Quote Originally Posted by dtowncitylover View Post
I don't see how an event like ABE is threatening to anyone!
It is if people are thinking of using their guns. Which if not, why bring them? Just to be showy about your gun?

If there's an armed robbery or a hijacking or something, the prudent thing to do is to do what the guy says in order to de-escalate the situation, and let the professionals handle it from there. The mere presence of an openly carried gun can completely undermine the de-escalation, and take things from bad to worse.

That's assuming nobody tries to be a hero, and people needlessly get shot in the chaos. Which, again, if you're not, even just maybe, going to try to be a hero, why bring your gun? So that in the unlikely event that something does go down at a street fair, you can prevent the deescalation of the situation? At the cost of what? Armed thugs concealing weapons under their shirts aren't going to just gang-rape all of our daughters at the street fair. I'd even have trouble visualizing a successful conventional group mugging in that environment. Conversely, that's why the presence of the gun keeps things from being somewhat controlled.

Of course, it is not fair to lump all gun owners into a pack of yahoos waiting to go postal. I get the keep-the-government-in-its-place angle, for example, or if you're worried about safety when driving down deserted streets, or you're living in sparsely populated areas. But even the home invasion angle, I mean, unless you live in an area where you're going to be repeatedly burgled to the point of ruin, just let the guy steal the TV. Bullets start flying, and people start to get hurt, and it could be your own kin.

Never mind at a public event of this kind. The thought that anyone walking around openly bearing arms has not thought this through to completion does not give me great confidence that they don't have some small part of themselves that's itching to go be a hero, if the situation is right, that they're choosing to indulge by openly bearing their arms. You've got an increased chance of bullets flying, and that's scary.