Church member charged in fatal shooting after victim wouldn't give up seat

Amen, MAJ Patrick Snyder

I don't. But I believe that often the risks associated with encouraging everybody to carry, as some sherrifs have done lately, is they ignore the very real downside of having the average person carrying a gun. They are generally untrained, or if they have training in firing the gun, they have no tactical training on using the weapon in a stressful situation. There are many examples of this. A woman with a CCW saw a person shoplifting some stuff from a home depot, and pulled her weapon and fired at the moving SUV as it drove in the parking lot. A man saw a carjacking at a gas station at the pump next to him, and fired, but hit the driver rather than the hijacker. Then he picked up his casings and fled the scene. Here in Tampa we had a retired police chief pull his gun and kill a man over his texting his babysitter during the previews at the movie theater.

Add that to the numerous accidental discharges and people forgetting their guns in public places, and it adds up to a very real risk. When compared to the minuscule chance that anyone will be at the site of a mass shooting or terrorist attack, and it could very well be that arming everyone will prove to be more dangerous than not.

That's why a lot of people are not comfortable having a bunch of armed civilians in places like church where their kids are present. The idea that the average Joe citizen will respond like a highly trained police officer is a fairy tale. Even police have a tough time aiming accurately under stress. So I believe people need to weigh both sides of the risk equation rather than buying into the propaganda that the more armed citizens you have, the safer we will be.

LTC (Join to see) PO2 Todd Voge - On the contrary, I believe he WAS a true CCW permit holder. I have no doubt that he jumped through the very minimal hoops it takes to get a CCW permit and thereby became a full-fledged 2A supporting carry-your-gun-in-public "good guy with a gun."

That's my whole problem with the gun control efforts on both sides:
One side refuses any kind of anything on guns.
The other refuses to put forward any kind of rational controls.

We should required some kind of training and qualification before letting everyone carry guns - something that discusses the legalities and responsibilities involved.

MAJ Bryan Zeski - Major, while not fully disagreeing, if we take your suggestions to the logical conclusion, we should have training for knives, machetes, bats, and anything else that can be used for a weapon. We have "minimal loops" to jump through to get a license for a car. The weapon is a tool. We can't legislate against intent, stupidity and general malaise. More legislation will not help.