Friday, April 15, 2011

Alexandria, Virginia - 1 Dead, 1 Wounded



It sounds like the old "disgruntled ex-employee" syndrome. These are often done by law abiding gun owners who crack. The moment that happens, all the other law-abiding gun owners turn their back on the guy as if he were never a part of the fraternity.

Another interesting thing is that in one of the gun-friendliest states, no other lawful gun owner was able to intervene.  The guy literally got away with murder and then turned himself in to the police. Isn't it in shopping centers and malls, places like that, where the concealed carry guys are supposed to provide some kind of increased security?  Well they don't and I'll tell you why.

Just like in the famous Tucson incident a couple months ago, which took place in a state even more gun-friendly than Virginia, the people with guns were powerless to intervene. The reason for that is the chances of being in exactly the right place at exactly the right moment are extremely small. Even if many people in the immediate vicinity have guns, these incidents take place in a matter of seconds. Those guns in the hands of the good guys are useless.

On the other hand those same guns do great harm.  Like Mr. Nguyen, who very well might have owned his gun legally, lawful gun owners do sometimes go bad. When that happens people die.  You know what else those gun owners do?  They have accidents.  The more guns there are, the more accidents. And one other major down-side to gun proliferation among the law-abiding is they allow their guns to be stolen.

I realize some people don't like my use of the word "allow," so let me explain. When you leave your gun in the night stand or in the bedroom closet when you leave the house and someone breaks in and steals it, you have ALLOWED it to be stolen.  When you leave the gun in the glove compartment of the car and it's stolen, you have ALLOWED it to be stolen. Now, let's say on the other hand, you've invested in a proper gun safe, the thieves come in and like some professional safe-crackers they open it and clean you out. You are not guilty in that case. Naturally the more guns there are, the more get stolen, that's the bottom line.

To sum up, concealed carry, open carry, guns in the home, all these in the hands of lawful folks do very little good. Through direct misuse, accidents and theft, those same guns do great harm.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

4 comments:

  1. So everything in your house that is not in a safe you claim you are allowing to be stolen if someone breaks into your house? I suppose by your reasoning, the young woman abducted from her house "allowed" herself to be stolen because she was not in a safe.

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  2. Sorry, Jim, but we're talking about guns.

    Many gun owners make it too easy for thieves to steal their guns. Why would you argue with such a simple proposition?

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  3. Mike - the obvious answer is to allow the gun owner to maintain possesion of his gun at all times then. If you don't want guns stolen out of cars, then don't dissarm the gun owner by preventing them from carrying their weapon into places.

    As far as items stolen from a house, how is it any different if it is a gun or your other possesions? If people are to blame for a gun being stolen from their house, why are they not to blame for anything else stolen from their house? Seems like you want to give a big boost to insurance companies by not having them cover loss due to theft.

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  4. Jim, The difference is obvious. When a thief steals the coin collection he doesn't use it to kill someone. Guns are not like other possessions.

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