One father's journey into arming himself

[snuffy51]

I kept losing my place while reading his story, trying to decide exactly where he was at. Bout' all I came away with was six of one and a half dozen of another. I don't know if I trust him or not.

 

[Bradzed]

I, too read the entire article. On one level I understand his ambivalence. But he seems to have confused criminality with gun ownership. I was particularly leery of his attempt to correlate states with with more gun owners with increased gun violence.

As we all know, England is always invoked as proof that controlling gun ownership eradicates gun violence. That's not acc
Since my area of specialization is Victorian history, I've spent a lot of time in England — I've lived there for 2 years as well as making multiple trips of shorter duration. Yes, in the large cities no one carries guns. However, outside of the cities everyone seems to have a gun of some sort. Yes, I've taken part in the Glorious 14th when grouse season opens (and learned that I suck at it) and know it's common to see people walking around with their shotguns. The difference between the two fairly equally armed nations is in how each deals with criminals. It appears that the US justice system has forgotten the letter "f" as in final and finish. I recently read that in the US, a life sentence means only 14-15 years in prison. And, unlike the Brits, we allow for endless appeals so there's no finality. Both nations face similar societal pressures but the Brits seem to have more common sense than we do.

Having said all that, I'd add that, while I respect the guy's grief, it's damned foolish to run towards gunfire when unprepared. His son was unarmed and had no way to assess the situation. Yes, if I heard a car crash, I'd respond. But I wouldn't respond to gunfire were I in his son's position.

Personally I also think it's just as foolish to arm teachers. When I taught at the university level, I could not have functioned as a effective shooter. The skills needed to teach don't play well with proactive defensive shooting. And we need to interject a little reality here. Teachers are already overburdened: when you have to hunt for a piece of chalk, hold the attention of 40 kids running on hormones, and still find time to do things like prepare lectures, grade class work, survive the evils of administrative work, and find time to meet with students you're just not going to succeed as a school cop.

End of rant.

 

[sotexas]

I, too read the entire article. On one level I understand his ambivalence. But he seems to have confused criminality with gun ownership. I was particularly leery of his attempt to correlate states with with more gun owners with increased gun violence.

As we all know, England is always invoked as proof that controlling gun ownership eradicates gun violence. That's not acc
Since my area of specialization is Victorian history, I've spent a lot of time in England — I've lived there for 2 years as well as making multiple trips of shorter duration. Yes, in the large cities no one carries guns. However, outside of the cities everyone seems to have a gun of some sort. Yes, I've taken part in the Glorious 14th when grouse season opens (and learned that I suck at it) and know it's common to see people walking around with their shotguns. The difference between the two fairly equally armed nations is in how each deals with criminals. It appears that the US justice system has forgotten the letter "f" as in final and finish. I recently read that in the US, a life sentence means only 14-15 years in prison. And, unlike the Brits, we allow for endless appeals so there's no finality. Both nations face similar societal pressures but the Brits seem to have more common sense than we do.

Having said all that, I'd add that, while I respect the guy's grief, it's damned foolish to run towards gunfire when unprepared. His son was unarmed and had no way to assess the situation. Yes, if I heard a car crash, I'd respond. But I wouldn't respond to gunfire were I in his son's position.

Personally I also think it's just as foolish to arm teachers. When I taught at the university level, I could not have functioned as a effective shooter. The skills needed to teach don't play well with proactive defensive shooting. And we need to interject a little reality here. Teachers are already overburdened: when you have to hunt for a piece of chalk, hold the attention of 40 kids running on hormones, and still find time to do things like prepare lectures, grade class work, survive the evils of administrative work, and find time to meet with students you're just not going to succeed as a school cop.

End of rant.

Agree...Don't think I would want my daughter (2nd grade teacher) to be armed. It's to bad we have lost tolerance and civility in society.

 

[Hillbilly77]

I checked out at "A gun killed my son".

No. No it didn't.

 

[Wise_A]

Personally I also think it's just as foolish to arm teachers. When I taught at the university level, I could not have functioned as a effective shooter. The skills needed to teach don't play well with proactive defensive shooting. And we need to interject a little reality here. Teachers are already overburdened: when you have to hunt for a piece of chalk, hold the attention of 40 kids running on hormones, and still find time to do things like prepare lectures, grade class work, survive the evils of administrative work, and find time to meet with students you're just not going to succeed as a school cop.

I've not seen a single proposal to arm teachers. I have seen plenty of proposals to no longer prohibit a teacher from being armed, if they so choose. Nothing is requiring them to engage in "proactive defense shooting" (srsly, what is that?). All we want is for teachers to have the option, when they've huddled all the kids under their desks, of having the J-frame or G26 they already own, instead of simply praying the guy runs out of ammo before he finds them.

These individuals target locations where nobody can legally carry. And we know that any type of armed resistance dramatically reduces the number of casualties, on average.

Every single mass shooter required the intervention of a good guy with a gun, whether that meant the good guy dropped him like a sack of potatoes, or that said crazy self-terminated when it stopped being fun. The only question is whether the victims are able to defend themselves, or whether they have to wait for the police (while more people die).

You want to stop mass shootings? Flip the switch from "fish in a barrel" to "immediate return fire".

Also, lol, a daycare where I drop off kids has this dumb sign, printed on ordinary paper and taped up in the front alcove:

"No firearms, shotguns, or rifles permitted in the building."

K, sure, I'm sure that anybody bringing a shotgun to a daycare place is totally gonna turn around when they see that sign. Also, thanks for clarifying that I can't bring my muzzleloader, either.

 

[Wise_A]

Personally I also think it's just as foolish to arm teachers. When I taught at the university level, I could not have functioned as a effective shooter. The skills needed to teach don't play well with proactive defensive shooting. And we need to interject a little reality here. Teachers are already overburdened: when you have to hunt for a piece of chalk, hold the attention of 40 kids running on hormones, and still find time to do things like prepare lectures, grade class work, survive the evils of administrative work, and find time to meet with students you're just not going to succeed as a school cop.

I've not seen a single proposal to arm teachers. I have seen plenty of proposals to no longer prohibit a teacher from being armed, if they so choose. Nothing is requiring them to engage in "proactive defense shooting" (srsly, what is that?). All we want is for teachers to have the option, when they've huddled all the kids under their desks, of having the J-frame or G26 they already own, instead of simply praying the guy runs out of ammo before he finds them.

These individuals target locations where nobody can legally carry. And we know that any type of armed resistance dramatically reduces the number of casualties, on average.

Every single mass shooter required the intervention of a good guy with a gun, whether that meant the good guy dropped him like a sack of potatoes, or that said crazy self-terminated when it stopped being fun. The only question is whether the victims are able to defend themselves, or whether they have to wait for the police (while more people die).

You want to stop mass shootings? Flip the switch from "fish in a barrel" to "immediate return fire".

Also, lol, a daycare where I drop off kids has this dumb sign, printed on ordinary paper and taped up in the front alcove:

"No firearms, shotguns, or rifles permitted in the building."

K, sure, I'm sure that anybody bringing a shotgun to a daycare place is totally gonna turn around when they see that sign. Also, thanks for clarifying that I can't bring my blunderbuss, either.

Unless, wait, does a blunderbuss count as a shotgun?