Evil Can Strike Anytime, Anywhere

“No one needs a gun at a library.” Well, until yesterday (Dec. 2), no one in San Bernardino thought that they would need a gun at the Health Department Christmas party. Evil can strike anytime, anywhere, for any cause. We can’t delve into the California issues here, but we can discuss ‘gun-free zones’ in Nevada and potential similar circumstances.

The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District have insisted that the library is a special place that should be allowed to prohibit firearms. Their legal justification is dubious and their logic that ideas need protected from intimidation holds no water. A library holds no special, intrinsic value that serves as a deterrent to violence. Churches, the most sacred of spaces, don’t even have that benefit.

The vast majority of government facilities where large numbers of people, especially the general public, congregate do not have armed security. Armed security is also generally inadequate and the guards are not intended to lay down their lives to end or spoil a terrorist attack. The armed private security guards have guns for their protection, not for the public’s benefit. The intention is that a guards can defend themselves, if someone they’ve confronted becomes a threat to life. A $15/hr employee is not going to be expected to try and intervene in a terrorist attack.

Citizens do not deserve to be unarmed sitting ducks. State law and both the Nevada and federal constitutions guarantee the right to armed self-protection. This is not to say that the attack yesterday could have been thwarted by a citizen carrier. Perhaps knowing several armed people would be present may have dissuaded the attackers or saved a life or two.

The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

Excepts from Allied Barton's armed security policy from a Open Records Act request.