Lex Lata

I recently had the opportunity to hear Sandra Froman, former President of the NRA, speak at my school. It was a very interesting presentation on the events leading up to DC v. Heller, the case itself and her opinion of the decision. After listening to her discussion, I decided that it may be time for me to actually collect my thoughts on guns and my opinion of them.

First off, I don't necessarily disagree with the opinion of the Court in the case. There's a lot of muttled history surrounding the 2nd Amendment, and both sides can present lots of compelling evidence for why their side of the argument should prevail, so it's difficult to criticize either side of the argument. One side prevailed, so that's that.

However, I personally am concerned that a lot of people don't fully grasp the consequences of concealed carry and keeping a gun for the purposes of protection. The way I see things, if you carry a gun, you are willing to pull it out when a situation escalates to such a point. If you are willing to pull a gun out, regardless of whether you want to or not, you need to be prepared to pull the trigger, either killing or at the very least injuring someone. Someone may interject here that all you need to do is fire a warning shot, but there are a couple of problems with this. First off, a warning shot must eventually fall, if fired into the air. That means that, while unlikely, there is still a chance of the bullet striking someone or at the very least damaging property of another. Second, if you're pulling out your gun and then need to shoot it, in all likelihood, the other person has pulled their gun out and so you're doing so out of defense. In those situations, a warning shot is not sufficient at all because of the probability of you wearing a slug in your chest if you don't fire first.

That's where my real problem with guns lies. I just don't think that people realize the full implications of what they're doing when carrying a gun for protection, no matter what they claim.