Yes, but still, it’s the disgusting evil self-centered character of these thugs that should be the main focus. A moral good person with a gun would not even have that piece out in the open.
I agree, obviously.
But, as with anything else, there is a cost to having widely available guns. That is that they are more readily available to those who are happy to misuse them.
This is an utterly conservative premise. Everything, no matter how good it is, has a price. Conservatives don’t indulge in the magical thinking that one can have good things without associated negative externalities. We weigh the good against the bad and determine whether a policy is on net appropriate.
The notion that it is possible to have a policy that is good for everybody in every way is a specialty of liberals. My boss, who is very liberal, thinks all policies should be a plus for all. Utterly resistant to the truism that every policy impacts somebody negatively.
If you put in pollution controls, costs of production go up, everybody pays more, and quite likely some people lose their jobs.
If you enforce laws against crime more effectively, individual criminals are more likely to wind up in jail. That’s negative for them, no matter how positive it is for society as a whole.
A moral good person with a gun would not even have that piece out in the open.
...the more sensible thing would be to openly carry, then nobody will mess with you in the first place...but, society has spoken...