Paul had a glass of wine… I wonder if he needs a little liquid courage to debate John Lott.

John Lott focused mainly on multi-victim public shootings happening in so called gun free zones, and raised the question: if you were being stalked by a violent criminal, would a gun free zone sign on you house make you feel more or less safe?

Lott also touched on the low percentage of CCWs being revoked due to gun related incidents, most of which were carrying into gun free zones, with no further incident.

Helmke brought up several incidents that occurred while he was mayor, most of which were shooting incidents that involved police officers, including an accidental discharge and a domestic violence incident. I really don’t see how this helps his argument that carrying should be restricted to security guards and police. I am not ripping on the police, but when you take any group of people there will be those who act irresponsibly or illegally, which is not an indictment on the whole group.

Helmke pointed out that in one of the incidents that Lott brought up was in an area with armed police, who were killed. Lott’s response was that the police are easily targeted at the beginning of an incident, whereas CCW holders are not, because they blend in with the rest of the victims.

I extend my compliments to Paul Helmke for coming to the meeting, and debating reasonably.