Logically speaking ....

[Bullwinkle925]

Would you feel safer in:

[Deep13]

1. Generally don't think about how safe I am.

At work no one is armed. At the shooting range everyone is. I feel fine either way.

I wonder if cops feel safe at the police station. Just about everyone is armed there. The crime rate among cops is slightly higher than the general public. Putting on a blue shirt does not make someone a good person.

The only time I don't feel safe is on the road in bad weather and that has nothing to do with violence.

I notice you phrase the question in terms of "feeling" safe rather than being safe. Just an observation.

[Bullwinkle925]

6. Yes - I purposefully phrased it that way.

After hearing the non-stop, in-your-face news coverage of the tragedy that struck VT this week, I wondered how people really felt if they answered this poll honestly. It was after hearing someone posit the theory that all of those kids should have been armed when Mr. Cho started his attack. Made me think of how I might possibly feel if I knew that everyone surrounding me was carrying some type of gun. I would prefer to know that everyone surrounding me did not have a gun on their person.

[Deep13]

9. You known, they weren't kids.

They were college students. Not saying that necessarily makes much difference here. Just that no one is suggesting children be armed.

[Bullwinkle925]

10. I should have put quotes around my statement.

But that is what I overheard. "kids"

I must admit, however, that when my daughter was in college, I still thought of her as a 'kid' even tho she was in her 20's. Perhaps the person making that statement has a 'kid' in college, too?

Oh well - it's just semantics.

[Mr. Blonde]

2. I think you are equally safe in either of those scenarios

You are less safe when only one person is armed, or only a few.

[Orsino]

5. That would depend on who is about to kick in the door.

Substitute "world" for "room," and I think we have to conclude that both scenarios are impossible to attain.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

3. Where the guarantees that someone won't snap?

You look at me funny, I blow you away. He doesn't like that woman's hijab, and he blows her away. I get a call on my cell phone that I've been fired and I snap and blow everyone in the room away. I'm so sick and tired of this argument that everyone can be split into "good guys" and "bad guys." ANYONE can become a "bad guy" in a second if provoked enough.

[Deep13]

4. No guarantees, but hardly anyone ever does.

What guarantee is there that the police won't snap? No one is ever really safe. Anyone of us can get a horrible disease, be the victim of violence or suffer an accident. The issue is minimizing these things, not insuring perfect safety. My own feeling is that to pursue public safety, we ought to follow the numbers, not the gut reactions. Those numbers point to alcoholism, smoking, obesity and auto accidents. Guns are pretty far down the list of hazards. Frankly, I trust other citizens, my friends and family, more than I trust the state.

[Bullwinkle925]

7. Absolutely - and, you better had STOP looking at me that way.

:P

[ghostsofgiants]

8. This thread has flamewar written all over it.

[Bullwinkle925]

11. It very well might end up that way, although it wasn't my intention ....

the person I overhead making the statement regarding "all the kids should have been armed" got me to thinking in that direction. Did you vote?
I wonder how I would feel sending my daughter to school with the knowledge that everyone was carrying a weapon, including herself. Don't think it would make me feel very easy.

[ghostsofgiants]

12. I voted for no weapons.

I like guns, but I also like gun control.

[Bullwinkle925]

13. seems even-keeled to me.