You are right in that responsible parents keep items that may be harmful to the kids under control. The police officer had complete control over his weapon. You don't seem to recognize that point. You scream how inappropriate merely having a gun near a child is

But you missed the point earlier about knives in the house. Of course responsible people insure that children will be out of the way when knives are being used, but every household leaves knives where they are accessible to children. How many knives do you have in your kitchen that your children can get to?

Do you really think that it's four year olds that are shoplifting? Isn't it more likely the parents, teenagers and other adults stealing the trains? If it isn't the adults stealing, then they are either allowing their children to steal or not paying attention to their children.

I don't see any comments on responsibility as an attack, what I do see is unreasoning and unreasonable comments as an attack. You've stated that merely having a gun in a child's area of a book store is unreasonable, but isn't that where the crimes are being committed?

Can you identify who will be a maniac, who will be committing the next crime? I can't, neither can the police, that is why they are always armed. You seem to want to give amazing powers to the gun, wanting to know how it is going to stop pilfering. Isn't it really the armed officer, with the emphasis on the officer that will stop the crime?