Dr. Annie Bukacek, Kalispell’s leading libertarian physician, put some distance between herself and the notion of doing no harm this week with an essay on Ed Berry’s PolyMontana arguing that more citizens carrying concealed weapons is a good thing. Montana Cowgirl has the story, including Bukacek’s reliance on long discredited studies on the alleged social benefits of packing hidden heat.
There was a time when the progress of civilization was measured by the lessening of the need for citizens to go about their daily business armed. Being able to walk the streets unarmed without fear was a sign of progress, of a high level of public safety obtained by arming the constable so that citizens could leave their firearms at home. Now this venerable metric of public safety and a civil society is rejected by Bukacek, the NRA, legislators like Krayton Kerns, and others who, having sniffed too much gunsmoke, think the world is safer when all citizens have big irons on their hips.