Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: Please raise your hand if you think legally owning a firearm absolves you of ALL criminal liability. [View all]spin
(17,493 posts)so you might be more aware of what they post than I am.
Still you are ignoring my point that since over 800,000 Floridians have Concealed Weapons Permits if all of us were like Zimmerman we would see far more similar incidents.
Obviously if you allow 800,000 people to do something a very few may screw up. We license and test drivers but some do text on their cell phones or get inebriated and cause tragedies.
You might counter with an argument that we have to accept that accidents will occur and driving is far more important than the right to carry a weapon in public. However you miss the fact that often legally concealed firearms actually stop attacks and save the life or health of the victim.
Florida has had "shall issue" concealed carry since 1987. In that 25 year time frame the state has issued 2,206,324 carry permits. Only 168 of those license have been revoked for a crime involving the use of a firearm after the license was issued. (source: http://licgweb.doacs.state.fl.us/stats/cw_monthly.pdf)
I will admit that those with carry permits in Florida are not all angels and some do misuse their firearms and a tragedy results, however the statistics prove that this is extremely rare. What we can't know is how many times a person with a carry permit was able to legitimately use his firearms for self defense and save either his life or health or the life or health of another person. Statistics of such incidents are unavailable and the majority do not involve a shooting. I know of several incidents where a person merely showed that he was armed and the incident ended peacefully.
Is it better that all citizens are unarmed and unable to defend themselves against a violent attack on the street? Would it be preferable that a woman was raped or that the bread winner of a household was killed in a robbery by an armed thug?