Keeping the peace in gun-rights utopia

On Thanksgiving evening, a dispute broke out among shoppers at a mall in Alabama. One or more of the disputers pulled a gun. Shots were fired, and two people were wounded. Alabamans being a well-armed crowd, various other people took their weapons out. Why wouldn’t they? You go to the mall with your piece just in case something like this happens. You can’t defend yourself unless it’s in your hand, loaded, safety off.

Because it was going to be a busy shopping day, there were police on duty at the mall. One of them arrived at or near the scene almost immediately, saw a young black man with a gun, and promptly shot him dead. The dead 20-year-old was described as the shooter until they realized, presumably through ballistics, that he wasn’t.

The racial aspect has gotten most of the attention in this story, as perhaps it should. But even aside from that, here’s the situation in which this happened:

Lots of people at the mall have guns. When one of them gets into a tiff with somebody over something, he or she uses one. Now lots of people have guns out, whether or not they know who started it, including at least one person with a badge who feels legally empowered to kill a suspect on sight. Hey, what could possibly go wrong?

This is gun-rights utopia, in theory: If everyone is armed, everyone will behave themselves. Or a “good guy” with a gun will solve the problem. Or something. But actually, picture a chaotic scene featuring numerous very frightened people running around with their guns drawn. Oh, excellent!

Where the NRA has its way, this is how we keep the peace in the United States. It’s insane —and, of course, it’s worse if you’re black. Eric Kuhn, Middletown