Firearms

[InbetweenDreams]

And really if you look at what many states are doing it is much easier to get a CCW permit now than say 30 years ago. The consensus has changed about carrying a gun. I do think there are, generally speaking, those who have a gun and those who are looking for an excuse to use one on someone. It does concern me about the number of people who lack the discipline, self control to keep their wits about them.

I had this to say about the story I posted above....

I know I shouldn't ever read comments on anything but, I don't know what is difficult to understand. Someone who I presume has a CCW, had his firearm on him. Gets into some road rage incident with another driver. Gets angry and starts "shooting into" the other vehicle. No idea whether he started it or the other people did and it really doesn't matter so much. Him being a CCW holder he should know that doing something as simple as showing his firearm to the other driver is a really bad idea, let alone shoot at someone in their vehicle. Anyone who carries should ask themselves if they have the mental fortitude to handle situations like this and if you don't think you can then you probably don't need to be carrying. Had this guy simply backed off, pulled over, etc he would have been at home with his kids.
Believe me I get it. I hate it when people tailgate, cut me off...I get a fair amount of crap driving a Prius. There's plenty of "big boys" in their pickup trucks who think they're gonna show the guy in the Prius who's the big boy by rolling coal. I have to lie, I'm really impressed by their 2nd gen Dodge (I hope their dash isn't cracked).
It's a hard lesson to learn and some growing up not to give in and escalate the situation. People are crazy, you never know what someone else would do and this is an example. I should know better than to read comments on this story because I have read things ranging from "this guy needs to be put down" to "the police are lying." Well, I don't think he needs to be put down or anything crazy. I think between the financial burden and the hell he's going to experience dealing with the "not so fun" side of the legal system will do enough. I also don't think for a minute the police made up stuff or that the victims made up that he shot into or towards their vehicle. I don't know about you but if I told the cops that someone shot at me in my car there had better be bullet holes, broken glass, shell casings, video, witnesses, etc to prove my story. Cops don't like being lied to, seems to really piss them off. I would also think the lack of physical evidence, witnesses would be a problem. That being said, I'm not by any means an expert.
Even in the case where he is innocent. He participated in escalating the situation to the point where someone felt they needed to call 911 on him. Again, don't know about you but I don't want to be in the "race to the courthouse" over something as dumb as road rage. While I don't know what happened but I'm inclined to think neither he or the other people did much in the way in deescalating thing given the outcome. Nobody wins in this sort of crap. Sometimes being the bigger man is simply not giving in, I think a lot of heard something like that before and it is easier said than done. Not saying this guy is a terrible person or anything like that, I don't know the guy and I know nothing about him. I'm guessing his anger and his inability to control his emotions got the better of him in (almost) the worst way possible. I think he is fortunate that neither he or the other people got killed.