[Vision2020] Fwd: guns and intimidation

[Ted Moffett]

Several times in Moscow I have seen someone open carrying a handgun in a
holster, but they did not appear to be trying to make a point about it to
anyone.

One time it was a women in Safeway, thus her motivation to open carry a
handgun could not have been male machismo, though of course a women could
manifest a female version of this state of mind.  I asked her if she was
law enforcement, thinking she might be a law enforcement officer in plain
clothes, but she said she was not.

I seem to recall that armored trucks carrying cash in Moscow are staffed by
those carrying guns, and if so, the reason is obvious.

I am alarmed when I see someone with a firearm of any kind, and I suppose
this reaction is in part simply due to imagining the harm the weapon could
inflict on my person.

Sensible firearm regulations appear to me to be no more of a burden than
the regulations and licensing applied to drivers of motor vehicles, but
some of those who defend the second amendment argue there is no
constitutional right to drive, but there is to bear arms.

Frankly, I am more concerned with the carnage on the highways from
accidents with cars and trucks, though most of these are not intentional
violence.  But the machismo psychology involved with reckless driving I
think could involve a similar mindset to machismo about guns.  People drive
their cars and trucks aggressively to express power over other people, and
fast powerful cars might induce an emotional thrill somehow similar to
firing weapons.

Drunk driving, while not usually explicitly involving an intent to kill, is
so irresponsible that it comes close to intent to kill, unless the driver
is mentally handicapped.

John Lennon's "Happiness is a Warm Gun" is relevant to this discussion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE2Vdcv9Q_o

Info on highway deaths below, which far exceed deaths due to firearm
violence:

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s1103.pdf

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett

On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 1:09 PM, rhayes at frontier.com <rhayes at frontier.com>wrote:

> Last year at a Tuesday Grower's Market a guy stood at the door of the
> Co-Op with a pistol on his hip doing his open carry thing. His arms were
> crossed in obvious defiance, and the look on his face was not pleasant. To
> get in to the store, I had to make my way around him, and I can tell you
> honestly that I was intimidated, just as I am sure he intended me to be.
> Given how much gun violence there is in this country, anytime I see someone
> with a gun in public I immediately become vigilant and nervous.
> Is this the sort of world you want?
> By the way, since 1980 over 1,057,000 people in the U.S. have been killed
> by gun violence.
> What I, and the *majority* of Americans are suggesting is a conversation
> on how best do we address this carnage. More guns is not the answer.
> It will take *courage* to bring a meaningful and positive change to our
> culture of violence and machismo. And courage is not found in our trigger
> fingers, but in our hearts and minds.
>
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