Why anyone thinks the answer to gun violence is getting more guns on the street is baffling. How does that even make sense in their minds? But that's what's happening. In the days after the tragic Sandy Hook school shooting that took the lives of 20 children and 7 adults, gun shop owners report a surge in gun sales, especially for assault rifles like the one used by shooter Adam Lanza.
"The two busiest days I've witnessed during my four years in the business," one gun shop owner says, "was the day after Obama was elected, and ahead of that, last Saturday."
WTF???
Ridiculous panic over post-election gun acquisition aside, the belief that being armed will in any way protect you from random acts of violence is naive and it's very, very dangerous. Just because someone owns a gun doesn't mean they know how to use it. Or that they won't accidentally shoot an innocent bystander if they pull it out in public. There's no guarantee you'd even have the ability to get it out in time to use it. The person most at risk when you buy guns is YOU. And your family.
"Most people feel that if teachers had the ability to protect themselves, there would have been less casualties," Brandy Liss, owner of the The Arms Room, a shooting range and gun shop in League City, Texas, says.
I say bullshit to that. I can see absolutely no scenario in which a bunch of armed school teachers, shooting in a moment of panic, would not make that situation infinitely worse. I can't even see the logic to it. Owning a gun does not keep you from being shot. Or necessarily keep your family safe. Nancy Lanza was murdered with her own gun. By her son. In her home. Why he went to the school afterward we may never know. But rushing out to buy guns after something this terrible, because you think it's the best way to protect yourself, is just crazy.
Do you think having more guns on the streets can help stop gun violence?
Image via M Glasgow/Flickr
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Comments 11
If you are gun order, you should already know how to use your gun. That's just plain irresponsible not to know how to use it. Responsible gun owners just don't "pull the gun out in public" and kill innocent bystanders.
If the principal had a gun (or if there were an armed security guard on staff), Adam Lanza could of been shot on site.
Banning guns are not the answer. Timonthy McVeigh killed over fifty people- 19 of them children and he used fertilizer and a rental van.
I think had there been just ONE armed person, say a security guard in that school, well, for one, it may have made that POS think twice about targeting that school. And for two, he could have been stopped BEFORE he killed all those innocent children. And for the record, I HATE guns! Have never fired one and really have no desire to ever do so. However, this is a scary world we live in and I have decided to take my husband up on teaching me how to use a gun. I'd rather face a jury and explain why I killed somebody than have the police have to tell my husband that his wife and/or child is dead at the hands of a criminal.
Sorry I don't agree with this article. If the "bad guys" have guns, the innocent need them too. Also, it seems like opportunists are using this incident to hope on the anti-gun movement when really, the issue was mental health. I'm also for safety but we can't turn this into a communist society. What's next? Banning knives bc you could get stabbed? Banning automobiles because you could get hit by a car?
By your argument, no police officer or military man should be carrying a gun. Because he just might hurt someone with it. How idiotic is that?
How do you NOT understand that RESPONSIBLE gun owners don't just "have a gun"? They use that gun. The ones I know (and I know a LOT) are on the range nearly every weekend, practicing. They target shoot with their handguns, they are neurotic about safety, teaching everyone who asks them. And when they teach? They're obsessive about the safety rules - Safety ON until you are ready to shoot. NEVER touch the trigger until you are ready to shoot. Assume EVERY gun is loaded... ALL the time.
The people you are scared of are the ones who will find a way to have a gun whether there is one law or a thousand laws banning them. Because they don't care about the laws.
And the ones who are legally buying them now? They're hoping to get them grandfathered in, because they can see the writing on the wall.
Gun sales always go up when people fear their guns will be taken away. And rightfully so. It says to the government that they have this right, and arent going to just hand them over because they say so.