^ Only if we let them. I have kids in school. I don’t worry about mass shootings in school any more than I do lightning strikes, which is to say very little. And sadly we know a few parents personally who have lost children in a school shooting. It’s terribly tragic, but almost unimaginably rare.
Small step in the right direction.
When you said “Dayton shooter” in a Walmart thread, my mind went right to the police killing John Crawford in Walmart.
I have to register to vote. Not everyone - not even every citizen - in our country is allowed to vote.
Some places do have what are effectively poll taxes - some states are not allowing anyone with unpaid court fees to vote, for example, whether they have the means to pay them or not.
The right to bear arms doesn’t guarantee everyone a free gun, class, permit, license, holster, ammo…does it? Where should the freebies end, on that? Just with what the government charges to make the gun system as orderly and safe as possible?
Walgreens has joined the list of retailers. Let’s hope more follow suit.
I.e. where a black man openly carrying an apparent gun (really a pellet gun) caused enough concern for someone to call the police about a threatening situation.
This is great news for law abiding citizens since they obey the laws and don’t kill other people. However, this doesn’t prevent criminals who could purchase their guns from gang members or other illegal ways from entering Walmart or other establishments and start shooting at people. How is the government going to stop those gun purchases? Also, is Walmart going to install metal detectors or have security guards at every stores to check people bags, purses or jackets to ensure that no body is carrying a gun into the store so that they could keep their customers safe?
We have to stop somewhere. It’s all incremental but every life saved counts.
I think we all like to FEEL like something is being done. Whether or not it has any impact at all is a different story, just so we can feel better.
Re post 106, Walmart doesn’t need to use metal detectors to see who is open carrying a gun in the store. Concealed carry remains allowable.
Tell that to the parents of all those first graders killed in Newtown.
Of people who attempt to kill themselves with guns, 85% do kill themselves. Of people who try to kill themselves by other means, only 5% do kill themselves. Suicide is often a spur-of-the-moment decision. Lots of families wish they had been able to deter their family member from the spur-of-the-moment decision with a gun.
Here’s one such story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/03/teen-illegal-weapon-suicide-sister/5997859/
Since Columbine, on any given day, a child has a 1 in 614,000,000 chance of being killed in a mass shooting at school.
The odds of winning Powerball are 1 in 292,201,338.
Fear is a powerful tool.
Regarding reducing suicide as the supposed reason that we should restrict guns, the suicide rate in the United States is less than that of Europe as a whole, and less than a number of wealthy European countries (including Belgium and Finland). The US rate is in fact in line with high income countries generally, most of which have dramatically fewer guns and greater restrictions on gun ownership.
See the 2016 WHO data here (the categorical income comparisons are as of 2012 and are in the middle of the page): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate.
GKUnion wrote:
"Fear is a powerful tool. "
Yet, isn’t it fear, even expressed by several posters here, that makes gun proponents so adamant that they must be armed? Some packing on a daily basis? For most Americans, that is a completely irrational fear. Statistics show that having guns in the house puts your family at MORE risk not less. So, yes, fear does seem to be a powerful tool making a segment of our population feel they need to carry weapons without need.
Other developed countries don’t have the gun violence we do because they have much lower gun ownership rates and much stronger gun laws. They still have mental health issues and societal ills. For those of you fighting sensible gun legislation every step of the way, how do you explain this away and justify your position?
Not a single person on this thread is likely to have their mind changed.
I’ve said it before - sometimes your mind can only be changed when something happens to you and your loved ones or comes so close to it that it hits you in the gut. I pray no one here experiences that. However as we know, prayers are not enough.
And while Walmart may be a minute fraction of what needs to happen (according to a % of the population) I’d sure rather get the ball rolling in a proactive preventive direction than the other way.
I sure wish as a nation we were as passionate about many things in addition to guns.
Wegmanns food chain has signed on. Hopefully, we can update this list daily.
CVS just signed on. The chorus grows!
Thanks for all the good news, @roycroftmom! Having a retail behemoth like Walmart step up and implement changes in policy definitely has an impact. I hope this leadership from corporations will spur some action in DC.
I’ve never carried a firearm because of fear. I don’t know anyone that has ever expressed fear as a motivation for concealed carry.
A firearm is a tool. I view having one on my person the same way I view having jumper cables in my vehicle. I certainly don’t drive around consumed by the fear of a potential dead battery. I travel with jumper cables because I prefer to be prepared to help myself, or others, should a battery lose it’s charge. It’s better to have them, and not need them, than to need them and not have them.