'More' is Often a Bad Idea

A few weeks ago, I was headed to a luncheon meeting when the traffic in front of me came to an abrupt halt on Route 51 near the Forsyth Hickory Point Mall entrance. Soon I noticed two groups of obviously very angry people emerge from autos and begin fighting. I was witnessing full blown 'road rage.' Immediately, I had two thoughts: (1) I'm going to be late for my meeting and (2) Donald Trump is correct, this issue would be resolved quickly if someone had a gun.

You readers do recall Trump's comment on the heels of the tragic Gay night club shooting in Orlando, Florida that left 50 people dead. Trump said if someone in the club had a gun and 'shot that son-of-a-bitch, it would have saved lives.' Now, let's not hang Trump out there alone to absorb that stupid philosophy. The NRA membership has been pumping that notion for several years. The mentality seems to be, the more guns the better...arm yourself therefore you can kill evil people before they do great harm.

Of course, the message is absolutely insane. We are wanting our citizens to carry firearms with them while hanging out in bars drinking alcohol...now there's a nifty idea. Where art thou Wyatt Erp? We want our citizens to have a pistol in the auto but restrain from killing somebody who cuts them off in traffic and wishes to fist-fight in the street. We want the disgruntled fellow worker next to us to be carrying a gun. We want our child in a school classroom where the teacher has a gun in her desk. We want everyone at the sporting venue to be carrying guns but not shoot the referee or the fan who is being critical of your child. Of course, if parents had guns at youth sports, we would not have those lengthy brawls. As the Trumpster suggests, "Shoot the son-of-a-bitch."

Some may think that everyone carrying a gun is the solution for public gun violence...count me out of that group. The entire concept holds more 'downside' than 'upside' possibilities. We need to re-visit well-documented stories from the 'Old West' for some countrymen with a middle-school mentality.