Now that doesn't necessarily mean that guns should be banned. Risk assessment is critical in this kind of public policy, and anecdotes about innocents being shot are no less and more anecdotes about innocents using a gun to avoid being murdered or raped.
But the willful ignoring of the dangers of firearms, and the idea that if we just give everyone guns and make sure they are trained that everyone will be safe is … crazy.
College Student Accidentally Shot By Good Guy With A Gun
Late last week, 21 year old Hofstra University student Andrea Rebello was shot and killed during an attempted robbery in a group house near the Uniondale, New York campus. But the initial assumption — that Rebello was murdered by the suspected robber Dalton Smith during a shoot-out with police — now appears to be wrong. […]
While tragic, is this the first time someone was accidentally killed (with anything )?
Stay classy "Think" progress….
No, TP's (and my) point is that guns don't automatically equate to safety, and the idea that if more people are armed and trained in firearm usage that we would automatically be safer doesn't hold water.
I don't think anyone was saying it would "automatically" do anything, but being trained and being responsible and having a firearm is much better (and safer, despite what some would preach) than not having anything at all…
…especially in coming up against someone who does have a gun and plans to use it for nefarious purposes.
All the training in the world isn't going to make things 100%, foolproof, safe when it comes to gun violence, unfortunately, but for me and my family, it's the best option.
And that's where the risk analysis comes in, both as a personal judgment and as a societal judgment.
I am not as convinced that having a firearm, and being trained, and even being responsible, is in fact, better — especially when you're relying upon the other folks around you who are packing to also be trained and responsible. And, as you note, even training and responsibility won't make things 100% foolproof safe, as the tragic events in the case in the article points out.
Lol someone is clueless LaPierre.