I was making the assumption that in order to defend yourself with the method of choice you would first need to purchase it. Did I miss something in the distinction between the two that caused you to call that out? Maybe I misunderstood.
ome training is better than none IMHO and that's just me
Hard to argue that point. But there's quite difference between advocating for the benefits of training vs. advocating for the legal requirement of training. I wasn't sure if you were the former or the latter.
Sadly, I'm quite familiar with the silly gun laws in California, although I admit I've since lost some of the details when I left.
It's all common sense safety, etc. but personally I'd like to know that the purchaser knows at least the basics of gun safety and handling and the simplest of laws., not that it applies to criminals.
Agreed, it would be better to know that people understand some basic firearm safety. Which is why I feel kids could benefit from it being taught in school just like any other danger avoidance lesson. That kind of goes without saying actually. But in the panoply of human to human interactions the statistics would imply that we should be far more concerned about our safety record with a great number of other things before we would logically say "ok, now that we have ALL of these other things that accidentally kill people with regularity under control, let's turn our attention to reducing accidental gun deaths". I have personal anecdotal information to support that but reciting it would only serve to water down the actual data that supports that statement. To your final point, if we are requiring this training under the guise that somehow it will reduce criminal activity involving firearms, well, that's just crazy talk.
We require 30 hours of class and behind the wheel training before you can get your drivers license here...and people driving cars kill more people than people with guns!
Not sure I understand your comment here. It could be interpreted as equating firearms and motor vehicles and justification for requiring training for both. (Which for the record I would consider a false equivalence) Or it could be interpreted as an indication of the lack of efficacy of training since we do all this training and certification and people still accidentally kill people with vehicles. Can you clarify?