It was probably inevitable that the stand-off at the Johnson Space Center would end tragically. [CNN.com: "HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- A NASA engineer shot and killed another engineer and then turned the gun on himself at the Johnson Space Center Friday, police and NASA officials said."] Upon re-reading my earlier post on the then-standoff, I am relieved to see that I was making fun of the news media, and especially CNN--not the burgeoning tragedy itself. One tries to have standards.
I continue to reflect on this strange (to me, at least) idea that somehow MORE guns out there will make us safer. Specifically, I think of the college class I have been teaching this semester. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that everyone of legal age is permitted to tote a gun around wherever he or she goes; let's further say that I and my fourteen students take our guns with us to class. Just in case. Practical questions arise: Where do we keep these guns during class? Are we talking sidearms, that we can wear on our hips? Rifles? Shotguns? Do my students sit with Ol' Bess across their knees during class, just in case someone down the hall cracks and the Humanities Building becomes a shooting gallery? If we keep our weapons in our bookbags and briefcases, will we have time to get them out when the shooting starts? Do we move through the hallways and back and forth across campus with rifle over our shoulder, or handgun at the ready? And how do I know, then, who the badguys are? I mean, everybody is armed, and everybody is ready to shoot--how am I to know whether that fellow over there is a threat, or just on high alert against threats?
And what, precisely, would be the difference?
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