Guns a problem? Yes, no doubt. Free to defend yourself? Yes, I am all for it. Concealed carry sounds (I emphasize ’sounds’) like a good idea, but two things seems to be missing from the above debate: 1) The sudden randomness of so much of the violence and 2) Training for people to handle firearms in situations of sudden, random violence. There is a big difference between fending off an intruder in your house and suddenly being caught in a gun battle on the street. Plus, if a thug doesn’t know you are carrying a weapon, it isn’t much of a deterrent. He might be surprised once he does decide to attack you, sure. And you might be successful in fending them off. However, it assumes a lot about the competency and confidence of the average citizen to react calmly and properly in such a situation. Since most of us aren’t professional gunfighters, soldiers or policemen I doubt that most of us would have the presence of mind to identify the threat swiftly enough to get the advantage and neutralize it precisely. More likely that someone would overreact and start shooting wildly. You ever started swinging at someone who jumped out from behind a door and yelled boo? I did that to my dad once, and he threw his glass of tea into the ceiling and very nearly caught me in the jaw with a right hook!

Even soldiers and cops, with all the firearm training they get, still have to make decisions extremely fast with no real gurarantee of success. I was talking to an acquaintance of mine, a major in the Army, who was stationed in Iraq. Not a ‘front line’ posting, but more than once he had to be on guard in truck convoys, weapons. He told me once they got stuck in traffic, with lots of people in the vicinity. They were so keyed up (IED’s, car bombs, etc.) that he said every one looked like a potential threat. As he was waiting, a man who looked like he had something on him stepped around the corner and was heading right for his truck. They didn’t know if he had a bomb on him or not, and in the space of a second, my acquaintance had his rifle up, safety off and was about to pull the trigger. Fortunately, he realized at the last moment that the man wasn’t a threat. I asked him why he didn’t fire, and he said he wasn’t sure exactly. But they had to make those decisions on almost a daily basis, and it wasn’t easy, even knowing how to handle a firearm under stress. Others he saw there weren’t so lucky. Loaded guns, stressful situations and jittery people are not a good mix.

I am all for people defending themselves. No one should be at the mercy of a criminal. It just seems that the level of training needed to make it work is not practical or possible for the majority of us. As the incident with the police shows, there is no real way you can protect yourself against random violence. More importantly, it is hard to defend against the sheer knuckleheadedness of some people. The best thing to do in most cases is be alert, avoid areas known to be dangerous when you can, and stay away from people who you know to be criminals! I know that isn’t possible for everyone. I know that good people are caught in bad neighborhoods where the criminals have shown reckless disregard for life and property. I think a better solution for that would have to be more effective policing, including getting guns off the street. It’s more complex than that, I know, but beyond the scope of this response.

Consider this, also: If a person feels irate enough and is motivated to buy a gun and get licensed to carry it because that person refuses to be a lamb waiting for slaughter, don’t you think they might feel a bit more inclined to use that weapon than the average citizen? There is a false sense of bravado that can accompany carrying a gun. It is kind of like the kids in grade school who took karate because they thought it made them too dangerous to mess with. I recall more than one of them getting into serious fights(and getting hurt) because their reach exceeded their grasp. Richard Pryor had a good bit about that, about confronting a mugger with a knife. “The guy is like ‘Macho man, I’ll take that knife and shove it up your aasssss!’ Bullshit! Pryor says, “You’ll from ‘Macho Man!’ to ‘Dead Person!’ real quick!”.

The problem with incidents like this is that too many people react to them as if it were warfare out there. Yes, it is bad in places, but it isn’t Baghdad. I believe in a person’s right to defend themselves, but when everyone’s packing, no one is going to be safer. I do believe, however, that better control of gun sales and enforcement of regulations regarding who can sell and buy would help reduce the amount of gun crimes committed. It may be true that criminals will always find ways to get guns regardless of the law, but it does not follow that we should make it easier for them to do so.

No problem I understand where you are coming from too. By concealed carry I mean the person must have a permit to carry the gun. In most states this requires taking a safety class and learning law etc. There are also background checks etc just like with buying a handgun legally in Maryland.

Giving every citizen in Baltimore a gun(which is what I think you thought i meant) would be a disaster.

But your initial comment was about concealed carry, which implies you’re for shooting people on the streets. Now if you’re going to give people the same training that police officers receive along with that permit, then fine. But my fear is what the ordinary citizen will perceive as a threat when they’re walking down the street with a gun on their waistband (or wherever one would carry it).

And here is where I bow out for lunch, as this argument can go on until the year 2027.

If an attacker comes into your home in Maryland you are authorized to use deadly force against that attacker. Now if an attacker comes into my home I guess you can label me a “thug” for protecting my wife and child. But i’d rather be labeled a “thug” than live one day knowing I could have saved my family.

Let me say that I am totally with you on the first half of your original comment: stiffer sentences, more police, community activism, parental involvement, etc., etc. Not so much on the second.

A person who kills a thug in self defense is a hero in my book.

The criminals are going to terrorize them one way or the other regardless.

Your mindset is exactly what is wrong with Baltimore. You rely on the cops to protect you. Well they will be there to bring out the body bag and take pictures. If a guy comes at you with a gun or knife you have seconds to react, not minutes to wait for the police.

Only in Baltimore will be sit and do nothing while 9 teens beat on a woman. Only in Baltimore will people witness people being shot, robbed, raped, etc and turn away and act like they didn’t see a thing.

If the good people of Baltimore want to take their streets back they are gonna have to fight for them.

I don’t think fighting fire with fire is an effective strategy. If anyone has seen the movie Children of Men, that’s how I picture Baltimore if people decide to take the law into their own hands.

I wouldn’t say everything is fine if it doesn’t spill into the counties, but you’re not reading what I’m saying. I’m suggesting that if these “innocent” citizens started shooting at the “thugs” trying to rob them, its going to create even more problems and retaliation type attacks on the truly innocent.

What they are doing now is not working and they are pretending it is because we have “only” had 50 or so murders this year, down from 90 or so last year at this time.

I’m as pissed as you are about how this city is handled/governed and something obviously needs to happen to change it.