How to respond to a different "qualification" argument?

[kfranz]

You'll find conveniently located telephone booths

I was tracking you perfectly until this. I am 40. I remember phone booths. I have not seen a phone booth in 15 years, maybe longer. By the time I hop into my time machine, change, then return to the present, the crisis will likely be over. Who shall I yell at then?

 

[Havegunjoe]

A person with a carry permit is not required to “diffuse crisis situations”. The reason we carry is for our and our family’s protection. Now you may also choose to protect others but I know of no state that requires it. By the way the police are not noted for their shooting prowess. The national average miss rate by law enforcement is something like 90% so I would not want to emulate them.

 

[thekomet]

Caimlas,
I agree completely with your statement that

if you are drawing your weapon, you damn well better already be in harm's way.

The overall point of my post was to counter the editor's premise that CCW on campus was bad because those carrying could be hurt. Essentially, they were trying to "save us from ourselves." My point was that those who CCW understand (or should) that the risk of defending yourself is outweighed by the benefit of defending yourself, but that does not mean there is NO RISK of doing so. You cannot argue that using your weapon for defense introduces no risk. Even at the range there is the risk of richochet, of a catastrophic failure of your weapon, or by being shot by some fool who does not observe the "range cold" time. It does not take much creativity to forsee a situation where you might be mistaken for the aggressor or one of his compatriots by police, security, or a citizen with a CCW, espically if there is mass confusion from the shooting. That IS a risk you take on if you defend yourself, and that is what I meant by

when you draw your weapon you should recognize that you have voluntarily decided to put yourself in harm's way.

Obviously no one here would draw in a public place without there being a threat; I figured that was understood by the context of the thread. I should have been more specific about the risk I was referring to. I, for one, think that is an acceptible risk and one that I would mitigate by all possible means, just like anyone else on this board.

 

[Robert Hairless]

I was tracking you perfectly until this. I am 40. I remember phone booths. I have not seen a phone booth in 15 years, maybe longer. By the time I hop into my time machine, change, then return to the present, the crisis will likely be over. Who shall I yell at then?

Darn. Another good plan made obsolete by the March of Technology or, to be more accurate, the February of Technology.