Posted on by Californiacontrarian

An Ounce of Prevention . . .

A few months ago I was walking around a nearby park with my young granddaughter in her stroller and we ran into Helen. Helen is a very pleasant 80+ year old widow who relocated from Albuquerque many years ago. She was enthused because she and her son were soon going back to Albuquerque for some sort of balloon festival. However, she was dismayed that they would no longer be able to eat at their favorite restaurant, because that restaurant now allowed its patrons to carry guns inside the restaurant . . . and that would be too dangerous. My response to her was, “On the contrary, Helen, that restaurant will probably be safer now than ever. If I were a bad guy or a robber, I wouldn’t want to be causing trouble at a place where I knew that “good guys” would possibly be armed. ” She responded, “I never thought about it like that. You’re probably right. What is that old saying about an ounce of prevention?” (The Benjamin Franklin axiom that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is as true today as it was when Franklin made the quote. Although many use the quote when referring to health, Franklin actually was addressing fire safety. Franklin wrote this (courtesy of ushistory.org) under an assumed name.) New Mexico does not have any specific laws allowing or generally disallowing open carry. Anyone 18 or older may openly carry a firearm, however, to carry in a vehicle on school or college/university property one must be 19 or older.

I thought about this exchange with Helen when I was reading that both Florida and Texas are on the verge of enacting major improvements to their laws that will increase the number of teachers with guns who undergo firearms training to protect their students against attackers as a last line of defense. Another example of “an ounce of prevention?”Currently, 20 states allow teachers and other school staff members to carry guns under a variety of rules on school property, so we don’t need to guess about how safe these schools are. Some states have had these rules for decades. Think about it. Is a crazed potential shooter going to attack a school when he knows that teachers in that school could be armed? Unlikely.

The recent mass shootings in the news have been at places of worship . . . a Baptist Church in Texas last year, a synagogue in Pittsburgh six months ago and a mosque in New Zealand last month.The headline in today’s newspaper: “One Dies, 3 Injured As Gunman Opens Fire at Poway Synagogue.” In the front page article it reads, “the shooter was arrested after fleeing the synagogue amid a hail of bullets from a security guard.” (Another report stated that an off-duty Border Patrol Agent was the one who fired at the armed perpetrator and drove him off.) Whoever it was, that armed person saved many lives and prevented a myriad of injuries. He is a true hero . . . an armed “good guy.”
As my wife said, “When you stop and think about it, places of worship are ideal for crazed shooters, as there is often just one main entrance/exit, and everybody is facing away from that entrance/exit.” Scary! She is right-on. She then continued, “Maybe we should be encouraging all law-enforcement personnel to carry their weapons to church every week.” After all an ounce of prevention . . .

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