Way Up North: It Can't Contradict Itself
My friend, and often my commenter here, Rev. Paul, makes a very good point over at Way Up North. The proliferation of "gun free zones" around huge swaths of the landscape does nothing to protect those inside such zones. All it does is ensure that there will be no law abiding gun owner in such a zone ready to take on a criminal.
As I have pondered "gun free zones" over the years since receiving a CHL, I have come to believe that the logic is simply faulty. For example, I remember having this conversation several years back, after returning from Kentucky:
Me: I like that I didn't have to remove my weapon and store it to eat in an Applebees. And guess what? Nothing happened!
Other: I don't like mixing guns and places that serve alcohol.
Me: Well, you can't drink while carrying a weapon in such places you know.
Other: You might be sober, but what if some drunk grabs your gun and starts shooting up the place.
Me: Uh...my gun is concealed. How is our hypothetical "drunk" going to know I have it?
Other: Well I just don't like the idea of guns and drunks mixed up in the same place. It just doesn't feel right.
Me: !
In the end, that's how public policy is decided. Not on the basis of rational arguments, facts and logic, but on how it "feels" at the moment. No one is safer because of "gun free zones" but an oblivious few get to "feel" safer. For that, everyone else must give up their rights.
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Thank you for the link.
ReplyDeleteThere's an alternative, of course: if your weapon is truly concealed, then no one knows that you have it, "gun-free" zone or not. What it truly becomes is a choice between exercising a natural right, or following an unconstitutional law barring the exercise of that right. Free men may have to decide that very issue, very soon.
Rev. Paul,
ReplyDeleteYour welcome.
While what you say is true, in a free society, one expects the laws to line up with the rights of free men and women. Free men should not be constantly looking over their shoulder, wondering when the "law" will catch up with them. It is to this mismatch between what we believe and what reality is that I addressed my comments.
Regards,
PolyKahr