"You're a Muslim, angry at Israel? Hi, I'm an American, legally carrying". I have to admit that when I read of the outrage in Seattle I wondered how it would have been different had one or more of the women who were killed or wounded carried a concealed handgun. Glen Reynolds points to this post by Armed Liberal that makes this connection too, as others apparently are. I will let you read and trackback on that post, but there is one point that AL makes to which I can testify from personal experience.

The point is about gun safety. I am now used to carrying - you do get used to it. But I never forget where the weapon is at any given time. I'm one to missplace keys, cell-phones, remotes, but I never forget where that revolver is. I have just two places where it goes, other than my pocket, a place at home and a place at the office.

AL makes a point about training, and I agree with that point, but I challenge his analogy. In making the point that owning a gun makes you no more competent to handle a gun that owning a piano makes you a pianist, I think he plots the learning curve too high and too steeply. You cannot become licensed without some training, usually by an NRA certified inistructor. Its not all that extensive, but it is enough to get you started, and you should go to a range for about a half hour of shooting once a month. I would love to go to one of those schools that AL mentions (and hope to some day), but in the meanwhile, I am going to put the thing in my pocket and go to work. It doesn't take up as much rooom as a piano would, and I'm not thinking of Carnegie Hall.