Jim, you make a lot of good points. However, let me take a little issue with a couple:
1. "If you are carrying with a CCW license, you are limited by law to self-defense, which means that you may defend yourself and your family against an immediate threat of death or serious injury." Actually, at least in Arizona, you can certainly use deadly force to prevent an unrelated third party from suffering mortal injury or death. This is crystal clear.
2. "If you choose to carry and use deadly force, you are not in the playground any more! We are talking about killing people, maybe innocent people, and that is not a game." Well, of course that is true. And folks that make too much light of these 'games' are perhaps not taking the situations seriously enough. OTOH, people, including me, often joke about extremely serious subjects in order to relieve some of the pressure. That is human nature.
And, this is my most important point, these 'games' are very, very helpful to reacting properly in an actual violent encounter. Our CCW instructor stressed, and our written exam even included the idea that we consider possible violent scenarios and how we would react. This wasn't discussed as simply a good idea - it was mentioned as one of the most critical things we would do. Makes sense to me - learn everything I can about my firearm(s), practice with them until I could safely use them in my sleep, know the pertinent laws, and consider and practice potential scenarios. Now, I'm a lot newer to this than many of my fellow TFL members, and maybe I've got it wrong, but this makes sense to me. As it stands, I plan to live fire at least once each week, dry-fire practice every few days, and use the F.A.T.S. simulator (computerized firearms training simulator) once each month. I take the responsibility of a CCW very seriously.
BTW, cornered rat, the Red Zone in rec.guns was very helpful and interesting. Thanks.
Jim, to be honest, it sounds like you have unfortunately run into many of the poorer examples of firearms owners. Guess I've been lucky enough to avoid more of them so far. Most of the folks I've 'met' on TFL seem much, much more responsible than your concerns would indicate.
And, carrying 2 big Glocks, 2 little Glocks, 2 Bowie knives, etc. may be a bit much, but I personally always make sure I've got an extra Diet Pepsi.
'Course it can get pretty warm in AZ.