I've been a lurker for awhile, and I know that this post has been brought up 1-2 times in the last 2 years that I've been an RN. So... you grouchy old farts that would rather I'd revive an old post can just stuff a sock in it. I want to gauge opinions based on our CURRENT situation after the shooting yesterday in San Bernadino, CA.
Truth be told, One single caregiver with a concealed carry permit could have shut this couple down before they hit 14 fatalities.
I plan on getting my CC in January, but I know as an RN, should my handgun be discovered, I'll probably lose my license. It will stay in my car when I am at work. If someone wants to carry out mayhem at my workplace, we are ALL sitting ducks. It is not ok or fair. What are your thoughts?
I have my CCW but only so that I can keep a legal gun at my bedside and in my car as I do travel nursing. I might carry when hiking, if it is a legal area for carry.
Specializes in E/R, Med/Surg, PCU, Mom-Baby, ICU, more.
Experiments have been carried out and prove that having a gun in your possession does not mean your safety or the safety of others. It is impossible to act quickly enough to harm or kill the shooter.
America, guns and freedom: Part II — An international perspective
"...As to how citizens can protect themselves from criminal assailants when the police, more often than not, are not there to protect them, the National Victims Data suggests that, while victims resisting with knives, clubs, or bare hands are about twice as likely to be injured as those who submit, victims who resist with a gun are only half as likely to be injured as those who put up no defense.†Of particular interest to women and self-defense, among those victims using handguns in self-defense, 66% were successful in warding off the attack and keeping their property. Among those victims using non-gun weapons, only 40% were successful.†The gun is a great equalizer for law-abiding citizens in self and family protection, particularly women, when they are accosted in the street or when they are defending themselves and their children at home...
The other night I triaged a young man who had his arm blown clean off with a 50mm round. For reference, that is an anti-aircraft weapon of war. That is African warlord type weaponry.
I live on an Island - an Island - with gun control regulations that far surpass those of California. So tightly controlled are guns here that it is, for all intents and purposes, illegal to have a gun unless you work private security or are a police officer. We are an island, so it is not possible to go one state over and buy a gun easily. There is no hunting culture. All of the typical excuses for why gun control doesn't work simply don't apply here. Yet we have a gun murder rate more than 4 times the national average. Just check the FBI statistics.
Bad people will get guns no matter what you do. Just a few months ago one of my favorite restaurants was the scene of a mass shooting where 12 people were shot and 4 died, at 4 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon. All that gun control does is to leave you, the citizen, unarmed as we are, putting bars on every window and door, and ducking every time a firework goes off.
Those of you who are constantly agitating for "common-sense gun control" will be sorely disappointed with the results, and will never cease pushing for more "common sense" regulations till only the criminals have guns. And then you will know what it is to rearrange your schedule to keep from being caught out after dark.
Stop playing politics with such an important question. You have a right to defend your life.
The Gun Laws in both Chicago and other suburbs in the surrounding area were originally enacted to enable Law Enforcement to IMMEDIATELY seize a gun if one was found at a crime scene or during an arrest.
As for "Gun Laws don't work with criminals", perhaps we should just get rid of laws regarding assault, burglary, theft, and murder as well since criminals don't seem to care about any laws.
Because if you didn't have laws, you couldn't 1) establish a boundary for acceptable behavior; or 2) punish those who cross that boundary. That's why.
If you expect any law to do more you are destined to be bitterly disappointed. I ask you: since murder is against the law, how does it exist? Apply the same thought to gun crime, if it is illegal, how does it exist? You'd think the law would make it go away but of course, it doesn't. But we can sure punish murderers because of that law, can't we?
Here is the flaw in all gun control thinking: if an offender is willing to ignore possible capital punishment for killing his victims, what possible punishment beyond that will scare him enough not to use a gun? Skinning him alive? Drawing and quartering him in a public venue? Roasting him on a spit? What will it take? If you can figure that out, write another law incorporating your idea. Otherwise accept the limitations of laws.
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
Did I say anything about getting rid of guns? I was just responding to your statement that Americans want to kill each other and the weapons used "don't really matter." To me, that statement is "simply fantasy."
Do you have any thoughts on the rest of my comments?
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
Australia. Massive shooting, they got ride of their gun and haven't had a mass shooting since since.
Except that lots and lots of people in Australia still have guns. I know several of them. I read comments from hundreds more on the gun discussion forums.
It's a lie that Australia got rid of guns. It's a lie that they no longer have them.
It's is normal and expected that Australia, and other first world nations would have far fewer mass shootings. They are much more advanced, secular societys than the USA. They don't have the wide spread religious extremism that infects America.
The other night I triaged a young man who had his arm blown clean off with a 50mm round. For reference, that is an anti-aircraft weapon of war. That is African warlord type weaponry.
I live on an Island - an Island - with gun control regulations that far surpass those of California. So tightly controlled are guns here that it is, for all intents and purposes, illegal to have a gun unless you work private security or are a police officer. We are an island, so it is not possible to go one state over and buy a gun easily. There is no hunting culture. All of the typical excuses for why gun control doesn't work simply don't apply here. Yet we have a gun murder rate more than 4 times the national average. Just check the FBI statistics.
Bad people will get guns no matter what you do. Just a few months ago one of my favorite restaurants was the scene of a mass shooting where 12 people were shot and 4 died, at 4 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon. All that gun control does is to leave you, the citizen, unarmed as we are, putting bars on every window and door, and ducking every time a firework goes off.
Those of you who are constantly agitating for "common-sense gun control" will be sorely disappointed with the results, and will never cease pushing for more "common sense" regulations till only the criminals have guns. And then you will know what it is to rearrange your schedule to keep from being caught out after dark.
Stop playing politics with such an important question. You have a right to defend your life.
Following this logic, we shouldn't have any laws because criminals will "do bad things" anyway.
Things aren't made illegal to make problems disappear. Things are illegal so we can punish people.
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
Following this logic, we shouldn't have any laws because criminals will "do bad things" anyway.
Things aren't made illegal to make problems disappear. Things are illegal so we can punish people.
Maybe, there are other very valid reasons to pass laws. Groups in power may try to pass laws to gain control over those not in power, law makers may have their own nefarious reasons to pass laws, like for personal gain.
But in this case you are right, but the result will be to punish the most law abiding among us.
I am saddened by the amount of nurses who do not see the connection between our gun legislation and our gun violence epidemic. It truly is a public health issue, and nurses are ethically obligated to protect the health of their communities. We didn't solve the tobacco problem by increasing the amount of people who had access to cigarettes. We tightened control over who could buy them, where they were allowed to smoke, and offered education in the risks of smoking. We as nurses should ask for government funded research to find the best evidence as to what exactly causes gun violence and advocate for the health and safety of everyone. Maybe the solution is for better security and if it is, we should hire more people instead of militarizing our health personnel.
I want to gauge opinions based on our CURRENT situation after the shooting yesterday in San Bernadino, CA. 
RNhiker
9 Posts
I have my CCW but only so that I can keep a legal gun at my bedside and in my car as I do travel nursing. I might carry when hiking, if it is a legal area for carry.