[QUOTE=pkbites]
When I pulled that Ruger out they took off running. And I’m damn lucky they did because **IT WAS UNLOADED! **:eek: Like I said, the only reason I had it was because I had been to a training session a few hours earlier, and I had fired all range ammo at that. I had no rounds on me what so ever. None!
[/QUOTE]
So, you had a gun on you and still had the shit knocked out of you? Yes, I can see how that was useful… of course if your assailants had guns and you pulled that unloaded one on them you’d likely be dead.
I can assure you that if someone were walking around “open carry” here that it would induce more panic than calm and people would likely call the police. It’s simply not normal for people to see anyone carrying a gun here unless they’re police or a criminal committing a criminal act.
Let’s not see stats on whether or not people know their assailants, let’s see some numbers on all of the people who defended themselves with legally registered handguns on the street in Philadelphia in the last 10 years. This is your positive assertion of how carrying a gun makes people safer in my city in GQ so let’s see the numbers. How many of those 28,000 permitted people have warded off criminals in the past ten years, just to pick a range? Remember, they live here every day, so that should be plenty of opportunity to protect themselves as you claim you’re doing when you swing through.
I’ve worked in the tourism industry here in the summer a few yearss when people are wearing T-shirts and shorts, I have seen tens of thousands tourists here and at no time have I ever seen any indication that any one of them was carrying a weapon so that they could go visit the Betsy Ross House or buy a cheesesteak. Please show me any citation that people commonly come here on vacation with weapons!
Once again, I’m not an anti-gun crusder. In addition to the reasons I cited above as to why people have the right to own a gun, I could add protecting yourself from a tyrannical domestic government or target shooting. And again, neither of those reasons are forwarded by visiting Philadelphia with a handgun. Do you have a right do so? You do. Is it total overkill (no pun intended)? Yep.
If we want to extend the fire metaphor this isn’t carrying fire insurance or having a fire extinguisher, but walking around town with a fire ax and a tank of oxygen. Firemen carry those because they are likely to encounter fires, and police carry guns because they are likely to encounter crimimals (even then it’s very rare for them to have to fire their weapons!). If you’re not looking to buy or sell crack, or you’re not looking to respond to 911 emergencies you’re as likely to need the gun as the tank of oxygen and the ax. You might encounter a fire too, but come on…
I have respect for police as professionals with training and some degree of restraint who are called specifically to trouble scenes for a living, and who have to account to superiors for every missing round. Yes, I do trust those people relatively more than Joe Blow who gets nervous visiting the city. My police also live here and work here and know the difference between a dangerous situation and a horrible misreading of the social terrain which could get innocent people shot.
I manage to leave the house every day - living in this big American city that seems to scare some of you - without carrying a billy club, gun and pepper spray (! - what, no tazer? Lacking a tazer, do not feel unsafe? How about chainmail?) so perhaps I’m not the one who should be accused of holding “paranoid fantasies.”
Incidentally I’ve been all over the Third World, lived and worked in Bosnia and a number of other places where people walk around openly with weapons, and although I don’t get freaked out by the site of them I realize that they represent more of a chance of misunderstandings to escalate into serious violence than they do the chance of keeping reasonably-acting people safe.