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While the "don't bring a knife to a gunfight" meme is fun and all, it elides a couple of very important points - nobody died from the knife wounds (although, admittedly, they could have); and I wonder why he didn't buy a gun? Imagine if he had purchased a .223 caliber, semi-auto Bushmaster AR-style weapon, and half-a-dozen 30-round magazines, or a 100-round drum magazine? Instead of being posted on a website, or page 13 of the local paper, it would have been the lead story on every network and front page above-the-fold in every newspaper. Dozens of citizens, probably including the well-meaning gun-toting bystander (assuming he stuck around despite the odds), would be dead, and Congress would be contemplating and not passing any meaningful gun regulation for the umpteenth time, as it has for the dozens of previous such incidents in the last few decades.
But what if there had been two guys with machetes...what if the guy who had a knife also had a doberman on a leash...what if, what if, what is. None of what you posted NW happened.
What did happen is a man went berserk and began stabbing people. A man with a legal gun, who was legally carrying, did the right thing, at the right time. Ain't no shoulda, coulda, woulda. A man was able to stop the threat before it became worse. The man, using a gun, stopped the threat without firing his weapon.
The first responder is usually a private citizen.
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You, you and you, panic. The rest of you follow me.
I do question whether this guy needed an arsenal to do this?
How much is "an arsenal"? You seem to be suggesting that everyone should be limited to possessing one or two firearms.
I don't know how many guns the good samaritan in the OP owns. It isn't relevant. I'm betting no one at the grocery stores gives a damn how many guns the man owns.
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Did he require a thirty round clip?
No.
Assuming he used stripper clips to load the magazine in his gun, no. Clips simply make loading the magazine/cylinder easier unless you are carrying a revolver that uses rimless cartridges, at which point you'd need Moon clips or the like to chamber a round.
If the guy was carrying a semi-auto with a 30 round magazine (and it is highly doubtful that he was) then he may have used a 30 round stripper clip to load the magazine. If the guy was carrying a revolver there is no way he would have used a 30 round clip to load the cylinder.
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Was his intervention made possible because he did not pass a background check? Would a gun registration program have made this story impossible? On and on...
If this had happened in NYC or Chicago or Connecticut, it would have been difficult for an average citizen to be carrying a weapon in public.
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IMO this guy could have had a registered 38 cal revolver with the same outcome. But it seems like only choice we can consider is either banning all guns or having no regulations what so ever. And IMO there must be some other alternatives to consider.
I don't know what type of gun the guy was carrying. I assume he was carrying concealed. Many people carry .38s concealed. When compared to semi-autos they are as reliable as the day is long. Often a snub nose .38 is easy to conceal. It is a decent round, but it doesn't have much stopping power. Everything is a trade off, no matter what you decide to use.
Depending on the weather and what the guy was wearing and where he was going and a number of other factors the man may have selected a .38 over his other carry options. Maybe he had a 9mm Kimber Solo, maybe he was carrying a .45 ACP Colt 1911, I don't know. It isn't a one size and style fits all kind of thing.
No matter the firearm the good guy was carrying, he didn't need a registered gun to save others from harm and possibly death. His choice of gun or the number of rounds available to him thankfully weren't an issue either, though they well could be in variants of the same situation.
It would be interesting to know what the guy was carrying and given his experience now whether he is comfortable with the carry gun he used or whether he plans to gun up, or down, in the future.
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You, you and you, panic. The rest of you follow me.
This anecdote proves conclusively that real guns are not necessary for self-defense or for stopping criminals.
Since there was no need to actually shoot the gun, it could have been one of those realistic plastic toys. There would have been numerous ancillary benefits to that: it would weigh less and be more convenient to carry around; there would have been no background checks, CWP's, or chances of accidental shootings; it probably would have cost a lot less; the owner wouldn't have needed to waste time and money at a shooting range; a plastic weapon would require minimal maintenance; it wouldn't need a trigger lock or an expensive gun safe; the mentally ill would not have to be screened; arguing about the 2nd could cease; and children could carry them for protection.
