How Gun Owners Feel About the Lafayette Shooting

           

Gun owners hate mass or high-profile shootings as much as anyone else does. None of us secretly enjoy the death of others; in fact, preventing or stopping such events is very much the reason many of us carry regularly. That fact is lost on gun-haters, the uninformed, and the media who can’t seem to understand that good guys carry guns too. Well, maybe they understand why uniformed good guys carry guns, but not private citizens. The right and responsibility to defend oneself is an unfamiliar concept to many on ‘the other side’ of the issue. I can’t imagine how they would react if citizen shot a would-be James Holmes or a teacher took down a school shooter.

Hearing the news of the latest shooting to make national news in Lafayette, LA, I cringed and groaned inwardly. Not another one. More people dead at the hands of another human being for no reason at all. We hate it. It's another excuse for the media and the anti-gunners to blather and spread lies about the inanimate gun being the cause of all this. Gun owners also hate how this makes us look bad because the media are putting the focus on the wrong people. Guilt by association here is as dumb as saying all Honda drivers are drunk because a Honda Civic driven by a drunk sideswiped you.

All the details aren’t out yet, but I’ll bet that no one in the theater was carrying a gun to shoot back. Perhaps if someone did start shooting back at these murderers, they would end faster, with fewer casualties, and give pause to the bedroom whack-jobs out there. Now does Louisiana state law give ‘no gun’ signs the force of law? I’m not sure RS 40:1379.3(O) strikes me as no, but it also seems ambiguous. Thankfully we don’t have this non-sense in Nevada. In a lot of places, ‘no gun’ signs tend to frighten away the less hardy conceal carriers and discourage almost all open carry. Many of the corporations that post the signs think that they will force robbers and gangbangers to pause and go elsewhere or at least leave their gat in the car.

I’m sure a lot of firearm prohibitions have to do with liability concerns because people can die, but heaven forbid the company get sued without a way to shift blame elsewhere. The policies are defended with stupid answers, offending the law abiding citizen that the company didn’t have to worry about in the first place. Managers and security guards enforce the policies that get many in their professions killed each year during robberies. At the end of the day, its one human being or a small group making these decisions and playing games with our lives. Why would disarming the law-abiding, especially the trained and licensed, be considered a good thing? Are they concerned that without the signs, there will be an outbreak of Chipotle Ninjas twirling their fully automatic machine pistols on their finger tips? Sure, some jackwagon might have an accidental discharge (of the firearm nature) in the bathroom, but that’s less likely to happen than some grandma creating an extra drive-thru entrance into the dining room.

This concern about liability (which is stupid, I’m sure someone will sue the theater anyway in our litigious society) is what angers gun owners. Some faceless corporation considers its pocketbooks to be more valuable than human life and is naïve enough to think slapping a sign on a door is going to work. Guess what? Criminals walk right past that sign with guns to do their evil along with a lot of good citizens who place a higher value on not being dead than obeying an asinine restriction.

Many in of those who hate guns and those who support gun control are saying “How can we stop this? Why can’t we stop this?” Probably because not enough of these people are shot down before they really get going on their sick spree. We make it too damn easy for them to kill without worrying about being shot in the back of the head by a citizen carrier. It’s not about the availability of guns, or some dude who climbed on to the roof of McDonalds with 30 round magazines. Take away guns entirely and people will use knives and rocks. Heck, some guy in Australia robbed a store with a boomerang. Lock up and treat the mentally ill like we used to and for heaven’s sake, let the good guys carry guns. Only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun; if that wasn’t true, no one would be calling the police when in danger.

Also, unlike CNN’s pre-written ‘blame the guns’ opinion article (written on 7/6 and reposted) the gun lobby is not the problem. It is the public, more than ever before, who do not support gun control, having seen the total failures of ‘gun free zones’ and arbitrary restrictions. In fact, a lack of support for gun control is not a ‘problem.’ Gun control is an absurd concept that expects that criminals and the mentally ill will obey the law and be deterred by the threat of punishment. Any law that in any way hinders any law-abiding citizen from defending themself anywhere, anytime, with the most effective weapon possible is an infringement.

States like Texas (actually a very hostile state to gun rights, contrary to popular belief) need to stop giving permission to business and private property to let customers become victims. If a private property owner wants to prohibit guns in their establishment, fine, but don’t give their ban the power of law. Businesses need to stop treating gun owners like criminals. Did all those ‘no gun’ signs in California fast-food joints and liquor stores work before Peruta v. Gore? Do smokers always obey ‘no smoking within 25 feet signs’ (probably more a CA thing than NV)? Those signs aren’t some magic talisman that keeps bad things away. If that was the case, where are the ‘no falling’ signs near stairs, ‘no DUI’ signs in parking garages, and where were the ‘no fire’ signs in the old MGM/Ballys hotel? Maybe I should have slapped a 'no break-up' sign over my front door so it would have kept my girlfriend from walking out one morning, with my key, and not come back.

It is time we hold private business accountable for their gun free zone policies. Boycotts are called for where it is illegal to ignore the sign. Elsewhere, conceal carry if there is no other options for your business (most movie theaters prohibit firearms) or protest out front. Call and speak with the management or corporate. Let them know how you feel and do not stop until they acknowledge that they are creating free-fire zones and turning their customers into helpless victims.

See the follow-up article here.

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