According to a report on the BBC, Florida has just made it easier to have a shootout in the streets. The new law states that you are allowed to shoot an attacker in a public place. Previously, you were expected to try and get away, and only if that failed could you shoot someone.

So let's say someone tries to mug you when you're out on the town. Maybe you've gone to dinner and a movie, and you're headed back to your car. This means, necessarily, that you took a gun to a restaurant and a movie theatre. In fact, the only way to defend yourself with a gun is to carry a gun. How many people do we want carrying guns in any particular location? Think, for example, of the young man who went to a mall with a gun and started shooting people. What if everyone there had had a gun? How many would have shot the wrong person, either on accident or because they saw someone with a gun, people were being shot, and therefore the person in front of them must be the attacker?

I can't absolutely say it would be that way, because I've never been in that situation. But most likely neither have any of the people we would be encouraging to carry a gun, were laws like this to become the norm. Would they be too scared to shoot (in which case, the ability to carry a gun does no good at all), or would they be too eager to shoot (in which case there's a serious problem)?

Ohio recently passed a law allowing for concealed weapons to be carried in public places, providing you are licensed. Individual cities have, in some cases, added restrictions to it, such as not allowing them in public parks. One Toledo area man is challenging that, claiming that both federal and state law trump the city ordinance, and went so far as announcing that he and others would be holding a gun-enthusiasts gathering on one of those parks. It'll be interesting to watch how this plays out.