More Guns, More Shootings

Another day, another mass shooting, this time at a video game tournament in Jacksonville, Florida.  Since the shooter turned his weapon on himself before police could arrest him we’ll likely never know just why.  He may have had a personal grudge against another player or just got pissed when he lost.

Of course, the gun nut lobbyists at the National Rifle Association wasted no time bringing out the “more guns in the room would have either deterred the shooter or allowed someone to bring him down” chestnut.  (Or maybe they just want to ban headsets in public.)  So I have to express my exasperation with people who believe that mass shooting tragedies can be prevented by creating an armed society and normalizing guns in public places. Continue reading

An Armed Society is a Polite Society – Except When It’s Not

Concern that other movie goers might be armed did not keep Chad Olsoun from annoying others in the audience by impolitely texting his 22-month-old daughter’s caregiver during previews in a movie theater last week.  Nor did the possibility that Olsoun might have a firearm keep Curtis Reeves, a retired Tampa police captain, from losing his temper and starting an argument over this annoying behavior.

But because Mr. Reeves did happen to be armed, Olsoun’s family held funeral services today.  In this case the “good guy” escalated the argument over texting in a movie theater until he drew a weapon and shot Olsoun to death.   Continue reading