And depending on the type of plastic used, this could be the elusive Vinyl Solution!
Yeah, maybe we can get the military and cops and DHS people to switch to play guns. It would save a lot of money.
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You, you and you, panic. The rest of you follow me.
This anecdote proves conclusively that real guns are not necessary for self-defense or for stopping criminals.
Since there was no need to actually shoot the gun, it could have been one of those realistic plastic toys. There would have been numerous ancillary benefits to that: it would weigh less and be more convenient to carry around; there would have been no background checks, CWP's, or chances of accidental shootings; it probably would have cost a lot less; the owner wouldn't have needed to waste time and money at a shooting range; a plastic weapon would require minimal maintenance; it wouldn't need a trigger lock or an expensive gun safe; the mentally ill would not have to be screened; arguing about the 2nd could cease; and children could carry them for protection.
And depending on the type of plastic used, this could be the elusive Vinyl Solution!
Yeah, maybe we can get the military and cops and DHS people to switch to play guns. It would save a lot of money.
That may be, but what has that got to do with the anecdote? I do not see any flaw in my analysis - based on the conditions and facts presented in the anecdote, my toy gun clearly comes out better than a real gun in a benefit-cost scenario evaluation.
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete. R. Buckminster Fuller
Yes, indeed, folks. The ONLY way to stop a knife wielding psychopath from stabbing people is to pull out a gun! No other way to do it. Couldn't possible warn people away from the guy; couldn't possible organize a small group of folks to surround and disarm the guy. No way you could pick up the nearest trash can lid or similar shield and just shove the guy to the ground with it. Simply HAVE to pull a gun on him. Everyone needs a gun for events like this.
Unfortunately, if we really followed this perverted wisdom from Wayne LaPeeAir and his ilk, the guy with the knife would have been packing and would have shot people dead before our hero could have drawn down and shot him. Crazy psychopaths are people too!
"The white men were as thick and numerous and aimless as grasshoppers, moving always in a hurry but never seeming to get to whatever place it was they were going to." Dee Brown
Now, now, logan, you, and others, are not approaching this issue in the right way. When faced with a one-off anecdote which supports a gun-rights meme, one is not allowed to apply any of the following methods to respond: 1) counter-factual evidence; 2) statistical analysis; 3) logical deconstruction; or 4) irony or satirical exposition.
If one were to do so, one could make the point that the reason this event made the news (albeit only on the local level) is because it is so exceedingly rare. It is brought, here, to the community's attention because it supports an exceedingly narrow element (numerically) of the broader discussion on the societal impact of gun use. One can supply dozens of counter examples of good samaritans whose lives were lost in an altruistic effort to intervene, but that doesn't obviate the exception. Moreover, one can show, through publicly-available data, that guns kill thousands-of-percent more people than knives in the United States, and around the world in comparable communities. But again, that cannot be allowed to contradict the narrative. One can apply a logical analysis of the relative threats to the public of a well-meaning gun owner and a knife-wielding mental patient, but that is not applicable if it countermands the preferred outcome. And, finally, one has to take the position seriously, because the right to unfettered gun possession is far too important an issue to be addressed by the likes of Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, or even the lesser satirical lights present on the Rant.
A well reasoned argument is like a diamond: impervious to corruption and crystal clear - and infinitely rarer.
Here, as elsewhere, people are outraged at what feels like a rigged game -- an economy that won't respond, a democracy that won't listen, and a financial sector that holds all the cards. - Robert Reich
...addressed by the likes of Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, or even the lesser satirical lights present on the Rant.
Ahem! Context, pleez!! Those brighter lights have large staffs of writers, and a lot of dough. What you get here is fresh, scrupulously relevant, and free. (An apology would be accepted, though not without a fair bit of accompanying sarcasm.)
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete. R. Buckminster Fuller
Aww, c'mon, crick! A taser against a plastic knife? Where are you trying to take this otherwise reasoned discussion?
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete. R. Buckminster Fuller
