Laws vary from state to state, but here in Mississippi we have what's know as "The Castle Doctrine" In other words, a man's home is his castle - if some one has broken into your home, or is on your property threatening you, it's a pretty good bet they don't have your best interests in mind - shoot first and ask questions later. As a result, we have an extremely low incidence of home invasions and the like as compared to someplace like Chicago, which has the strictest gun regulations in the US and the highest murder rate in the world.
In your bar scenario, again the laws vary from state to state - some states prohibit carry in a bar. Other states have found anybody prone to abusing a CCW in that instance would fail a background check to begin with (Yes, we do background checks in the us, and I've been checked for every gun I've purchased - even at gun shows. The problem is many of the things (mental issues) that should disqualify a person are not put on their FBI record because of HIPAA and ObamaCare) Other states have "Gunsligner" laws where you're allowed to carry whatever weapon you choose, so long as it's out in the open and not concealed. The theory being that an armed society is a polite society - and that could not be more true. If you're dumb enough to pick a bar fight with somebody packing a revolver on his hip, maybe you don't need to be part of the food chain anyway.
Think about classic justice - bad buy thinks about stealing some old lady's purse - he
may get caught, the DA
may prosecute, he
may get convicted, and he likely won't even get a slap on the wrist. Not a deterrent - but the same scenario where that old lady can easily get a CCW permit, and she
may pull a .357 and blow the would be mugger's a$$ away. I offer in evidence:
Attachment 19162
As for injured bystanders, time for a reality check - of the 2 groups of people who may be required to respond to criminal action with a firearm, Citizens and Police, one group has a national average wrongful shooting rate of 15%, the other group is somewhat less than 2% - who would you take guns away from? Your answer should have been the police, because they are the ones who pull the trigger in error seven and a half times more often than a citizen. Now, strictly comparing apples to apples, I would have to admit the police are put in more dangerous situations on a regular basis, and many of the citizen shootings are burglaries, so there's not much question if they should fire, but 750% is still quite a margin.
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