In Palm Beach, two men, both lawfully armed, come across one another. Neither is obviously law enforcement, one draws his weapon in fear/as a conditioned reaction to being confronted by a stranger on a dark night, the other reaches for his in reaction. The first shoots the second, the second man dies.
Neither man probably did anything wrong if we were to assume neither was a police officer. It just so happens one was, and it seems may not have identified himself, thus averting a problem. There may not have been time either, that's under investigation. What isn't under investigation is that this is exactly the problem with people all over walking around armed. We are going to see, and have seen, needless deaths as untrained people draw and fire, fire in fear. We are going to see unintentional killings, needless killings. Fear is a strong motivator, it motivates people to carry guns, and it motivates those people, people who seem more susceptible to fear, to draw and use those weapons when they are afraid. You can say "well they need training", but what we know from experience with police, is that training normally falls by the wayside in stress unless repeatedly drilled into the person, precisely because their fear overrules their reasoning. Even with repeated training, the process still fails police. For civilians, who lack that training, it has and is failing. And so we get confrontations which turn into tragedy. Rather than two people yelling at each other, one is dead, the other under a cloud and having to live with guilt the rest of his life for having shot "a good guy with a gun."
Debate Magazine
