This might not be a comfortable discussion for some, but we need to start considering ways of educating our citizens about firearms and firearm safety, because merely owning a firearm does not make you an expert.. yet that is the mentality that some people have. We see this behavior time and time again every time there's a mass shooting in the news, people have this fantasy about how they would have been the hero in that situation and stopped the killer dead in their tracks. I saw one woman on the news the days following the Vegas shooting saying that she wished she had been carrying on that day, because she would have fired back. It was unclear if this person even knew where the shots were coming from, but she expressed that she would have at least been able to fire back had she been carrying on that night. In this woman's mind just being able to fire back would have made the situation better, but in actuality she was only demonstrating how clueless people can be about using their firearms. You don't just go firing your weapon wily nily in a situation like that, otherwise you'll only end up making things worse, and if people are going to be carrying their firearm in public, they need to understand this.
I had a rather interesting discussion with my brother this week about this subject. As many of you are aware from my prior threaad, my brother had the unfortunate experience of attending the Vegas concert in which the massacre of around 60 innocent people took place. My brother also has a carry permit in the state of California, and he knows a thing or two about using his firearm. That is because people with a carry permit must be educated on the use of their firearms. EVERYONE who carries a firearm in public should be educated.
When I first spoke to my brother over the phone the night of the shooting, I asked him if he had brought his gun with him to the concert (note, my brother has a permit to carry in California, but Nevada does not require such permits to carry in public), he told me that he did not bring his gun with him to the concert, as they did not allow people to carry inside the concert. About two days ago I talked to him again about the incident, but this time I asked him if he would have done anything differently had he been carrying on that night. He paused for a minute and told me he did not know. He then explained that his gun would have been no use to him even if he could identify where the shots were coming from. He explained further that at the time he wished he had his gun on him, because as he was having to go around corners, he did not know what he would encounter on the other side, but in hindsight he was glad he was not carrying that night, as 1. He could not have stopped the gunman 2. He is unsure if in the heat of the situation that he would have had the common sense not to draw his weapon, and 3. When he used his shirt as a tourniquet to prevent a woman who had been shot from bleeding out, the gun on his hip would have been left exposed. Had any of the officers who were trying to get control of the situation had seen him with his weapon, they might have mistook him for another gunman.
I told my brother about the woman at the event who told the press that she would have fired back had she been carrying, my brother shook his head and explained that had anyone from the crowd attempted to fire a handgun into the 32nd floor window that they would have ended up hitting one of the windows underneath the gunman, and that if the woman were carrying a little 22 hangun that her shots wouldn't have even made it that far.
Me and my brother have many disagreements on gun control, but one thing we do agree on is that people who are carrying in public need to know what the hell they are doing. I don't think we should go around taking peoples' guns away, but people who do own guns need to be better educated on how to use them. There are people in many parts of the country who buy a gun, and then go around carrying it with them everywhere they go without ever learning how to use it. I'm not against people carrying in public, I actually believe that more people should get their carry permit. However, I believe that a permit should be required before allowing someone to legally carry in public, the same way we require people to get a driver's license before driving on public roads. If people want to carry on their own private property, that's fine by me.. but if they are going to carry in public, then they need to be educated.
This post was edited by TCassa89 on Oct 11 2017 01:48am