Guns & Virginia Tech

CBC Television just aired some surprisingly balanced coverage of the gun debate around Virginia Tech (couldn't find a CBC article online that wasn't massively anti-gun ownership however). Which is to say, the pro-gun interviewees were no less eloquent than their anti-gun counterparts.

They did however manage to find one of a group that drives me nuts; an "if I carried a gun I'd be afraid of it being used against me".

I ask you, if you were in a situation in which:

1. You felt threatened enough to draw your gun,
2. your opponent will not run from you when you draw,
3. your opponent is fast and strong enough to take it from you before you shoot him,
4. and your opponent is willing to shoot you,

... How exactly would you be better off without a gun? If all four of those conditions are met, you are pretty much screwed anyway.

Final thought on guns in the USA. The USA is pretty well in the worst possible place it could be given the current gun laws on the books. The pressure against gun owners makes it almost certain that the people you want (well, would prefer) to have guns won't. Crazy people and criminals don't worry that their neighbors will shun them for collecting an arsenal, but lots of responsible people do.