> So even when there are a lot of guns, and mental health issues, there is still a way to prevent daily mass shootings.

Sure. Except mass shootings aren't daily, and the way to do it is to raise the cost of doing so, not to take away the right of self-defense.

> People who are enthusiastic about guns are responsible for the culture you've created around guns, and the laws on the books for guns.

This is very wrong in my experience. I grew up in rural Idaho where people were enthusiastic about guns. They were incredibly careful around guns and always taught me that guns are tools, not toys.

You know what depicts guns as toys? Hollywood. Video games. Other pop culture. Gangs.

It's the depiction of guns as toys or as a method to get your way that is bad, and I never saw that growing up.

Perhaps that's why there really aren't mass shootings at rural schools.

> So then what good is it doing?

Peace of mind. More on that later.

> But... what you just told me contradicts this. You were so fearful of the world that you brought your gun, because you felt that you might be compelled to use it.

Actually, because I had the weapon, I felt less fearful. You said yourself that your experiences were terrifying. My experience was not for me because I had a backup plan.

You were terrified and fearful. I was not. Thus, it was not a contradiction.

And you say that plenty of terrifying experiences are resolved without guns. That's true, but it only takes once for that to be catastrophically untrue.

But plenty of such things are resolved because of guns. [1]

Also, the reason I bought a gun and started carrying? The George Floyd riots. There were shootings by rioters, which for the most part were not the people you claim are responsible for gun culture.

And by the way, I pulled a slight trick on you. Notice that I said I never drew my "weapon" in that experience. You automatically assumed I had a gun.

I didn't. I had a knife.

There is one big reason why. I'm more confident with knives than guns, to remain safe and reduce collateral damage. I carry this knife everywhere I can, even when I don't feel unsafe because it helps me feel less fearful and gives me another option.

As it turns out, that incident happened in a place I previously felt completely safe in. But I still had my knife which gave me another option should things have gone south.

"When seconds matter, the police are minutes away."

So I wasn't carrying because I was fearful. I was carrying because I was prepared.

It's funny, though; I could probably walk into a Rust event with this knife, and I would not be breaking any rules. Yet I'm sure you would not like it anyway. That shows how terrible this policy is because it only targets one thing that the Rust Foundation does not like and does not really address what people like you don't like.

As another nail in your argument that it's people like me responsible for this culture, those same people are the reason why I feel less confident with guns than knives.

I went shooting with those people a few times in my youth. In every single one, I made small mistakes with the guns, and every time, I got corrected strongly, even though I almost never made the same mistake twice. In fact, I often was corrected so strongly and publicly that I actually felt shame. It got to the point that I stopped using guns and never touched a gun for a decade and a half (except for once in basic training).

Those "enthusiastic" people actually put me off of guns. So much for spreading gun culture. Thus, I have a hard time believing your argument.

You know what would change the gun culture? Having everyone take the same safety classes that I did, to learn how to be safe, and if they are not safe, they should be chewed out by instructors like the people in my youth did me. Then the very poor depiction of guns in movies and pop culture would be more easily ignored and changed for the better as well since people will call out the people who make that pop culture.

Politics is a poor way of changing culture because "politics are downstream from culture." You would be swimming upstream.

And if the Rust Foundation are going to require events to not allow guns, then perhaps they should pay for armed security to compensate? Event organizers will probably have to.

[1]: https://fee.org/articles/guns-prevent-thousands-of-crimes-ev...