I think it's a reasonable expectation to be be able to shop while holding your baby and not be assaulted. I would do everything in my power to protect my child.
True but the government also has a right to charge you with a crime if what you do to protect yourself isn't lawful. In this case that means not reasonable under the circumstances.
For example, if you saw someone pointing a gun from across the room, at your child, and that person was standing in a group of unrelated people, including children, is it lawful for you to throw a maltov cocktail in the crowd to stop the shooter?
I mean you say you would do anything in your power. Well that would be something in your power if you had that weaponry available.
Just because someone carries a gun doesn't mean they're allowed to use it whenever they want and in whatever circumstance they deem necessary. We have laws.
I frankly feel more threatened by some yahoo with a gun shooting wildly in a supermarket because someone pushed them than I am by some huge, mentally ill guy pushing me down.
From what I've seen, most private gun owners lack the training necessary to safely carry a loaded weapon.
I mean this is an actual cop. Trained. And he unloaded 6-7 shots hitting three, separate people. Presumably because of one violent push.
So if that's what a trained LE officer can do, I trust some private citizen even less.
I think a person has to be training regularly in intense situations in order to be totally safe and recognize a true threat. But of course even then we are dealing with the variable of human emotion and experience. Which is what makes people carrying loaded firearms in public scary for me.
Whatever experiences they may have, whatever emotional state they're in, whatever mental issues they may have, can affect their ability to perceive and address danger.
And then there's also the factor that too many people who carry become complacent and their kids somehow access and use their loaded weaponry.
I think it comes down to which risk is more relevant to a person - the risk of someone doing something life threatening to you or your family or someone near you, that is done in such a manner that you can actually neutralize the threat by having the time to grab, aim, *advertiser censored* and shoot your weapon, versus the threat of being shot by someone lawfully carrying a gun who can't aim straight, is too paranoid to assess the actual danger, is overeacting due to rage, or has a mental health issue that is either undiagnosed or became much more significant than previously thought.
Everyone has different feelings about which risk is greater.
