I understand what you are getting at and I doubt we can agree on a solution on here.  And that attitude shifts over time.  150 years ago the event would have ended with a 3 minute trial and a round of shots at the saloon, and maybe not even the trial.

I have been thinking a lot about the Wisconsin event and have been thinking much about rights vs responsibilities and rights vs discretion.  When we are young, many of us boldly stake our claims to our rights and as we age I perceive we often agree that discretion can be the better part of valor.  

A cop has a right to give a speeding ticket at 1mph over, but often uses discretion.  The young man had the right to be armed, but I think many folks in the middle think much trouble may have been avoided if he had used more discretion.  The police have the responsibility to manage riots but perhaps poorly utilized their discretion in allowing more illegal activities to continue without dispersing the protest.  The attackers/aggressors showed poor discretion and a couple of them paid a high price.


So should we focus our energy more on what rights people should or shouldn’t have based on our personal opinions or should we focus more on exhibiting and teaching wisdom and discretion?  A lot of folks here teach their friends and kids safe firearm handling and operation and were horrified to see the media and the prosecutor display rank ignorance about the same.  In a courtroom, no less.  Kids used to learn early in life just like they learned how to use a stove.  Then many schools taught it as part of the curriculum.  Then the extracurricular groups started in - various scouts, summer camps, high school shooting teams, 4-H, advocacy groups with $ focused on youth education.

Perhaps an equally suitable or superior decision would be to teach all kids safety skills the same as they do fire drills and tornado drills.  Males in Switzerland are issued a government firearm and partake in mandatory annual skills training.  Seems to work without a hitch there.