I often do plumbing for an organization which promotes, among other things, “peace and justice.” One of their slogans (you see it on buttons, bumper stickers, etc.) is “Stop the Violence.” Someone there asked me once why I wear a sidearm. I told him “It’s sort of a fundamentalist version of ‘Stop the Violence.’ If somebody starts some violence, I intend to stop it if I can.”
This past Saturday night I discussed carrying with a friend and mentioned that, once you get used to it, you feel somewhat vulnerable whenever you happen not to be armed. Philosophically, I oppose the existence of places where only criminals are armed, and I mentioned schools as an example. It is not legal for me to be armed on school property. He and I both agreed that shooters would gravitate to such places, knowing that they have a free hand against their prey.
And so thirty-six hours later we hear that a shooter went to Virginia Tech and blew away over thirty kids. I am literally horrified when I think of what the students endured while this evil murderer casually snuffed out one life after another.
If a trained handgunner had been present and armed, the murderer would have been summarily stopped and most of those kids would be alive today.
What do you think? Leave a reply.