Sheriff calls for guns on campus

[Urbane Guerrilla]

I wasn't beating on you about that martial-arts question -- I simply had no idea whether this was something you knew about me or not.

In my personal experience, backed up by absolutely every time I go to a gun range, is that it's a psychological truth that when everyone is armed, everyone is also polite. They are, in fact, downright kindly to each other. This is really very pleasant. If I am any measure of average human psychology, this is not from fear of the other armed guys, but of the desire to keep them reassured.

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?

Got to admit, I prefer good manners over bad. I'm willing to go to some lengths to get them.