Safety

westernrvparkowner wrote:
In 2012, the last year I can find statistics for, there were 259 justifiable homicides (killing in self defense) and 548 accidental shooting deaths. There is a consistent pattern of 2 accidental shooting deaths per each justifiable self defense killing over the years I can easily find statistics for. And that doesn't take into account the leading cause of death by handguns, which is suicide.
By my reasoning I am twice as likely to accidentally kill an innocent person than I would be to actually stop a criminal dead in his tracks. And without a gun in my possession, I am highly unlikely to become one of the 8000+ people who shoot themselves to death on purpose, which might become a consideration if I shot an innocent bystander to death.

This is an unexpected but somewhat refreshing statement, especially coming from a Montanan. This is NOT an accusation or indictment against Montana (I lived there for 9 years and liked it), but an observation based on the typical Montanan's feelings on gun possession. I owned a couple of guns when I lived there, and I owned one until a few years ago here in Colorado. I just hadn't used it in the last 15 years, so I gave it to a gun dealer to keep or resell as he chose.

Despite having done a lot of shooting and being a reasonably good shot, I wouldn't trust myself to make a good split second decision in the heat of the moment, and If I can't trust myself, I'm certainly not going to have much faith in the ability of a random stranger to know how to act responsibly in an emergency just because he sat through a CC class.