# Resolved: Every adult will be required to carry a gun at all times in public **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 25, 2024, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216 "2024-08-25T22:31:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/43 "2024-08-26T16:16:43Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > In the USA gun control proponents see the very existence of firearms as a bane upon society, or see gun ownership as at best a sort of vice to be heavily discouraged. Neither of these are true about me, a proponent of better gun control in the US, nor a single one of the other proponents of better US gun control I interact with. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/44 "2024-08-26T16:19:18Z")
> **Hidden by Mod, please don't reply.** > > > [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > > > Neither of these are true about me, a proponent of better gun control in the US, nor a single one of the other proponents of better US gun control I interact with. > > Genuinely interested to know, what do you envision for gun control? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/45 "2024-08-26T16:23:58Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > A combination of concepts which is indeed possible. Except that, when it comes to the two concepts the word “gun” is shouted out, while the term “control” is whispered. When gun advocates speak of both sides equally and totally inseparable, there will be something to talk about. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/46 "2024-08-26T16:27:57Z")
I’m down but only if we require everyone to wear boots and cowboy hats. It’s going to make interviewing candidates for jobs a lot more interesting. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/47 "2024-08-26T16:32:56Z")
Better yet, lets not turn this thread into a gun control thread. I’ll hide your post. Moderating done. ---
**Author:** ![FrenchDunadan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frenchdunadan/32/5449_2.png) [@FrenchDunadan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrenchDunadan)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/48 "2024-08-26T16:33:31Z")
when you said “gun”, did you have a limit in mind…? > **[Schwerer Gustav](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwerer_Gustav)** > > Schwerer Gustav (English: Heavy Gustav) was a German 80-centimetre (31.5 in) railway gun. It was developed in the late 1930s by Krupp in Rügenwalde as siege artillery for the explicit purpose of destroying the main forts of the French Maginot Line, the strongest fortifications in existence at the time. The fully assembled gun weighed nearly 1,350 tonnes (1,490 short tons) and could fire shells weighing 7 t (7.7 short tons) to a range of 47 km (29 mi). > The gun was designed in preparation for the ... ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/49 "2024-08-26T16:53:35Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Which is in fact the striking difference between Swiss and USA concepts of gun control. The Swiss have gun regulations in order that as many people as possible can keep firearms. No, the Swiss require gun ownership for an actual good reason – it’s part of how their military is structured. This was also the case in the US when someone thought the Second Amendment was a good idea, but hasn’t been true for hundred of years. > [@Lumpy](#): > > In the USA gun control proponents see the very existence of firearms as a bane upon society, or see gun ownership as at best a sort of vice to be heavily discouraged. In the USA gun control is less about safety (because there are few practical obstacles to criminals possessing guns illegally) as it is about trying to push a sort of faux-pacifism that hopes that eventually most people will have been conditioned to be hoplophobes who flinch at the very sight of a gun. This assessment is not entirely wrong, and nor is it obvious to reasonable people that the objective is entirely without merit. This is now trending into yet another gun debate in which I’m not interested, but what you’re describing and contemptuously dismissing could be characterized as an effort to wean the US away from an extremely harmful, self-destructive gun culture which has gripped the US in a way that is unparalleled in any other industrialized democracy in the world. ETA: I replied before I saw the mod note, sorry. In any case, as I already said, not interested in a gun debate, I’m done. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/50 "2024-08-26T16:54:42Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > The typical American yokel open-carrying an AR-15 in a donut shop would go straight to jail if he tried that in Switzerland. All those conscripts have to go do 2 weeks of service every year. And they have to carry their SIG SG 550 with them. On the train. Supposedly unloaded. I saw somebody, in a military uniform, carrying a rifle within the last week. It’s considered normal. And there may be low gun crime, but easily available guns makes suicide way too easy. > Between 1995 and 2003, 39% of all suicides among men ages 18–43 in Switzerland were carried out using a gun (data from the Swiss Federal Statistical Office). The military gun thus plays an important role in suicide in Switzerland. > **[Change in Suicide Rates in Switzerland Before and After Firearm Restriction...](https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.2013.12091256)** > > Objective Firearms are the most common method of suicide among young men in Switzerland. From March 2003 through February 2004, the number of Swiss soldiers was halved as a result of an army reform (Army XXI), leading to a decrease in the... ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/51 "2024-08-26T16:54:54Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > As long as they’re not filled with bullets. That’s worse. You’re now a target that cannot take out the bad guy gunning for you. A few places are talking about arming teachers. Bad idea for a few reasons. Why make teachers even more of a target during a school shooting? Do you think a school shooter will take time to distinguish between teachers that carry and those that don’t? There are teachers I wouldn’t trust to wipe my ass let alone carry a gun in a school. ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/52 "2024-08-26T17:09:41Z")
