Concealed Weapons Are NOT A Substitute For Common Sense

I just read a post over at King’s Right Site titled Here’s why people SHOULD be allowed to carry guns! about a horrible crime in Little Rock, Arkansas.

It goes something like this: A guy stops at Wal-Mart at 2:30AM to buy some pants for thanksgiving dinner. On the way out he gets robbed and then shot and THEN his car catches on fire and he is seriously burned in the accident.

It’s truly a horrible, horrible story and the people who committed the crime deserve long prison sentences.

And, like many of the things Ralph posts, I agree… in principle: if the victim HAD been carrying a gun the situation MAY have turned out differently.

Maybe.

Or maybe he still would have been shot while reaching for his gun. Or maybe some innocent person may have been shot in the gun battle between the two men. No one knows for sure.

But in Arkansas, where this event happened, people CAN carry guns. They already have laws allowing honest citizens to legally carry concealed handguns- as long as they attend a gun safety course and pass a background check.

The politcal battle, in Arkansas like in Ohio, was won by concealed carry advocates a long time ago.

But still, crimes like this one continue to happen.

And here’s the reason: concealed weapons are not a substitute for common sense.

More crimes could be prevented if people just followed some common sense safety precautions – like not not going to Wal-Mart at 2:30 in the morning.

Especially people who live in a city like Little Rock with a murder rate over three times the national average!

Obviously, it’s not the victim’s fault. He isn’t to blame for this horrible crime.

But if it’s a choice between carrying a gun 24/7 or just shopping during normal business hours- it seems like having more people choose the latter might make the world a lot safer for everyone.