On hold with 911 for 8 minutes, hung up on, then on hold again for another 8 minutes.

Same here. I was a big believer that guns just increase your chances of getting hurt or killed. I also used to believe in pepper spray and stun guns. But I saw real world examples of their usage and came to realize they are tricky to make work correctly and often miss their target. They lack stopping power, too. Knives are similar in that it might take minutes before someone bleeds out enough to faint. You want to stop someone immediately. This was a really difficult thing for me to accept, since I was so anti-gun before. Now I think it’s reasonable, although I will still try to elect officials who can fix the problem. The main problem is we need the bad guys removed from the public. If we had faith in that, we could go back to thinking guns are stupid to own. Can’t do that if nobody is going after them. By the time cops arrive, which could be days later, the bad guys are long gone.

/r/Austin Thread Parent