Just one? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/53 "2024-08-26T17:09:44Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > A few places are talking about arming teachers. Bad idea for a few reasons. > Why make teachers even more of a target during a school shooting? > Do you think a school shooter will take time to distinguish between teachers that carry and those that don’t? > There are teachers I wouldn’t trust to wipe my ass let alone carry a gun in a school. I’m pretty sure that all of those proposals are talking about _allowing_ teachers who choose to and have any required permits to carry. Like the OP, making it mandatory for everyone is a disingenuously bad idea. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/54 "2024-08-26T17:20:28Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > I’m pretty sure that all of those proposals are talking about _allowing_ teachers who choose to and have any required permits to carry. The point being if I’m allowed to, no shooter is going to ask IF I’m carrying before shooting me in the face. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/55 "2024-08-26T18:11:00Z")
@Lumpy: I’m not sure if my reply to you would violate mod instructions, so won’t post it. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/56 "2024-08-26T18:13:44Z")
I’ll hear it in a private message if you wish. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/57 "2024-08-26T18:29:01Z")
I am very leftist (and growing more so by the year). I own three guns. They are all .22 caliber rifles of various types (my own is a bolt action which I love.) This year I think I want to buy a shotgun for home defense. I have never ever wanted to, ever, ever, carry or buy a handgun. I have fired one a few times before at a range. They are hard to aim! And heavy! And my hand strength/grip strength is fairly girly. Plus I am clumsy and forgetful. So do give me the handgun, so I can drop it in a school (I visit many through my job) or maybe forget it in the car on a really hot day and then burn my hands on the metal. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/58 "2024-08-26T20:31:41Z")
Robert Heinlein wrote a story where everyone either carried a gun, or wore a brassard to show they were not carrying (police were allowed to wear both). It was _interesting._ I suppose if everyone was screened carefully and got proper training, it _could_ work, but I have doubts. There _are_ crazier ideas out there. ---
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/59 "2024-08-26T20:58:02Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Robert Heinlein wrote a story where everyone either carried a gun You’re probably thinking of ‘The Puppet Masters’. Later in the novel, when the alien parasites learn to conceal themselves beneath their victim’s clothing, everyone was admonished to go nude AND carry a gun. Clearly not concerned with concealed carry… ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/60 "2024-08-26T21:30:28Z")
I’m pretty sure, no no, I amend that to _absolutely sure_ I don’t wanna live in a world where everyone is armed for no other reason than it’s a government mandate. Too many folks slip under the radar now. This would add 1000s to the list. Schools? Good grief. Guns should never even be near a school. Ever. I don’t even think a school resource police officer should carry one. We need to harden schools from entry as much as needed. As much as needed to stop entrance from unauthorized persons. Again, as much as it takes. We can keep prisons secure. We can keep schools secure. I don’t mind my grandkids being locked in if it keeps a shooter out. At all. I’d rather have a kid ask questions and Pick up Mom being pissed than having a funeral to go to. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/61 "2024-08-26T23:50:06Z")
> [@vbob](#): > > > [@DrDeth](#): > > > > Robert Heinlein wrote a story where everyone either carried a gun > > You’re probably thinking of ‘The Puppet Masters’. Sounds more like _Beyond This Horizon_ to me. > **[Beyond This Horizon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_This_Horizon)** > > Beyond This Horizon is a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein. It was originally published as a two-part serial in Astounding Science Fiction (April, May 1942, under the pseudonym Anson MacDonald) and then as a single volume by Fantasy Press in 1948. It was awarded a Retro-Hugo award for best novel in 2018. > The novel depicts a world in which genetic selection for increased health, longevity, and intelligence has become so widespread that the unmodified "control naturals" a... ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2024, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216/62 "2024-08-27T00:01:13Z")
I’ve rebutted claims that the novel _Starship Troopers_ is fascist, but I wouldn’t know what to say about _Beyond This Horizon_. A later generation might have taken the premise and have it be about how the übermensch produced by the breeding program turn out to have serious flaws, such as a dangerous tendency towards psychosis. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-every-adult-will-be-required-to-carry-a-gun-at-all-times-in-public/1006216.md?page=4)