed by a government entity. The common argument is “cops are trained, citizens aren't.” Honestly, that argument is mostly just misleading. Cops do receive training on how to use their duty weapon. They also must prove their ability to shoot said weapon before being allowed to carry it on duty. This may come as a surprise to many, but so do concealed carry permit holders. In order to obtain a concealed carry permit, one must take a class on pertinent laws and regulations, as well as on function of a firearm. They must then demonstrate their ability to use their firearm. Then they go through background checks before being issued their permit. All in all, police qualification is only marginally more stringent when it comes to the weapons that are carried.
To step beyond just guns for a moment. As I said before, firearms are the current weapon stigma, but more often than not they are not the weapon of choice for criminals. Precisely because of the increased difficulty in procuring them illegally as well as the increased charges that will be made when they are caught. In fact, the most common weapon used in crimes are the criminal's bare hands. In reality, criminals will use anything and everything available to them to assault someone, from kitchen knives to potted plants, and even to a shopping bag, those are examples of weapons I have personally seen used to commit crimes. Similarly, in our jail, we routinely confiscate every day items such as bars of soap, socks, and toothbrushes which have been weaponized. The deranged do not discriminate by the intended purpose of an item, they will weaponize anything they can get their hands on.
Another common misconception is that a firearm is a complicated affair which takes training and mastery to use. While it takes training to achieve a level of proficiency, as with any task, a firearm isn't even as complicated or difficult to use as an automobile. This also accounts for why far more people die in car accidents than they do in firearm accidents. Guns don't just magically go off and kill people. As a matter of fact, in one day, 84,999,989 gun owning Americans don't kill anyone. The reason this is never reported is because it's not newsworthy. People going about their daily business not harming anyone and living out their lives peacefully will not give the media the viewership they need corporately to stay afloat. What makes the news is when a lone man with a weapon (remember, guns are the hot button) manages to take the lives of many innocents. If someone stops him prematurely (like in the Clackamas Town Center), then it's not nearly as “big news,” so coverages is dropped in favor of something that will catch people's attention for longer. But we as law enforcement don't stop paying attention. There isn't a cop in the country who would rather read a story about 26 dead including 18 children, so we pay attention to the less “big” stories. We go on calls where acts of violence have been committed. We respond when someone is in fear of their life. We see firsthand how the criminal element works, and we look for ways to stop them. As a result, we see what happens when the responsible stand up against the reckless. We see that, hey, in this attempted mass shooting, one man in the crowd with a CCW not only used his pistol to stop a man with a rifle from killing God only knows how many people, but he did it without even firing a shot.
Additionally, and I won't elaborate too extensively on how, criminals don't care if they can legally own guns or not. Point in case, the young man who killed those elementary students stole the weapons he used. They were not legally obtained. Gun control laws told him “no, you can't have these,” so he went out and procured them all on his own. The same gun control laws that said, “no, you can't take these into a school” were also ignored, along with the laws that said, “no, you can't slaughter 26 people like animals just because you feel like it.” These are not the actions of a responsible person. These are the actions of a monster.
In summation, though I could say far more on the subject:
-Guns are not “killing machines,” as is frequently insinuated. They're a piece of equipment.
-There's nothing “special” about a cop that makes us magically capable of handling a gun responsibly where any other citizen cannot. Cops make mistakes and other citizens do things right. We're only human, just like that CCW holder. If you're afraid he's going to randomly shoot you because you made him angry, there's no reason you shouldn't hold the same fear of a cop. It's an irrational fear, but you ought to at least be consistent.
-If you're afraid of that CCW holder using his gun on you, you should also be afraid of him using his shoe, car keys, pocket knife, or anything else in arm's length on you.
-No law will ever stop the lawless."
