Guns don't kill people ....

[Lamplighter]

Saying that having a gun makes you more cautious is like saying
that carrying a match in the forest makes you more cautious,
or having an electrical wire in your hand makes you more cautious.
It's superficially true, but in the heat of an event such caution can be lost.

This "Having my CCL (gun) makes me more cautious" argument is literally
making the rounds on the internet among gun-advocate web sites,
and Joe Zamudio is their latest CCL-hero.
They say that he exercised caution and good judgment when he
came to the aid of Rep Gifford in Arizona.
Some of their statements are factual wrong.
And they don't expose one important detail...

MSNBC
Armed Giffords hero nearly shot wrong man

As he grabbed the older man's wrist to wrestle the gun away, bystanders yelled that he had the wrong man
— it was the man on the ground who they said had attacked them and U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).
The gun the older man was holding had been wrestled away from the shooter.
Police later identified 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner as the suspect.

"I could have very easily done the wrong thing and hurt a lot more people,"
said Zamudio, who helped subdue the suspect until authorities arrived.

I'm not denigrating Joe Zamudio. In fact, I was very impressed by him
in interviews at the time where he said his frame of mind was that
he was prepared to his gun, and was only stopped by the shouts of the crowd.

My point is that it is only fantasy to suggest that having a gun will
make a person cautious and rational.
I think it's just as easy to imagine a fantasy of a Mexican Standoff,
or shooting an innocent person... or yourself.