Giving the current trend of shootings from the tragedy in Las Vegas, to the tragic church shooting in Texas, to the horrific one in northern California the call for action against firearms has been renewed. From concerts, churches, and elementary schools it is hard for a morally grounded American not to want something to be done. Here is where the problem rests. I am not sure about the church’s policy but the concert was a public gathering and the elementary school is a government building. You cannot carry a firearm in these places. I understand this mentality. Each individual who carries a firearm for their defense and the defense of others has a different level of training and a different mindset. You simply don’t need someone pulling a firearm in a crowded place and attempting to stop a bad guy without some sort of quality training. I got it, and I don’t mind being disarmed before going into the bank or courthouse or the post office. It’s the law. My problem is that if you are going to disarm the average upstanding American citizen who passes a background check you must provide for their security. No one to my knowledge has even raised this subject.  The responsibility rest squarely on the government from the highest level to the local sheriff for the protection of citizens who willingly abide by the law and disarm themselves and who are then innocently gunned down by people who have no regard for the law. Just because a laws exist doesn’t mean mentally unstable violent felons are going to follow them. The law must be enforced and if they can’t be enforced, with some relative effect, then you must provide for the security of the law abiding citizen. Here is my take on the issue. In Alaska you must prove you can take an ethical shot on wild game before they will issue you a hunting license. In the state I reside in you must take the hunter education course before you can acquire a hunting license.  Before you can obtain a drivers license you have to demonstrate you are capable of safely operating a motor vehicle by taking a written test and then you must prove that you can physically operate a vehicle. There are different levels of drivers licenses from boat, motorcycle, to car, and class A, B, and C. Depending on the type of license depends on the training and skill required to obtain the desired license. Do you see where I’m going with this? Think about it for a second. We have all asked that popular question while driving “How did that idiot get a license?”  Ask yourself what if they were driving a fully loaded 52 foot trailer. There is a reason why that idiot who just cut you off doesn’t have a Class A Commercial Drivers License. The laws that govern drivers licenses work with some relative effect. Why am I promoting yet another law or regulation? We are a society of laws that come out legislation interpreted by the courts based on previous circumstances weighed by the average citizen and ruled over by a judge. You stop at a stop sign, not because of a law, but because you know what tragic event could happen if you don’t. Even the one who does the so called California stop still looks both ways. It’s a mind set. This same mind set exists in those who responsibly carry a firearm. It’s a mind set of being educated, proficient, and safe that, statistics show, favors the law abiding armed citizen in situations of self-defense and the defense of others. Instead of looking at what we can take away from law abiding citizens why don’t we look at how we can better enable them.