I agree with Robert Pucci: to characterize all concealed permit holders as untrained is unfair. As is the characterization that all permit holders are better trained and more law abiding than police officers. The training required to deal with a mass shooter is quite beyond the scope of the training needed to fire a gun at a non-moving target. One needs to hone the ability to think clearly in times of stress and to overcome adrenaline and the body's fight or flight reactions. One of the worst things about this local conversation about gun legislation that is coming out of Van Blarcum's request is the bias people so easily show, which is what I think this Op-Ed is really talking about. Licensed gun owners are individuals who should not be characterized as a group. To assume that they are more responsible and better able to act in a stressful situation is just as bad as assuming they are all crazed mass shooters-in-waiting. The problem with Van Blarcum's request is that he puts more faith in a group of citizens he doesn't know than in the trained police force that he does. It is incredibly upsetting for parents and Ulster County residents alike, and expressing those concerns should not invite death threats at their doors. If only the people who tout the second amendment cared as much about the first.
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