“...the fact is people who carry are not doing it to be some unarmed person’s rescuer...”
Okay, there is an Arizona exception to that. I have known several people, including a Marine, who have used their arms several times rescuing a defenseless person(s) from an attacker(s). Never for themselves.
It’s a peculiar thing that I would attribute to a “confidence aura” that armed people can have, that criminals pick up on and say to themselves, “not that one.”
Plus, when a place has so many guns on the street, it becomes not just polite, but genteel, and the good citizens are much more prone to act, instead of going rigid and calling the police.
When you say exception, in the law? If so that is great.
But people make choices. They decide to go around unarmed. They think the world is marshmallows and cream. Their irrational desire to believe nothing bad could ever happen to them is what they want to believe, and so they go around unarmed and without a mentality that would help them get through a bad situation.
I mean government would love for all of us to think and act this way, they could always be a hero, or at least, a shoulder to cry on while they take a loved one’s body out of the chalk outline and onto a stretcher.
If people weren’t so litigious and ready to sue someone who could potentially come to their aid, or had a DA that would prosecute them because they’re anti-gun for citizens, or want to make an example out of you for your vigilantist behavior, I think a lot more people would be willing to consider doing it.
But the bottom line is we are not trained to be officers, we are coming into situations already in progress and we have literally no idea of why what’s occurring is occurring. For all we know the bad person is the one that is currently “losing”. And if we make that mistake and get involved we have NO PROTECTION at all.
You know the mentality of judges is terrible. “I can understand your reaction, but I can’t agree with what you did, you are not an officer and you put others at risk not fully knowing what is going on....” I mean look at the people who are just travelling through an area and go to jail because of technicalities like magazine capacity.
It’s going to be a bad enough ordeal to keep your 2A rights if you have to defend yourself with a firearm, much less walking into a situation blind. Ask anyone who’s had to defend themselves and hope the DA doesn’t charge them, and then whether the criminal or their living family try to sue you (George Zimmermann comes to mind). And woe if you and the perp are different races and you’re white and male.
this whole country, this whole world, is being turned upside down. I know why. Damned if I’m going to fall into their traps prematurely.