Shawn (and others):
I've been around long enough, and paid special attentiion to most anything I came across having to do with guns, to know that most experts (self-proclaimed or genuine) will tell you over and over again that even well-trained people have a difficult time when the situation becomes real. These experts will talk endlessly about the need to practice, practice, practice, until it's no longer your brain telling you what to do, but muscle memory (or something along those lines). We see examples of trained individuals failing to perform effectively all the time. I saw a video from a police car mounted camera of a traffic stop where two officers were trying to arrest a guy. The guy smacked one of the officers and then took off on foot. The two officers both emptied their pistols shooting at the guy and failed to hit him even once. They started shooting when he was only a few feet away from them. I'm sure you've all seen or heard about the LEO who was demonstating in front of a class of school children and shot himself in the foot. The stories go on and on.
Now, I realize many of these trained individuals have probably not had the degree of training that some of you here have had. Still, they've certainly had more training than the average Joe Blow.
It strikes me odd that so many here want the right to keep and bear arms for everyone, uninfringed, and yet they turn around and indicate that no one should be carrying a gun unless they are basically trained to the point of perfection.
Maybe, Shawn, you're not trying to imply that at all, but it sort of sounds that way.
I recently watched some videos (probably from a link off this forum) of people set up in a college lecture situation. One of the students was armed with a paint ball gun, and at some point in the lecture an armed man came in and started shooting (paint balls). This was repeated several times with different students, and none of them got off a shot, or at least were unable to shoot the attacker. At least one of these students was very familiar with guns and considered a good marksman, blah, blah, blah.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if we all believe in the second amendment, we can't be infringing on it by saying you have to be expertly trained before you should be allowed to carry. Hopefully, anyone carrying knows his/her weapon well enough that they don't shoot anyone by accident. If they are able to fend off an attacker, so much the better. If they can't, too bad for them, but I don't think we can take away their right to defend themselves just because they're not very good at it.
