Would you have wanted a gun if you were locked down in Boston yesterday?

Well, perhaps it’s significant that during the post-bomb period, these guys only shot at other guys with guns. Notice that Jahan didn’t shoot at the homeowner who came and looked under the boat tarp. I suspect that would have gone differently had the homeowner been carrying.

Good question.
I kept thinking about this yesterday. I was thinking that he might have broken in a house and was holding someone hostage. If this had happened to me, I think I would want to have a gun in my house, not out in the open where he could find it, but where I could grab it easily if he went to the bathroom, fell asleep, etc.
Now whether I could shoot him or not is another story. I look at him and see a child. He looks younger than 19 to me. Yet he is the man responsible for so much terror, bloodshed and death.
I think this is one of those questions I can’t really answer until I’m in the situation.

@chyna I was kind of thinking that it would be good to have one out of sight like you said, but then I wondered if I would even be able to get to it if I needed to. It is a tough thing to think about.

I do make @thorninmud makes a great point.

Were I a Bostonian I would likely have spent the lockdown with it nearby.

@SuperMouse The solution that you’re looking for would be to conceal the thing about your person. Not only does that keep the gun close at hand and out of the hands of youngsters, the CCW course typically includes training for precisely those sorts of situations.

Possibly. But I would have been worried about an explosive device strapped to them, so possibly not. Either way, I would’ve had no problem with having had to have a background check, training, registration, and insurance coverage in order to obtain that gun.

Not to be controversial so early in such a good question, but how do you know that the homeowner wasn’t carrying, @thorninmud? Good answer, @Nullo. Someone without proper training should never have a gun or try to use a gun to defend themselves.

@chyna, he is young and is such a good looking kid, @chyna. It is such a horrible thing. My neighbor is the grandfather of the 8 year old boy killed. He was also very adorable, as is his sister who is critically injured.

What would motivate these young men or anyone to do such evil things?

@syz. The people who don’t want those restrictions are the ones who scare me.

@bkcunningham Copy cats. Fame. Insanity.

No, I would not have wanted a gun, and I wouldn’t want the masses having guns either. “Oh! I bet that’s the guy! Shoot ‘em!...Ooops.”

@Dutchess_III if that was the case there would be a lot more dead people in the city of Boston today!

@bkcunningham my condolences to your friend and the entire family. For the sake of clarity I don’t think @chyna was saying that she wouldn’t have been able to shoot him because he is a good looking young man. Her point seemed to be that he appeared so young. I think that many grown-ups (myself included), have a innate reaction not to want to hurt or kill young people. Before you say that the suspect didn’t feel this way, yes I know that, but I think @chyna is saying that her visceral reaction might be to withhold fire on a person who seems so young, and it might take a minute for the reality to override that reaction. By that point he would have no doubt seen the gun and may have taken aim himself.

@Dutchess_III As I understand it, the fear is of creeping restrictions. Something that starts simple and reasonable, and, inch at a time, one exploitable tragedy after another, turns into a full-scale restriction. There are people who do not want any guns at all, and they will keep pushing their Congressmen that way.
And keep in mind that lots and lots of people – an between 80 and 90 million nationwide – have guns. Yet nobody went out hunting for the guy. Most gun-owners know better than to go looking for trouble.

@Nullo after this week’s vote as compared to popular opinion on gun control, it doesn’t seem to matter how people are pushing their Congresspeople.

@SuperMouse So? They’ll keep pushing, keep electing more favorable politicians. They’ve been patient so far, they’ll continue to be patient. Look at the gay rights movement – they’ve been pushing steadily for a long, long time, and now they’re getting some headway.

@nullo A little off topic, but I just took the CCW class 2 weeks ago and will get my permit as soon as I get to the courthouse. I never dreamed I would want to own a gun, but times have changed.

@Nullo let’s be honest here, it seems very clear that the NRA has most of Congress in their pockets. The “creeping” regulations you are speaking of are just not a reality.

So? They’ll keep pushing. That vote this week was pretty close.
I suppose that’s the sort of thing that we need to keep us on our toes, really. Groups at odds with each other.

