Have Gun, will Travel; Have Gun, will Kill

   Some pack a gun with them wherever they go. I wonder if that only increases the chances of death. I think of how a portion of gun deaths come when criminals kill other criminals, drug deals gone bad, and such.
   The gun is there, and the gun is used.
   It's been said, Have gun, will travel. We could add, Have gun, will kill. If you travel with a gun, you increase the chances you will die by the gun. Or, if not you, another person will. We assume the bad guys kill each other simply because they are bad guys, and that is true. What goes unsaid, however, is that the fact they have guns also is a contributing factor.
   When a prosecuting attorney makes his case, he often determines opportunity. Well, if guns are present, the opportunity to kill increases.
   My town, Salt Lake City, is now flowing with the discussion of a middle-of-the-night gun battle between homeowner Rusty Jacobs and home invader Jesse Bruner. Bruner, whether he was looking for an empty home to sleep in or what, tried to kick in Jacobs' door in the middle of the night. Jacobs got up, and was looking around when Bruner greeted him, telling him he had a bad leg. When Bruner left, Jacobs, gun in tow, followed him down the street, pointing a flashlight at him, and perhaps suggesting he knew Bruner was a person who had been involved in home break-ins of late.
   Bruner also carried a gun, a sawed-off shotgun.
   Bruner shot, and Jacobs fired back. They died together in the streets.
  We don't know whether Bruner saw Jacobs had a gun, and was intimidated by that, and therefore was more inclined to use his own gun, but it is fair to wonder.
  Hindsight says Jacobs would have been better off leaving it to law enforcement, instead of chasing down the street with a gun, intimidating a known criminal. Bruner's rap sheet included weapons charges. He was a man who lived by the gun, whose mind frame was that you settle some of your differences with a gun. Had Jacobs known that, how would he have expected Bruner to react?
   And, perhaps the mind frame of settling differences with a gun was, in part, the mind set of Rusty Jacobs. Society teaches protection of self and family with a gun. If you have a spat with a criminal, settle it with bullets. That will save you and your family.
   Lest you not think settling his differences with Bruner was part of his mind set, remember Jacobs could have waited for the police. If he had to follow Bruner, he could have done it from a distance, just staying close enough to see where Bruner was so he could steer the police to him.
   After the killings, police, in a statement to the media, urged homeowners to let them do the work, saying that was their job. I think that wise. I think it wise that the police took the opportunity to teach the public. We are what we are taught to be. If society teaches us to be one way, we often turn out that way. If we teach each other to stand up to the criminals, that will happen. Sometimes, it will go smoothly, but sometimes it will go awry, such as it did with Jacobs.
   Usually, police can do their job better than we can. Let them. As is said, Johnny, don't be a hero. While it is honorable to protect yourself and your family, remember the saying, Wisdom is the better part of valor.
   Travel with a gun, die with a gun. Have gun will travel; have gun will kill. It doesn't always turn out that way. But, there is an increased tendency that direction.