Gun free zone once again prevents a horrific mass murder from....

I'm sure you're in that vast majority of gun owners who are responsible... just like the vast majority of Muslims who are peaceful, but you too have a tiny minority who are murdering innocent people and making YOU look bad.

Truth be told, I don't own a gun. I've never felt it necessary, though I've probably taken some chances that I shouldn't have. Been lucky so far. But I don't begrudge effective protection to those that would rather have their safety in their own hands, than depend on luck.

I have spent time around NRA types. Folks that some misguided individuals might describe as 'gun nuts'. I feel safer around them than most people. They are good-hearted, conscientious, patriotic, family-oriented, moral people in virtually all cases I've known. They preach the virtues and necessity of gun safety and personal responsibility more stringently than anybody else does, especially to young people. It's heartening. Quite simply, they feel better, safer, and more confident holding their own security in their own hands, then being utterly dependent on strangers to do it for them. That's a wonderful thing. I can't abide government, or anybody else trying to tell these great folks how to live. They don't deserve to be treated as if they're doing something wrong whenever some nutcase kills a bunch of people out of hatred, and hostility that they don't share in the slightest.

I very much agree with you perfectly valid comparison to Muslims and terrorism. I'd be VERY comfortable saying that the number of NRA 'gun nut' types that think all Muslims are terrorists, is extremely low. They're (for the most part) far too smart to go in for such hogwash.

Right now, it's as if you are desperate for an NRA hero - someone who carried a gun, who happened upon a mass shooting and took out the killer like a badass. But that isn't real. It's an idealized narrative based on too many movies. Of all the mass shootings, when has this been at least a possibility?

It's not much of one, because there is so much resistance to ANYBODY carrying weapons around soft targets. That's why would-be killers target such locations. They know the chances of return fire are very low. That needs to change.

The guns aren't going away. There are hundreds of millions of them out there. The knowledge of how to manufacture them is out of the bag. The US is too big, and has too many rural areas to expect people to do much of anything without the right to personal protection. Any attempt to suppress or revoke the second amendment will result in revolution and civil war. It's not going to happen. We have to accept the fact that we have a lot of guns around, and a lot of people who fully embrace America's gun history, and gun culture, mostly for the better. Only rarely for the worse. Crack down on criminals, don't coddle them. Teach kids how to be comfortable and safe around guns, rather than scared and misguided about them. Encourage constant vigilance and encourage people in positions of authority to be armed, and trained to respond to mass shootings. Do all that, and these mass murders will become less and less successful.

There are no easy answers to this problem. But banning guns, and removing them from American society are simply not plausible, and certainly not desirable. People can live in peace with lots of guns around. See Switzerland for example. Or Kennesaw, GA where folks are required to keep guns. Crime and violence are FAR lower than is typical in those places, and they fully embrace gun culture. They simply have better people, and THAT is where our efforts must be focused. Demonizing the guns themselves, while placating the killers who abuse them, is the most backwards way possible to address these issues, and sadly that's the course liberals typically choose.

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Right now, it's as if you are desperate for an NRA hero - someone who carried a gun, who happened upon a mass shooting and took out the killer like a badass. But that isn't real. It's an idealized narrative based on too many movies. Of all the mass shootings, when has this been at least a possibility?

Cheer up- I have GOOD NEWS for you: even if something like that DID happen, the mainstream news media would either suppress it, or down-play it! The news media in this country is biased and unfair, and you'll see Hell freeze over before the media is ever going to give gun owners credit for ANYTHING!

By the way- remember what the media did to Bernard Goetz? Remember a guy named Richard Jewel? Remember what the media did to George Zimmerman?

In the NRA's official magazine, they always seem to fill a whole page with actual instances where armed citizens were able to defend themselves- and, often, other people from harm. In a lot of cases, just the mere PRESENCE of a firearm in the hands of a private citizen was enough to prevent a crime- with no shots fired! IT HAPPENS EVERY DAY- YOU JUST NEVER HEAR ABOUT IT!

...but then, I don't expect you to believe a dam thing that the NRA says, ANYWAY!

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