More men, women and children packing heat isn’t the answer

Another day, another fatal shooting in a very public place. This time a gunman who supposedly carried a note expressing his displeasure with the TSA and “pigs.” The shooter, identified as 23-year-old New Jersey native Paul Ciancia, was shot by officers and is reportedly in critical condition. Ciancia allegedly pulled out an AR-15 rifle and shot several people. At least one person, a Transportation Security Administration, was killed.

No doubt this latest shooting will set off all sorts of solutions for a deadly series of actions that seems almost pandemic-li

You always hear the loudest and most extreme from either side of an issue. So it goes in our troubled society. On one side you will hear from those who say all guns should be banned. On the opposite side you have those who believe more of the public needs arming. This same “more guns” rationalization surfaced after the Newtown-Sandy Hook school shootings after which 28 lay dead.

The joke that passed for NRA soul-searching after the Newtown massacre led certain schools, including some near where I live in Southeast Texas, to arm mostly volunteer teachers. When I heard this ridiculousness, I thought that perhaps the school children should start arming themselves in an attempt to even things up.

Whether guns should exist or not, the fact is that they are here and most likely here they will stay. That doesn’t mean every man, woman and child needs one and has to use it.