Oh Donald Trump……

By James Burns. 11/14/2015

So we are one day removed from a terrible tragedy in Paris where many, many innocent victims have lost their lives at the hands of a group of extremist cowards.. It is a time of reflection, and empathy, a time to think about how we can move forward and not give in to the fear that is propagated daily on our phones and televisions. We need to use this as a time to come together. What is the self proclaimed “front runner” presidential candidate, Donald Trump using this time for? To espouse his desire to arm all citizens so that we are all safe!! He actually said, and apparently thinks, that if those poor victims had been armed to the teeth, then things would have turned out very different during the attacks that occurred in Paris.

First, let me say that I am not opposed to guns at all.. I have some myself and am a proponent of arming yourself if you feel that inclination and if you will actually get training to be a responsible gun owner..  The problem with Donald’s comments are the same problem with all of his comments, they are reactionary and completely not researched or planned out at all. They are incendiary and ignorant…

When someone is under duress, their mental capacities are diminished by an easy fifty to sixty percent. That being the case, if you were to try to use a weapon against an attacker under that type of stress , your chances of success are pretty slim. Very few people actually train under combat type situations. Without that training, you are ineffective. It is the same with people that keep guns at home for protection, yet the weapon is unloaded, in a safe, and completely useless.. Also, they haven’t trained themselves to move through the house with the gun, or pull and arm the weapon under stress and without thought… It needs to all be second nature from constant practice. The moment of attack is not the time to learn how to use your weapon.

According to Mr. Trump, simply arming everyone would be enough to give them some type of edge against attackers, it is simply not true. If you give that idea any type of serious thought you will realize that it is a terrible plan. During the attacks in Paris you had men with the element of surprise and also fully automatic weapons. They had one desire, to kill. That isn’t something that most people could do lightly, even against their attacker, and certainly not without some training. Most shootings occur surprisingly, not during a long movie type exchange. Which means that you would have to realize what is happening, quickly develop a cogent plan of attack, and then carry out that plan.. Not likely with no training with bullets flying all around you. The more likely scenario would be you dropping the weapon or forgetting that you even have it… A few friendly fire casualties would be pretty likely as well… It is the same thing when someone has a weapon next to them in the bedroom, it is ineffective at best without constant practice during that type of situation. You are asleep, awakened suddenly, and then you expect to suddenly turn into Jason Bourne and grab the gun as you spring from under your covers and defeat your attacker, not likely. That is what the Donald thinks will be the case with armed citizens. Once again, not likely.. The more likely outcome is that most people would just run and forget about counter attacks completely, the rest would likely just start shooting indiscriminately. It just isn’t feasible to expect people to suddenly kick into Navy Seal mode when terrorist situations occur. It isn’t something that will happen. Never mind that most of the places that the attacks occurred don’t allow weapons anyway, so moot point. Then there is the small fact that seven of the attacks were from suicide bombers.. How does a gun toting, unprepared citizen defend against that? They don’t…  It just doesn’t make sense to think that having a bunch of guns during those situations would help at all..

I am all for people that actually want to train and ready themselves for situations like those that occurred to carry arms and to respond when the time comes. I would welcome that sort of readiness.  That isn’t and wouldn’t have been the case during the Paris attacks. To think that it would have been some sort of mass, effective response by a group of traumatized, shell shocked, unprepared citizens is ignorant at best and carelessly idiotic more likely… It is cavalier and irresponsible of Mr. Trump to immediately jump on the reactionary band wagon and start pandering to the “arm the citizens” crowd during a time like this. I am very tired of politicians and lobbyist and corporate advocacy groups using tragedy to further their personal agendas. It needs to end. This is a time for we as humans to rally together and realize that we are all the same, all of us, and the only way to defeat these types of threats is to band together and stand as one. This isn’t the time to use fear and sadness to push your own agenda and spew ignorant bile. Think before you speak and be rational and caring and stop propagating knee jerk reaction ignorance. This is a time for unity..

We can’t, and won’t , defeat terrorism by arming our unprepared citizens. We will defeat terrorist by banding together as people and using our military forces to do what they do best, if we would actually allow them to do so, but that is a different post.  We will defeat them by not allowing their cowardly acts to consume us and paralyze us. We will continue to live our lives and love each other and stand, united, against anyone that threatens that existence.

So please Mr. Trump, use your time in the spotlight for the common good, not for self aggrandizing, inflammatory rhetoric.. Be compassionate and attentive with your words and you wouldn’t be so easy to dismiss….