On January 1, Missouri switches to “constitutional carry.” Show Me State residents will no longer need a permit to carry a concealed weapon. And yet more people are taking training classes for permits than before. “At first we saw a little dip in classes, two three seats open, no big deal. ln November and December, they were full every weekend. It was like whoa what’s going on here,” Southern Armory owner Aaron Tarlow told kmov.com. Mr. Tarlow offered this analysis . . .
“It will be legal to carry a gun [without a permit] so maybe they are saying I need to know what I am doing and that is awesome. It is showing responsibility on their half, but there is going to be a portion of our society that say they don’t need the training and that is frightening,” says Tarlow.
Judging from what I see on the range, most people can’t shoot for shit. (And these are people on the range.) As I’m not reading reports of untrained civilians shooting the wrong person during a gunfight — an occurrence that continues to bedevil our well-trained police — I reckon the actual danger of untrained gun owners is statistically irrelevant.
All gun owners should get training. They should also practice regularly. But the vast majority won’t. I’m OK with that. You?