<<The exact same argument applies to gun control laws.>

Almost, not quite. If I have a fight with my wife, get drunk and you cut in front of me when the freeway narrows, I'm going to have a harder time shoving my National ID card down your throat than shooting you.

What concerns me about guns isn't the guy who buys them, or owns them. It isn't even most of the guy who thinks he needs to carry one. I've interviewed hundreds of people in trouble for violence. EVERY ONE has said, "I don't go lookin' for trouble, but if it's there I'm ready! I'm not gonna run from it!"

Every one of those folks admitted they were looking for trouble. Every one.

Now, that's not so bad. They seem to congregate where others of their ilk (that word seems to irritate FrankC) are hanging. What is bad is that these folk have the impulse control of your knee under the docs rubber hammer. None, or very little.

Get them a bit irritated, and they will think the smartest thing in the whole wide world is to take out their gun and shoot someone "who has it coming". Could be another driver, a guy who insulted his wife, almost anyone.

10 minutes later it doesn't seem so smart. He probably is a good guy at heart. A day later there's one dead citizen and one remorseful guy who "didn't know how it happened." 6 months later there's still one dead citizen and now one remorseful guy who has his wife, neighbors, mother, father, and a couple of his brothers telling a judge what a nice guy he is, good to the dog, most of the time, and so on.

And there's one dead citizen, who in the eyes and sights of someone with a gun who for 10 seconds thought that citizen "had it coming".

It's the impulse control of the kind of person who feels a need to carry a gun that scares me. It's just not worth having innocent families suffer because a few folks who "aren't looking for trouble but just want to be ready for it" want to carry guns.

Are there upsides to people carrying guns? I'm sure there is the rare instance. And I'm much, much more sure there are many more tragedies.

Those folks with lousy impulse control are pretty decent people 99% of the time. There's that one percent of that person that can gain control of him and do a lot of damage if he has a gun.

I know, they could do damage without a gun, too. Guns just make it so impersonal, so easy, so satisfying. Big noise, recoil, "God, I'm powerful, I can make things happen!" Appeals to a lot of folk. We all feel helpless, victimized, part of the time, and would like vengeance. Well, maybe not all, but most of us.

There are some situations where a gun has prevented a tragedy. And, in the grand scheme of things, the big picture, something with so many downsides and so few upsides ain't worth it. More innocent families suffer because of guns than tragedies are prevented. More tragedies caused than avoided.

Arf