I am hardly what you would call a gun-nut, although as a summer camper I did participate avidly for a few years in the NRA’s target-shooting program for kids. Later, just out of college, intending to buy a handgun, I applied for a permit under New Jersey’s very stringent rules. I needed the local police chief to vouch for my good character, and my fingerprints were taken and sent off to the FBI. I went through this approval process twice over the years, both times letting the permit expire unused.

Here in Colorado it is easier to purchase a gun, but I own only one -- a .22 Ruger rifle that I use for target shooting. But I do not own a handgun, and I have serious reservations about buying one, since I worry that my kids would somehow find it, disable the trigger lock, load and fire it without my permission. I know this is so because, as a teenager, I inadvertently came upon the combination to a vault that lay behind a secret panel in my father’s bedroom closet. The combination was written on a scrap of paper that I found among some cummerbunds that he kept in a box. If I was able to find the combination to his safe, and to open it (as I did), then my kids could surely find a way to get into mischief with anything I might try to hide from them.

Zero Impact

But Monday’s deadly shooting rampage at Virginia Tech has caused me to reflect on my mild gun-shyness. The incident will doubtless be seized upon by many gun-control advocates as yet one more reason to ban handguns.  Personally, I feel very strongly that this is the wrong answer – that even a total ban would have zero impact on the problem. As far as I’m concerned, the supposed redneck bumper sticker gets it right: “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.” And while I stop short of advocating that citizens be required to carry guns, as some towns have, evidently to demonstrate their strident support for the Second Amendment, I sincerely believe that we’d all be safer if there were more law abiding citizens among us who carried handguns.

In a perfect world, none of us would have to fear becoming human targets for whack-jobs like the one who shot up Virginia Tech. But the fact is, shooting rampages are becoming increasingly common, and anyone who ventures out of the house is putting himself at risk. The risk may not be statistically significant, but it has arguably reached a point where it has begun to encroach on our peace of mind more than, say, a fear of getting struck by lightning, or run over by a bus. While anyone can avoid such tragedies by being more careful, we cannot possibly be so careful as to eliminate the chance we might get shot by a nut who has just been fired from his job, or has lost custody of his children in a divorce proceeding.

If you knew that there were perhaps a dozen or more law-abiding citizens at the mall carrying concealed handguns, and that each had been trained and certified to use that weapon expertly, would you feel more, or less, secure being there?  Perhaps it’s time for America to ponder that question seriously.  Me, I would sooner trust “gun-nuts” than put my life, and the lives of my family, at risk from some nut with a gun.

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Online Seminar April 21-22

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