In the previous post, I talked about "herd immunity." That doesn't work just with flu:
From the experience in Illinois and around the country, a relatively small number of armed people can similarly reduce the risk of crime — even for those who aren’t armed.
So if you don’t own a gun but you are enjoying safer nights out on the town or sleeping more easily in your bed at night, give a little thanks to your neighbors who are gun owners. You’re the beneficiary of gun “herd immunity.”
I've been to an ice cream shop on the Circle in Indy a few times with my sister and a friend of hers (during, um, warmer months than this one). The place is a hangout of sorts for bikers, who park their rides at the curbs and just shoot the breeze with each other. A few of them have guns at their hips (yes, open carry is legal in Indiana), and I confess it makes me feel just a bit safer knowing they're there. They're not the sort of bikers who hassle the rubes, and their presence (word does get around) seems likely to give pause to all but the most dedicatedly deranged shooter or would-be gangbanger.
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We have a big problem down here in Texas – of all places. It has always been legal here, as it is in many other states, to carry a loaded long gun in public, not concealed. You can even have a round chambered – not a bright idea, but not illegal. Now, there is a bunch of “2nd amendment, “constitutional-carry” idiots who, in groups of 3 or 4, will walk into a store – Walmart, Target, Walgreens, whatever – with loaded AR-15s slung across their shoulders, or worse, carried at the “ready” in front of them and hope they get challenged so they can go into their practiced, don’t-tread-on-me-speech intended to convince people we need to be able to carry any gun openly, long gun or hand gun. The problem we can never seem to get them to understand is in today’s environment, you can’t tell if they are simply stupid, “constitutional-carry” idiots or if they are bad guys intending harm. That’s the problem with all open carry. I think even if they pass it down here, which they haven’t yet, I will still carry concealed as I do now. No one knowing if you’re carrying or not is a strategic advantage I don’t think I want to give up just to be able to make a statement.