One lesson the old westerns taught, and truly. Don’t pull a weapon unless you are going to use it. One reason is – that when you get that weapon prepped and aimed – everyone, from whomever you face to any bystanders – has to assume you are about to use your weapon. Pulling a weapon will cause anyone else with a weapon to fire at you. No one with any sense will ever wait for you to shoot first, so don’t wait once you pull the gun.

The other thing is that when you are prepping and aiming a gun, your focus in on using it well, and using it correctly. That means that the proper time to decide *whether* to use a weapon is before you reach for it. Unless someone is threatening you. Someone’s threat trumps everything else – you have to assume deadly force is about to be used against you.

Loving Annie, you raise valid points. Like any tool or weapon, skill in use, strategy of when to use, and ethics all need to be understood. This applies to the written word, the privilege to vote, a hammer, a recorder, a spatula, a broom, a firearm, and every other tool or weapon.

Many of the firearms that gun-control panic-mongers talk about as “assault” weapons, are retired US rifles, distributed through channels to qualified citizens. Many go to the veterans that qualified on the weapons. Other rifles used on battlefields – assault rifles – make excellent hunting and target rifles. For many, they are historic collectibles, to show and to shoot.

Where people carry concealed guns, by state permit, usually they have had some basic training on when and how to respond to a threat. They have passed an examination about their knowledge of safety and prudence.

Criminals, now, seldom bother with the training or license procedure. They have little problem getting any weapon at all. And we know we have too few police and security guards to protect us. I would think every law-abiding citizen would *encourage* more citizen-held weapons and concealed carry permits. It is certain that drug dealers, muggers, and thieves would prefer, like Obama, to see America disarmed.

The supreme court has held that the police are expected to defend a community – that no individual has a reasonable expectation that the police will protect them. Your father, your sister, you neighbor, trained and carrying a weapon, though, can be counted on to do what they can. Of course, we all pray that we never find out what we can do, to secure our community.