Dang. If that doesn't just say it all about how other parts of the world view our handling of this issue.
Must be quite the conundrum for your average right winger - 2nd amendment rights applying equally to Islamists (if that is what it turns out to be).
My guess is it wouldn't be any different than how they view black people with guns (or black people being merely
suspected to have guns) versus white people with guns.
White people with guns = Enjoying their Second Amendment rights.
Non-white people with guns = They're a threat and we must take them down.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I've traveled around the world, walked in some dodgy areas, been in unsafe places, but it was only in the United States, the supposed most civilized country on Earth, where the fear of getting caught in a shooting entered my mind.
Sometimes, while visiting the States, I'd go somewhere, a public place like a restaurant, and wonder if we're all just sitting ducks for some lunatic with a legally-purchased gun. In New York this summer, where I spent 4 days to see a pair of U2 shows, I'd walk in somewhere and immediately take note of all the exit points, just in case I needed them. I'd formulate a plan of escape in my head.
Now you tell me if that's rational or not. I would submit to you that it's not. But that is where we are in the U.S. in 2015, and it's only getting worse because of inaction from so-called political leaders.
Honestly, I've thought the same thing. Last year a customer came into the bookstore I worked at, and it was plainly obvious he was VERY mentally...off, saying things about how we don't have a Constitution anymore and he wanted to buy a copy of the ones we sold to see what his rights as a veteran were, and he was spouting stuff about sending poems about eggplant parmesan to the CIA and claimed the government was watching him (seriously)...
...and he just REALLY gave me the creeps when I was dealing with him. And all I could think was, if he's a veteran, and he's got familiarity with weapons, and one thing finally sets him off...
The fact that there's been shootings at malls also made me nervous working at ours sometimes, too, and I'd briefly wonder about what I'd do if I found myself in that sort of situation, where I'd go and how I might try and escape.
And then there was one time a couple years back when there was a shooting at a convenience store just a few blocks from my home. It wasn't a mass shooting, it was one guy killing another (and was likely drug-related).
But my mom goes down that road on her way home from work every day. And that shooting happened around the time she would've been coming home from work. Fortunately, she happened to have that day off, and therefore wasn't in the area. But hearing about it had me wondering what would've happened if she had been there all the same.
In short, we have a deeply serious problem in this country. And something needs to be done. And if someone can't see that, or refuses to do their part ot help change things, they are an idiot. End of story.