Our gun fantasies
On Facebook:
If just one armed citizen had been there to deliver a well-placed shot, fatalities and injuries would have been reduced. Nevertheless you will be hearing calls to restrict Americans’ gun rights. SUPPORT THE SECOND AMENDMENT
I can’t do it. I just can’t argue with these people. Somewhere in their heads they really think if they’d been there with a gun, they could have stopped that guy. In a dark theater full of tear gas and screaming people, while terrified, and (let’s face it) with skillz honed by threatening paper targets and video games.
Seriously?
The armed hero
It isn’t enough to go to a gun range and put holes in paper targets. Maybe paintball twice a week would help. Certainly combat experience would help. But the average person simply has not built the mental foundation for a discriminating kill during a crisis situation.
On the TV series Person Of Interest, there’s a guy who’s like this super-deadly ex-spy, and when someone’s holding someone else hostage, he whips out his gun and puts a bullet right through their forehead. And the bad guy falls to the ground and the hostage (though traumatized) is safe. You are not that person. I imagine there are people like that, but not you. If you think you are that person, you are delusional. Even if you are a nice person and you mean well.
The term “Fog Of War” comes to mind, and it was coined by actual soldiers. Anybody with combat experience want to weigh in on this? How do you think the average “armed citizen” would fare in that theater?
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It happens after every event if this sort. Paper heroes. There *is* no arguing with them, and heaven forbid you mention how it might just be a teensy problem that all of that armament was purchased legally. It’s insane.
“Paper Heroes” – I like that. Guess it’s all the paper targets they’ve brought down since equipping themselves.
Maybe they were the precursors to “Internet Tough Guy“.
People watch a couple Dirty Harry movies and think they’re certified to handle a shoot out. I’m seeing this sort of thing all over the net.
Not to mention what happens when 3 or 4 people whip out their “CCW” and start bravely blazing away…how do you know which one to shoot at yourself?
As I recall there was a guy with a gun at the Gabby Giffords shooting in Arizona last year; he refrained from firing at anyone, and a good thing he did. The person he thought might be the gunman wasn’t…