A frequent argument by gun “enthusiasts” after a mass shooting goes along the lines of “if everyone carried a gun, then someone could have shot the gunman before they hurt anyone.” This naively overlooks the fact that most people are not trained for or used to dealing with such situations and may not react in the fashion the “enthusiasts” imagine. The shooting near NYC’s Empire State Building today proves that. Although it hasn’t been confirmed, it’s likely that at least some of the wounded civilians were hit by police gunfire. These are people who are trained in firearm use and dealing with dangerous situations and they still managed to shoot the wrong people. Putting more guns into more hands doesn’t solve anything, let’s stop pretending it will.
This work, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
