Next myth — good toddlers with guns?

The following editorial appeared in the New York Daily News:

After his parents were cut down by a maniac Monday in Highland Park, Ill., 2-year-old Aiden McCarthy was found bloodied, lying under his father’s body. He was rescued and eventually delivered into the loving arms of his grandparents.

We do not wish to speak ill of the dead, but why didn’t mom and dad, Irina and Kevin McCarthy, teach their toddler to arm himself and stop the slaughter? After all, we’re repeatedly told by the gun lobby that the only answer to bad guys with guns is good guys with guns.

Nothing explodes that dangerous myth better than seven people being murdered and nearly 50 wounded by a man perched on a rooftop, firing more than 70 rounds from a military-style rifle he obtained legally despite having told his family in 2019 he wanted to “kill everyone.” Imagine dozens or, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s disastrous ruling inventing individuals’ constitutional right to carry a concealed firearm in public, hundreds of good guys in the parade crowd when shots ring out. Imagine they unholster their weapons and scan the frantic stampede, seeking to determine the source of the firing. We now have scores of individuals in plain clothes pointing and perhaps discharging weapons at what they believe to be a bad guy. This is a recipe for chaos and death.

There were plenty of trained police officers present when the killer unleashed hell. They couldn’t stop him from orphaning Aiden McCarthy. Neither would a crowd of self-styled action heroes. The only sane answer is to prevent would-be villains from getting killing machines in the first place.