Most cops get a lot less training than you would like them to have, and spend a lot less time at the range practicing than you would expect. OTOH, most carry-permit holders spend quite a bit more time getting trained than the cops, and spend orders of magnitude more time at the range practicing.
The carry permit holders who routinely carry a weapon for self-defense yet who don't get training and routinely practice are most likely a figment of imagination; certainly an imaginary entity as representative of any significant number of carry permit holders.
Most carry permit holders take being armed very seriously because it is a lot of fucking responsibility!
Ask your cop friends how many rounds they fire at the range each week. What, they don't go each week? Then month? What, not even monthly? You would be shocked how few rounds they fire each *year*.
Most carry permit holders I know shoot a thousand or more rounds at the range each month.
However no number of facts are going to change you or anyone else's emotional, gutteral reaction to the thought that someone near you might be armed and you don't know it.
Emotions are high after events like this so it probably isn't the best time to engage in such a discussion.
Matt
^^^^^ CB: The type of training I want in the people around me is in _not_ firing guns. So, that gun carriers practice shooting their guns more than police officers is not helpful. At least the police officers have more practice in _not_ firing their weapons. What we need in people who carry guns is a competition to see how rarely they can fire their guns. The skill we want most developed in gun carriers is forbearance from firing them. I doubt that people do much practice at not firing their guns at the gun range. Ready on the left. Ready on the right. Commence not firing.
I would surmise that people who go to the gun range regularly get a certain amount of enjoyment out of firing their gun. It's fun, a sport, no ? And is firing at an abstract target on a piece of paper really "fulfilling" for them ? Doesn't practicing firing the gun so much give rise to a certain itch to "really" shoot it ? What is the thrill, the "bang", in target practice ? Isn't it imagining that one is really shooting somebody ?
Then there's a certain contradiction between this fun and the high sense of serious responsibility you attribute to permit holders. What is the serious responsibility they have ? Not to accidently shoot the wrong person ? Surely those who don't carry guns have as high or higher sense of that responsibility than those who carry guns. Who exactly do these gun carriers have a higher sense of serious responsibility than ? Police officers ? And what exactly is the responsibility that they feel ? To protect the public from evil gunners ?
I believe this thread touches on the suggestion that arming more people will deter evil gunners. Won't an increased number of people with guns mean that there will be likely more people who carry guns without that high sense of serious responsibility you refer to ?
Emotions are high when somebody kills 32 people with a handgun, no shit. Emotion and reason are partners. Reason gets its purposes from emotion. Now _is_ the time to debate this issue.