You know I'm in a Neighborhood Watch program like this, and we are trained by the Sheriff to avoid these situations, for precisely this reason. Real cops go through a lot of training to prevent just this sort of tragedy, and even they sometimes screw up under stress. We are told in our training repeatedly to not get out of the car, not confront suspects, not follow people, and NOT carry a weapon. We get lectures, watch power points, read booklets, sign a paper, all to drive the point home.

I haven't the slightest doubt in my mind there is a similar protocol in Stanford, if for no other reason than to avoid lawsuits. Civilians just can't be trusted to react rationally when under this kind of stress, and having a gun makes some kind of people bolder, willing to push the envelope just a little harder because they have a gun and they are tough guys who don't take no shit.

I think some people are just dying to have an excuse to shoot someone legally, and I think Zimmerman is one of those people. There's a reason we call them gun nuts.

I don't think people have any business carrying guns around in public places, concealed or otherwise, unless they can convince police they need them for protection, like a businessman taking cash to a night depository, or a clerk working the graveyard shift at a 7-11. Guns are for home defense, where there is no question an intruder is a potential threat.

As a gun owner, I don't want people to know I own firearms. They'll only break in and steal them when I'm not home, or show up in a heavily armed group so they can take them from me. I don't have cutesy "This home protected by Smith and Wesson" or "Forget the dog, beware of owner" signs on my house or car.

And I'm fed up with all this pseudo-patriot constitutional gun crap. These are just little boys playing with guns, period. They are precisely the kind of people you don't want wandering around town around packing heat.

Yes, I believe we all have the right to own firearms for self-protection and recreation. We do not have the right to inflict our cowboy fantasies on total strangers on the street.