Lucy as today went on I thought about my prejudices. Do I notice and judge the open carry law here in Texas? Yes. My bias is no sane/thinking person wears their holstered pistol in Walmart let alone as a protest at a Beto rally. Statistically the chance of a mass shooting breaking out is minuscule and addressing those tragic occasions by escalating the volume and prevalence of more guns lacks reason not just statistically but thinking through the long term social consequences of wider spread carry of lethal weapons leads to deductively to a complete breakdown of civility contract. You and I and those around us have a social pact and I want to honor it not erode it. Since I live in both in the DFW metropolitan area and a small rural town 60 miles away from downtown Dallas and there is a lot (at least 10x) more open carry rural than urban in my personal experience wrestle with a prejudice of generalization. Honestly if I have a flat tire or trouble loading lumber the chance of volunteer help is about 10x higher rural than urban. Does thinking I need to wear a gun go along with being willing to be a helpful neighbor? My head spins.
So I have asked myself — would I take more notice of a black skinned person packing open weaponry in Walmart or Home Depot? I had to do this as a thought experiment as I have not had this occurrence. I did find I think I would notice it even more and it comes from two prejudices: 1) I found myself giving more latitude to the black person that it was just a “symbolic” act, and, 2) I found myself prejudicially thinking it would be an unwise choice of symbolic action because a black person carrying a gun I believe to be more likely to be shot.
In any case, I thought about your original article more, thought about my response and your acknowledgment and have grown to think it a more worthy thought experiment as I processed. The sum stays the same, I am convinced violence is not a solution.
Last “PS”, I agree with your sentiments about semi-automatic high velocity rifles like the AR-15 public version of its military counterpart, I’d like to see curtailment. The issue I have is prohibition has always shown itself to backfire. Prohibition of alcohol gave us a whole criminal industry and increased consumption just as the “War on Drugs” gave us more drug use at a huge cost of lives and money. Texas new laws moving toward state sponsored prohibition of abortion won’t reduce abortion as much as create a dark shadow industry. Loving people and creating economic and health support systems would seem to me to be a much effective approach than prohibition, same with AR-15s.
The original article has given me more thought.
