> I can't imagine attending an event where people could carry concealed weapon
Have you ever been to America? If so, you have almost certainly already attended countless events where somebody in the audience had a gun. The staggering majority of the time there are no incidents, so it is easy to overlook this.
"Gun Owner Openly Carries Gun To Little League Game Without Incident" doesn't make for nearly as sensational a headline as "Thirty-Seven Massacred At Redbox Dropoff" and newspapers exist to tell us about sensational events.
I won't deny that there are responsible gun owners, but they're not a problem. The problem is that any nutjob can carry a gun and by the time he or she has demonstrated working knowledge of a safety and trigger, it's too late.
Even the nutjobs we know are nutjobs are allowed to carry.
And yes, there are people who carry as a condition of their job, even when they're not on the job. But they are somewhat answerable to some authority other than their own recognizance.
If someone can figure out how to spot the difference between an armed, responsible individual and an armed, irresponsible nutjob, that person will make a fortune.
"The problem is that any nutjob can carry a gun...."
If you mean legally, that turns out not to be the case. Or at least most states have prior restraint licencing requirements, which have done a great job of weeding out "nutjobs". Even those that don't, like Vermont (forever, never got into 19th and early 20th century anti-black/immigrant gun grabbing), Alaska, Wyoming, and populated Arizona, where you can carry concealed if you're not a criminal or an adjudicated "nutcase", have had no problems of this sort (if they had, you and I would have heard about them).
Per the GAO and scholar Clayton Cramer, as of the summer of 2013 there were 8 million licensed concealed carriers. If this is a problem, where's the blood on the streets?
Or is the problem rank bigotry by people who know nothing about these sorts of people?
>"Gun Owner Openly Carries Gun To Little League Game Without Incident" doesn't make for nearly as sensational a headline as "Thirty-Seven Massacred At Redbox Dropoff" and newspapers exist to tell us about sensational events.
I wish that 'Seemingly Responsible Gun-Owning Ex-Policeman/Soldier Accidentally Leaves Gun in Movie Theater Seat' informed the debate a little more. Happened twice to me while working as a movie theater usher in Arkansas.
Really, really depends on the state. If from a May-Issue state there is a good chance the only interaction a person gets with someone carrying is the police.
I'd say that even in NYC, you're probably around (illegal, in that case) concealed weapons more often than you would suspect. In most of the country, you will frequently be around many (legally) concealed weapons though.
The trick is concealed. The general public, even in cities in red-states, typically only sees guns when a policeman is carrying it. Open carry protesters provide exceptions to this, but most people are not particularly interested in open carry.
Have you ever been to America? If so, you have almost certainly already attended countless events where somebody in the audience had a gun. The staggering majority of the time there are no incidents, so it is easy to overlook this.