I’m with @chyna. I’d see that young man and I’d be reminded of my son. I couldn’t do it.

@bkcunningham “how do you know that the homeowner wasn’t carrying?”

I haven’t heard one way or the other, but I’m going by what wasn’t mentioned in the reports thus far.

Mr. Henneberry stepped out for a smoke, saw something amiss with the tarp over his boat, unzipped the cover and went in far enough to see the bloody figure in the stern, then immediately left to notify police.

In retrospect, that worked out in the best possible way. If Henneberry had been armed, things could have taken a much worse turn.

Speaking as someone who has spent a lot of time in Boston (I had family there), a gun wouldn’t help.

@bkcunningham If you are in MA, it’s a safe bet that the homeowner is not carrying. The laws in MA are byzantine and baroque enough that most people who want a gun simply move.

@Nullo You overestimate the intelligence and persistence of the average voter, but that is a discussion for another time/place. Suffice it to say, that apathy and ignorance makes me fear CISPA will get through.

When the pictures first came out, my wife and I were both surprised at how much the kid looks like our son. We were both glad he isn’t going to school in Boston.

It surprises me that people think that someone who carries/owns a weapon would automatically have a gun battle with this kid if they found him hiding in a boat in their backyard. I wonder if it comes from too much television and movies?

I’m surprised someone can afford smokes in MA, @jerv, but I suppose they still buy them anyway.

@bkcunningham If you had a gun under those circumstances, don’t you think you would have drawn it as you were investigating the boat? Whether or not the homeowner was inclined to have a gun battle, don’t you think that the sight of him with a drawn gun would have been enough to trigger one?

@bkcunningham for me it comes from all of the vocal pro-gun advocates I see again and again who refuse to even consider common sense gun control. From what I have seen this country has a bunch of pretty zealous gun owners and a frighteningly strong and vocal pro-gun special interest group. I guess the conclusion is that anyone who could feel such passion about keeping their firearms must feel equally intense about using them.

I have a solid grasp of reality and no trouble distinguishing between movies and real life. I am well aware that the Dirty Harry does represent the average police officer.

I am a shooter. I very good shooter. To be honest, I stopped smoking and May 1 will be one year since I took my last drag on one. I wouldn’t have been outside smoking or looking under the tarp, armed or unarmed, in this particular situation. I’m being serious. If I suspected he was under the tarp, I would have called the police.

He was in pretty bad shape according to reports I’ve read. I don’t know. Did he exchange gunfire with law enforcement officials when they arrested him?

I’ve known many, many police officers, @SuperMouse. Dirty Harry? LOL Sheriff Andy Taylor perhaps.

@bkcunningham, there should be a “not” between does and represent! I’m at work and had to polish off that quip a bit too fast and of course now it is too late to edit.

I wondered, @SuperMouse. LOL

I can think of very few circumstances where having a gun would make me feel safer.

Imagine if everyone in Boston had a gun that night and everyone was on edge. How many citizens would be accidentally shot by nervous neighbours?

If they were trained properly and knew how to use their weapons? Not many. Think about how many people are in the woods in camouflage at any given time during hunting season and how many get shot. Not many get shot by another hunter and we are talking about thousands of people who are armed trying to hide in the woods.

Do you know how many licensed hunters there are in Massachusetts?

I am in Boston and no – I did not feel the need for a gun. I was in Medford most of the day (on the Somerville line) — few miles from Watertown and Mt. Auborn.

I also didn’t want a gun when I had a knife pulled on me by my student few years ago.

Nor did my wife when a cracked-up mom swung at her head with a bat in Lawrence.

Or when my neighbor’s boyfriend was kicking the shit out of her and we went over to break it up.

No guns. Period.

We are supposed to be better than the criminals.

Nope. As I mentioned in another thread, I’ve actually been in lock down situations before, and once followed an armed man for several blocks while reporting on his movements to the police on my cell phone. I have also interrupted a man actively attempting to break into my house in the middle of the night. At no time did the thought, “Man, I wish I had a gun” enter my head. Not once.

