Mass shooting in the middle school Vladislav Ribnikar in Belgrade

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Flat’s thinking is kinda funny; he wants law-abiding citizens to be armed so they can stop mass shooters. But he also claims that most of these shootings happen in gun free zones. Well, once Joe Public brings his gun to one of these zones, he’s no longer a law-abiding citizen…he’s a criminal.

A possible solution might be to do away with such zones and actually encourage everyone to bring their guns. What could possibly go wrong?

Boru

Well, giving everybody a gun and encouraging them to carry it certainly makes more sense than requiring everybody to wear a mask. At least it is obvious how everybody having a gun is supposed to work, whereas it is not obvious how masks are supposed to work (non-N95 masks obviously cannot directly stop a virus, as it is too small, so we need to make ad-hoc hypotheses to explain how masks are supposed to work). But, still, I am against government intervention until there is evidence that the government intervention is not only cost-effective, but that government is really the best solution. There is such evidence for the policy of forbidding the prophylactic use of antibiotics in agriculture. But there is no such evidence of providing everybody with guns.

Try to imagine what would happen if a shooter opens fire in a crowded place - a cinema, a church, a concert.

The shooter starts firing. Joe pulls his gun and starts firing at the shooter. Jim sees Joe do this and starts firing at Joe, thinking he’s the bad guy. Susan is near Jim, sees him shooting, thinks HE’S the bad guy and takes him out. And so on and so on.

While all this is going on, it turns out Joe - being all chubbed up that he finally get to play Rambo - has missed the original shooter (who is continuing with his original agenda) and has taken out three bystanders.

If you give more people more guns, more people will be shot.

Boru