The horrific, predictable result of a widely armed citizenry

[teach1st]

It's worth reading the entire article.

Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 7/8/16

The horrific, predictable result of a widely armed citizenry

Once again, the difference in policy views is clear, and can be coolly stated: those who insist on the right to concealed weapons, to the open carrying of firearms, to the availability of military weapons—to the essentially unlimited dissemination of guns—guarantee that the murders will continue. They have no plan to end them, except to return fire, with results we know. The people who don’t want the regulations that we know will help curb (not end) violent acts and help make them rare (not non-existent) have reconciled themselves to the mass murder of police officers, as well as of innocent men and women during traffic stops and of long, ghostly rows of harmless civilians and helpless children. The country is now clearly divided among those who want the killings and violence to stop and those who don’t. In the words of the old activist song, which side are you on?

Full article

[TeddyR]

1. There are no military weapons

In civilian hands.

[flamin lib]

2. It's an arms race.

In the '70s police had 38 cal six shot revolvers. 'They' got semi auto pistols. Police got semi autos. 'They' got AR15s. Police got M16s. Police assume everybody is armed and react badly. This is the inevitable outcome of guns everywhere.

In reality only 30% of civilians have guns and a small fraction of them actually carry but police see danger in every encounter.

[Snarkoleptic]

3. We certainly have devolved on this issue...

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/23/nation/la-na-tombstone-20110123

...The 1881 shootout took place in a narrow alley, not at the corral. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday weren't seen as heroic until later; they were initially charged with murder.

And one fact is usually ignored: Back then, Tombstone had far stricter gun control than it does today. In fact, the American West's most infamous gun battle erupted when the marshal tried to enforce a local ordinance that barred carrying firearms in public. A judge had fined one of the victims $25 earlier that day for packing a pistol.

"You could wear your gun into town, but you had to check it at the sheriff's office or the Grand Hotel, and you couldn't pick it up again until you were leaving town," said Bob Boze Bell, executive editor of True West Magazine, which celebrates the Old West. "It was an effort to control the violence."

[raccoon]

4. the author said it right. It is horrific and it is predictable,

considering that anyone can get their hands on a gun. Some of these guns that fire rapidly without having to reload should not be in the hands of ordinary citizens.