This is an interesting thread. Personally when I was younger I tended to be unrealistically idealistic, but I never took it to the ridiculous extremes because I was living in the middle of New Orleans. There's just too much crime in that town to put too much stock in the idea of "turning the other cheek" when you get hit. What if as a culture we all did carry weapons? What would that society be like? Perhaps each man and woman would receive their first side-arm on their birthday when they reached the age where they had the right to vote- also old enough to be tried as an adult in court. They would begin training with fire-arms as children so by the time they were entrusted to carry one they would be more than competent enough to use it. There would have to be extremely strict consequences for anyone who misused their gun. Even drawing it unnecessarily would have to be a punishable offense. I think that most people would respect that deadly force was everywhere and therefore you wouldn't see much trivial violence like bar fights. The down side is that it would force criminals (there will always be criminals) to be more ruthless. The bad guy knows that everyone in the room is packing so if he wants to rob a store he has no choice but to kill every one in the room- otherwise he'll catch a bullet as soon as he turns his back. I wonder if it might reduce the frequency of violent crimes, but increase their severity.
__________________
|