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Oh For Two, and Packing Heat
Dec. 21st, 2012 11:10 amOh For Two
The world has not ended, and the "massive blizzard" that was supposed to dump a ton of snow on Chicago came and went, leaving a light dusting on grassy areas. We're going 0-for-2 on predictions here.
Packing Heat
In the ongoing national debate on gun control, the pro-gun folks argue that we should allow teachers to carry guns at school. In general, I'm not opposed to arming teachers, and if individual teachers want to get a concealed-carry permit, go for it. But saying "arming teachers will fix the problem" is a political non-starter.
The best information I have been able to extract out of Google is that between 6 and 8 million Americans have concealed carry permits. Yes this is skewed down by states like Illinois that don't (yet) allow permits, but it's skewed up by including police in the permit-holders. Again per Google, there are around 250 million adults in the USA. So, quick math (8 / 250) tells me 3.2% of Americans are carrying a gun. Let's round that up to 5%, to catch people carrying without permits or who would if they could.
That means that 95% of Americans aren't regularly armed. Any argument that says "X group needs to carry a gun" will be responded to by a massive cry of "I don't want to carry a gun!" This will be followed by "wild west" comparisons.
Although, the "wild west" wasn't that wild - the famous gunfight at the O. K. Corral started because the sheriff was trying to disarm cowboys who were packing in violation of city law. nbsp;This "no guns in town" ordinance was actually quite common in the "wild west" and even the violent cattle towns weren't really that violent. In short, even in the "wild west" most people didn't walk around with a gun on them. So, saying the solution to the problem is more guns on the street goes against common sense and history. It's a non-starter.
The world has not ended, and the "massive blizzard" that was supposed to dump a ton of snow on Chicago came and went, leaving a light dusting on grassy areas. We're going 0-for-2 on predictions here.
Packing Heat
In the ongoing national debate on gun control, the pro-gun folks argue that we should allow teachers to carry guns at school. In general, I'm not opposed to arming teachers, and if individual teachers want to get a concealed-carry permit, go for it. But saying "arming teachers will fix the problem" is a political non-starter.
The best information I have been able to extract out of Google is that between 6 and 8 million Americans have concealed carry permits. Yes this is skewed down by states like Illinois that don't (yet) allow permits, but it's skewed up by including police in the permit-holders. Again per Google, there are around 250 million adults in the USA. So, quick math (8 / 250) tells me 3.2% of Americans are carrying a gun. Let's round that up to 5%, to catch people carrying without permits or who would if they could.
That means that 95% of Americans aren't regularly armed. Any argument that says "X group needs to carry a gun" will be responded to by a massive cry of "I don't want to carry a gun!" This will be followed by "wild west" comparisons.
Although, the "wild west" wasn't that wild - the famous gunfight at the O. K. Corral started because the sheriff was trying to disarm cowboys who were packing in violation of city law. nbsp;This "no guns in town" ordinance was actually quite common in the "wild west" and even the violent cattle towns weren't really that violent. In short, even in the "wild west" most people didn't walk around with a gun on them. So, saying the solution to the problem is more guns on the street goes against common sense and history. It's a non-starter.
