Irvinecommuter said:
davenlei said:
Ah, thanks for the correction regarding the courts.
I would be more comfortable with law abiding CCW holders who had to go through background, psychological and training to have guns than only 'law breakers' and/or trouble makers carrying guns.
A friend who lives out of state (used to live in SoCal) got his CCW. He said that he does carry occasionally but a part of taking the classes and training really pounded it in his head that if you pull your gun, you will most likely get detained/arrested until the law figures out if you were in a justifiable situation to brandish your weapon and if you actually fire your weapon, you will spend some time in detainment/jail until they release or charge you and you will most likely get sued by the person (or their family) that you shoot as well as the property owner and whoever else you make pee their pants even if it is justifiable.
So I don't think having CC holders around you is going to create a wild west scenario since they know what the consequences are of even flashing their weapon.
That's the thing...what is the likelihood of you running into a situation where you need a gun? Especially in a place like Orange County?
And if you do, 80% of the time, the presence of a gun makes things worse, not better.
That's not to mention that there is a significant portion of those people who want to carry concealed weapon have a superhero complex and them having guns make it 100000X worse.
Having a CCW is not for everyone and not everyone will encounter having a gun pulled on you or get robbed but you can't say it does not happen. I have had a gun pulled on me and pointed in my face when I was robbed many years ago. I was made to lie on the ground face down and thought I was going to be executed. During the 10 minute ordeal there were several instances where the robber was distracted or left far enough out of the way from viewing distance (but not far enough to run away) only to come back threatening us. If I had a weapon I would have at least felt I had a fighting chance during those 'distracted' times rather than lie there waiting to see if he felt like leaving witnesses who can identify him or deciding to put a bullet in the back of my head. Luckily he got spooked and ran away when he heard some noises coming from another area. This was not a "bad area" where it happened.
Saying that 80% of the time presence of a gun makes things worse is incorrect. I would say it makes it worse 100% of the time because only the bad guy will have the gun. A CCW holder should know that they are not there to be the police and to 'uphold the law'. They should only have it available to defend themselves if they are in a life and death situation. If someone decides to be robocop, they should NOT have a CCW.
I understand that there is a group of people that gravitate towards guns that may have a superhero complex but it is quite a statement to say there is a 'significant' portion that are like that who want a CCW. Honestly the people who have the superhero complex probably already carry illegally without the extensive background, psychological or training so I don't know what would be worse. I know a few people that have CCW's or are seriously thinking about applying and I don't consider any of them having superhero or rambo issues.