"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." 

This is one of the NRA's standard talking points, and occasionally there are cases that seem to validate this statement.  For example, you may have seen the recent story where a "55-year-old deli owner and his wife were confronted by a 19-year-old armed robber who burst into the small Tacony shop and threatened their lives. But the shopkeeper had a weapon of his own, and returned fire after the gunman shot at him. He struck the would-be robber in the chest, police said, killing him on the spot."* 

*from a 2/7/13 story in the Philadelphia Inquirer

That seems like a fairly clear case of "good guy" vs. "bad guy".  The article went on to say, "The shooting appears to have been justified, and police sources said they did not expect the shopkeeper to be charged...Police have not yet released the name of the gunman, but said he had prior arrests." (More on this story in my next post.) 

Unfortunately, however, the "good guy/bad guy" distinction is not always so clear.  Consider the recent case of Tawana Bourne from Middletown, Connecticut.   As noted in a 2/5/13 article on courant.com**, Bourne, age 30, "the mother of two boys, founded a Middletown-based, nonprofit organization called Healthy Home Healthy Child, which works with parents on crisis prevention and intervention, according to the Urban Alliance, a nonprofit Christian organization in Hartford."  Sounds like one of the good guys, right?

But good guys can apparently use really bad judgment, as Ms. Bourne did recently while visiting Chuck E Cheese with her 5-year-old son.  The little boy apparently pushed another child off of a ride, and the other child's mother scolded the boy.  Ms. Bourne advised the other mom to "watch her tone" when talking to her son, and the other woman suggested that Ms. Bourne needed to "watch her kid."

At this point, according to a police statement, Ms. Bourne "allegedly brandished a .380 semiautomatic handgun and chambered a round." 

She pulled out a gun and loaded it, at Chuck E Cheese, in front of her 5-year-old son and the other woman's 2-year-old daughter.  That's not exactly conducive to an environment "where a kid can be a kid" as the company's slogan goes.  (Signs at the front of every Chuck E Cheese advise patrons that they may not bring in any weapons or firearms.) 

Fortunately, this time, no actual violence ensued.  Ms. Bourne, who had a valid permit for her weapon, was charged with "three counts of risk of injury to a minor and one count each of second-degree threatening and first-degree reckless endangerment."  


**http://www.courant.com/community/newington/hc-newington-gun-arrest-0206-20130205,0,7637685.story



My point is this:  We don't live in a Hollywood Western, where you can tell the Good Guys from the Bad Guys by the color of their hat.  A perfectly "good", hard-working, church-going, law-abiding person can make bad choices.  She can have a bad day, drink too much, get fired from her job.  He can have a fight with his spouse, get a traffic ticket, and/or just be in a really bad mood when that one thing happens that just puts him over the edge.  And at that point she may break down and scream at her child or curse out a stranger.  Or he may pull out a gun.

The NRA doesn't tell us what stops a good guy with a gun.