She asks of the recent spate of school shootings, "What if just one student in one of those classrooms had been in lawful possession of a concealed weapon for the purpose of self-defense?"
Preaching to the choir, here. I have carried (illegally) in California and (legally, after I got my CCWs; I have one from Pennsylvania and one from Florida) in Pennsylvania and attendant CCW-recognizing states. The distinction was to me minimal, because I refuse to be a victim just because some bureaucrat thinks I should.
Could it have gone badly for me if my illegal possession had ever been revealed? Sure. California has no sense of humor about such things. But these are the risks you take if you want to have one when you need it, rather than need one and not have it.
Have I ever needed one? Well, I never shot anyone (yet), but I did point a weapon at another person (with the intent of using it if necessary) once or twice, and there were certainly moments when merely having one available was a comfort (including one memorable night in, gawd help me, Manhattan; now that, given the antique New York carry laws, would have been a bad place to have my weapon possession discovered...) There were also incidents (men abusing women, typically) where having one would have made all the difference in the world; for better or worse, while I was happy to have a gun handy, those incidents always resolved themselves before gunplay was required. Just as well; I don't need to shoot anyone, though I certainly remain willing to do so if needs be...
And (though we could; the statute of limitations has probably expired) we won't even mention an incident or two of taking a weapon across international borders...
(There's a lawsuit headed for the Supreme Court challenging any and all laws that contravene the Second Amendment. It's probably a forlorn hope to think the Supremes will rule correctly on this one, but we can live in hope...)
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