Sheriff calls for guns on campus

[DanaC]

It strikes me, as it has other philosophers, that the reasonable certainty the other fellow doesn't have a gun allows rudeness to crop up. A reasonable certainty that yes, he does, suppresses any urge to be rude, for the cost might be considerably too high, mightn't it?

Hmm. I don't know about that. For the most part, my country is quite a polite place to be. There're the usual problems of loitering teenagers, swearing and getting in peoples' faces, but on the whole we're a relatively polite society. Also on the whole, we don't expect people to be carrying firearms. There is a growing problem in some inner city communities, with gangs and guns, but its a tiny, tiny proportion of the population who'll ever have any real contact with guns, beyond the odd air rifle.