In a story that will come as a surprise to nobody who’s paying attention, Azana Salon & Spa — that’s the place where three people were killed and four others injured last week in Wisconsin — had a “No guns allowed” sign on its front door.
In accordance with the owner’s wishes, that sign prevented law-abiding people from carrying their concealed firearms with them when they entered the place.
What it didn’t do: stop a murderer. Or allow anyone there to effectively defend themselves from the unexpected violence.
Maybe if someone there had been armed, that someone would still be alive, along with several others. Or maybe not. But shouldn’t they have had a chance?
Hat tip to Miguel at Gun Free Zone.
It seems to me that substantially all of the high-profile mass shootings in the past few months have gone down in either gun-free zones or in jurisdictions which do not routinely allow private citizens to carry concealed weapons. On the opposite side of the scale, despite having a ready supply of guns, drugs, and other “high value targets” I cannot recall even a single case in recent memory where armed criminals robbed a police station.
Taken together, these two facts send a pretty clear message to me. 🙂
The real problem is that peice of paper will NOT stop somebody bent on harming anyone. Sadly, too many blithly go forth thinking nothing will ever happen to them, and when it does, they are shocked…