None taken; I can hardly be offended at being accused of being a coward when I explicitly say that I am. I don’t see the similarity, myself, except for the cowardice part — Lee, Robert Vaughn’s character, was willing to die heroically for people he didn’t know. That’s definitely not on my list of things to do. (The Robert Vaughn character was also a bit faster on the draw than I am, but that’s just a quibble; he had the scriptwriter on his side.)

Love the movie, though.

108: my course schedule is always here.

perhaps the biggest disingenuous lie in the history of MNSpeak. thanks bud.

The blatant misrepresentation of statements and viewpoints when they do not happen to fit their “feel good ” agendas.

Respectfully, Cat, I’ll disagree with that last — my pitch is exactly the same to folks with lots and lots and lots of experience handling firearms. The ex-spook who shot a smiley face during his qualification (pinky swear!) got the same discouragement from playing hero as the nice guy from England who had never so much as touched a firearm in his life before he took his beginner class from me, and both of them saw the point.

It’s not complicated. Rosenberg’s Fourth Law: “If you’re not willing to risk spending ten grand that you don’t have and a couple of years in prison that you’d prefer not to, don’t consider taking your handgun out; if you are, then you have other issues to think about.”

If I happen to be unlucky enough to be around for a robbery at a SuperAmerica, I’m not interested in risking spending ten cents saving SuperAmericaCorp from losing what’s in the register; I’m very interested in not risking spending a minute in jail over that, either. SuperAmerica didn’t hire me as a professional bodyguard and/or cop, and not just because I’m not either a professional bodyguard and/or cop.

As to the clerk, well, statistically, most robberies don’t end up with the clerk being murdered; if this one is, there’s probably nothing I can do about it (sure, I can reliably do the “hostage rescue” shot at the range, in good lighting, with only paper involved and nothing riding on it except, maybe, a few bucks on a bet; I probably can’t do it under stress, and we’re never going to find out for sure over some SuperAmerica robbery), and, even if he is, well, I don’t know the guy.

Probably a nice guy, buys his Mom flowers on Mothers Day, treats his girlfriend, boyfriend and/or dog and/or cat real well, too, but I didn’t sign on to be his (or her) bodyguard.

Good citizen that I am, I’m perfectly willing to call 911 as soon as the perp is out the door and not going to shoot me over spoiling his fun, but that’s about as far as it goes.

Change the rules a bit, and the perp’s trying to drag my kid into the car as a hostage, and I’ve got other issues to think about. I like my kids a fair amount, and even on days when I’m not too fond of them, I’ve signed up for responsibilities. To them; not the rest of the world.

Some guy that I don’t know having a gun pointed at him? Sorry; not my problem — I’m busy investigating how much metal and frozen stuff I can get in between me and the perp.

So, maybe I whip out my gun and the perp throws down his gun and throws up his hands and I get to feel all great and heroish? It might work out that way, and it might not, but what are the cops going to think as they roll up and see, through the front door, me pointing my gun at some guy with his hands up. Is there some way that might go badly for me, just maybe?

We’ll never know for sure; I’m not interested in trying the experiment.

If other folks are interested in playing hero, that’s fine with me — as long as I’m not around, it’s not my problem.

That said, I respect the clerk’s right to carry to protect himself or herself, and would happily put him through class — in fact, last year, Rothman, Shapero, and I put the two Iraqi immigrant brothers whose family runs a bunch of stop-and-robs through a carry class after one had successfully fought off a knife-wielding robber.

(No charge; it was too much fun to think of three Jews arranging for two Arabs to be able to carry guns to protect themselves — what a country, eh? )

I do have a T-shirt with a big yellow S on the front of it, but it’s just a t-shirt; it wasn’t woven from blankets that were in the rocket with me when my folks blasted me off from Krypton, as, well, it’s “Joel”, not “Kal-El”, and I’m not bulletproof.

If anybody’s unhappy with any or all of the above, that’s fine with me. Free country, and all.

Anyone who is glib about the possible unintended damage of a firefight, and convinced that they somehow, unique among all people, can hit exactly the target they want, whenever they want, whatever the circumstances, is exactly the sort of person who should not be carrying a gun.

Binky, this is what you wrote:
To stop trying (or at least speak out against those who are trying to) repeal the RTC laws
I make no promises to stop anyone from trying to repeal the RTC laws. Not that I would actively try to stop you.

I used to be adamantly opposed to conceal & carry, but I see my family members who are very responsible gun owners (some carry) and I know there are others out there who take guns very seriously; Joel is a good example. I also know there are people whose bravado scares me enough to think they shouldn’t be allowed to carry. There are too many variables for me to think that there are many people who are level-headed and trained enough to be responsible, but I’m not omnipotent so I choose what’s right for me: not to carry. This somehow puts me in the category as “victim” if I’m not carrying. How is this open-minded and not condemning?

Originally re: Thom’s beat down, it wasn’t about To Carry or Not To Carry; it was about whether Thom having a gun would have kept him from getting beat — and I don’t know the answer to that. My opposition is to those who are certain they’ll respond one way with the outcome in their favor when there is no way of knowing until the incident occurs.

Maz: you see Joel’s views as “aversion” and I see it as a smart and responsible way of teaching those who have little or no experience with handling guns. You have the background of serving and training in the military. You know what happens with irresponsible gun handling. There are a lot of people who have never had your training, experience nor your instinct.