I have no fear of guns as such. I have a lot of fear of people who use guns. We live in a strange time. On the one hand everyone is encouraged to call the police immediately if they see a person displaying gun in public. On the other, more and more people are obtaining concealed weapons permits. Frankly, people with guns scare me. I have heard too many stories of people going on shooting rampages and killing innocent citizens. I have known of too many people killed or maimed in accidental shootings. I have had friends who nearly shot their spouses with bedside guns, not knowing that their spouses had gotten up during the night and were moving around the house or the bedroom. ​I know of many domestic violence situations that were made much worse because a gun was easily available. As a psychologist, I know how difficult it is to assess "dangerousness" in people. My own response to all of these considerations is to not trust anybody with a gun. Better to avoid being around anybody with a gun than to become a victim.
With all of the concealed weapons permits, however, this has become more problematic. I have no idea whether the person in the checkout line at Target is "packing" and whether on not they are about to explode into acts of violence. I have no idea if, when the shooting starts, I'll be maimed or killed by other citizens who draw their guns and start shooting at whoever they think is the "bad guy." Even with the best of training and a lot of practice, people who are emotionally rattled are going to miss their target a lot. I don't want to be in the way of those random bullets. Because I can't tell for sure just who is carrying, I have become wary about being around any stranger. It isn't that I have given up going to public places, but that I've become much more watchful about the people around me, particularly those who are driving their cars aggressively who might use a gun to settle their "road rage" issues. It seems that there is a group of people in our society that is hell-bent on pushing for guns to be carried everywhere by everybody, including in our schools, hospitals, parks, shopping malls, recreation areas, work places, restaurants, libraries and any other public place. Their notion is that they will be more able to protect themselves from the "bad guys" if they can carry their guns. To me, they are the bad guys. What makes them feel secure makes me feel insecure. Should I not have the right, as a citizen of this country, to be protected from those people who insist on carrying guns everywhere? Shouldn't I be able to feel secure from people who could shoot me and the people I love easily because all they need to do is reach into their belt holsters? Shouldn't there be some way of keeping other people's guns out of my life?
At the moment, all I can think of doing is this: If I see anybody carrying a gun, or who has one in their car, who is clearly not on a hunting trip, I can call the police and report them. That way the police can locate the person and deal with them. If everyone who is concerned about all of the guns on the street does the same, ​we can begin to bring pressure on the powers-that-be to make guns-on-the-street a less desirable occurrence.