Imagine if every homeowner in Watertown had been armed with an AR-15 (the gun I’ve seen most mentioned in that FB meme). Joe Homeowner firing such a weapon could easily cause a bullet to go through a wall (or another house) and hit an unintended target. I shudder at the thought.

If I felt I had to have a gun for home defense, it’d be a shotgun.

If we are going to imagine, let’s imagine that the pressure cookers didn’t blowup and nobody was killed and nobodies were mangled and injured.

@bkcunningham that makes no sense in the context of this question. The scenarios described do.

Nope, no thanks.

Why doesn’t it make sense in the context of the question? The question is only being asked because pressure cooker bombs went off and killed and injured people.

@bkcunningham While we’re at it, let’s just imagine we live in Utopia. Then, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. :p

Agreed, @augustlan.

It makes no sense because we are talking about being armed in the face of a potentially armed and certainly dangerous fugitive. We are not talking about what that fugitive did to make himself a fugitive.

It makes as much sense as imagining everyone is armed with AR-15s. No offense, @augustlan.

So why are you engaging in this nonsensical rhetorical discourse?

The question is asking whether and why or why not people would want to be armed. Your hypothetical has absolutely nothing to do with the question at hand.

As I said earlier, @SuperMouse, I think it is a very good question. I would hope my contribution will make people think, just as some contributions by others here have made me think. That is why I’m part of the discussion.

Look @bkcunningham it is pretty clear to me that one of your chief reasons for participating here on Fluther is to take opposite view points and to try to get people riled up. I think that your suggestion that we pretend there were no bombs makes zero sense on the context of this question. However, if past experience is any indication, you will continue to be contrary in hopes of getting this to go on and on.I am finished engaging with you on the subject.

@bkcunningham In no post above did I see that anyone including and especially myself said a thing about being armed with an AR-15.

@chyna She was referring to this post.

@glacial Ah, thank you. I skimmed too quickly. When I discussed having a gun, it would be a handgun or revolver.

@cookieman Amen to all that you write. More guns, and more gun violence, are not the solution.

Wow…a Lawrence mother attacked your wife with a baseball bat?!?! Gotta love Lawrence. My apologies if you and your wife live in Lawrence; I know that the place has changed over the years, but I’m old enough, and formerly local enough, to remember Lawrence pre-gentrification.

No. The chance of hurting someone innocent would be too high.

My very good friends actually live in Watertown only a few blocks away from the first gun battle. They heard the explosions and gunfire that night. They told me that things were very tense, and they were stressed while locked-down, but they never expressed a desire for a gun.

I’m not a huge fan of guns, and I’m not a huge fan of media-fueled panic. I’m thinking overly-scared people in Boston area + guns is something that scares me more than a crazy guy who was on the run from the cops.

Sorry about bringing the AR-15 into the discussion. It was a side thought, brought to mind by the Facebook meme. Not my main point.

@SadieMartinPaul: My wife was a state social worker at the time. Lawrence was her home base. She went there for a home inspection.

@cookieman U.S. social workers, whether employed by governmental or private interests, all deserve medals of valor. You say that your wife “was” a social worker “at the time.” I hope she moved on to a more rewarding, and less grueling and frustrating, line of work?

I, too, wanted to be a social worker when I was young and idealistic; I thought I could help people and make the world a better place. I dropped out after one day.

Suppose there’s a severe earthquake and you are trapped in a larger cavity under the debris. You keep a small amount of dynamite in your home for such a case. You can use the dynamite to blow your way free or you can wait for the rescue teams.

Does the possibility of an earthquake justify keeping dynamite in your home? Would you feel safe having explosives in your home?

@mattbrowne I’d use tannerite, if it came to that.Inert until you mix separate components, set off with a concussion.
@jerv I was thinking particularly of the activist groups, actually, not so much the average voter.

The point he’s making, I think, is that only people who are paranoid about an earthquake will keep dynamite on hand.

I just read a terrific quote: “Having Neil Diamond lead a sing-along seems like a better response to terrorism than invading Iraq.”

So Good, So Good