I just read something. I am not going to quote from it.
I am going to strongly urge you to read this op ed piece from today’s New York Times.
Read it carefully.
At the end the author offers one sentence, a question he posed to the audience of a forum on guns on his campus.
Consider that question.
Consider also that we have those who want people like me, school teachers, to be licensed to carry guns in classrooms (such as in Utah).
Then ask yourself if you really thing that someone like the author can get a concealed carry permit will really make people safer.
I was trained, many years ago, to fire long guns and sidearms. In the military.
I have not fired a weapon since I was discharged in the 1960s.
I suspect I would still, having had that experience, be a better shot than the author — at a stationary target, without adrenaline pumping.
My answer to the question in the op ed is a firm no.
My answer would be the same if the person next to whom I would be sitting had my background.
I do not believe the solution to gun violence is more guns.
Had I a child I would not want them attending a college, university or school where people with minimal training were allowed to carry loaded weapons.
When we have a circumstance with multiple innocent people getting shot because of concealed carry, will we rethink this insanity?
When a concealed carry permit holder pulls out a gun to respond in an active shooter situation and gets shot and killed by arriving law enforcement because there is no way to determine who is the good guy with the gun and who is the bad guy, will people still rationalize this kind of legislation?
I am related to a federal law enforcement official, who cannot consume alcohol while carrying his firearm, who must secure his firearm at home in a gun safe. When we increase the number of handguns, when they are carried into situations with alcohol, when they are not secured from children at home, how many more unnecessary deaths will we as a society be willing to tolerate?