“Guns are tools.  They are no better or worse than the person holding them.” W.P. Wessel 

I have a gun.  It has never shot anyone.  Not even people I’m mad at.  It just lies there, like it’s sleeping. 

I bought it in 1986 when Richard Ramirez was on a killing spree in Los Angeles and I had a new baby.  You know, the guy who used his victim’s blood to paint pentagrams on their walls? They said he liked yellow houses.  I lived in a yellow house in Laurel Canyon.  It was hidden in the trees far away from other houses so no one would even hear us scream. 

So, I bought a gun to protect my daughter. 

Some people think owning a gun is bad. 

I sure wish I would have had a gun the night I got held up by the six foot tall man in the parking lot of the Variety Arts Center.  I was 21 years old.  All I had to protect myself was my scream.  The man was holding a gun to my head and trying to push me into a dark alley.  Fortunately, my blood curdling scream scared him away.  A friend ran out of the V.A.C. to help me and said he thought he’d heard a siren. I filed a police report and used the experience as material for my next Johnny Carson appearance. 

Click here to play video

(Complete Lyrics) I’m Paranoid  

I’m paranoid now
So very paranoid now
Ever since I got held up in a parking lot
By a big, mean man with a short, black gun you see
My attitude has changed from naive, trusting one
To “I’m-gonna-get-you-before-you-get-me”
Cause I’m paranoid now
So very paranoid now 

Daddy doesn’t have to give me lectures anymore
About what weirdos do to you if you don’t lock your door
I’ve got a small revolver, some poison, and sharp keys
So if you need to tell me something please…
Tell it to my phone machine
Cause I’m very paranoid now 

In my burglar alarm infested apartment
Two drooling German Shepherds lurk
And one small cat with sharp claws
For when the dogs don’t work
Don’t look at me, don’t talk to me, don’t invade my space
Unless you want hamburger to be made out of your face
Cause I’m paranoid now 

Yesterday while I was jogging in the neighborhood
A young man pulled up his car and said, “Mmm, you’re lookin’ good”
He said, “You live around here?”
Instead of saying, “Yes, I do”
I said, “Look Buddy, I know Kung Fu!”
Cause I’m very paranoid now
I’ll probably miss my big chance at finding sweet romance
Cause every time a guy gives me the eye, I say, go away
I’m Paranoid now. 

I’m ready for Trouble
But is Trouble ready for me?!
Vicious Vicki 

I still have the gun.  It’s still lying there.  Hasn’t shot anyone. 

My husband Paul shot and killed a man.  Paul is a cop.  Actually, it happened to be the night he was flying from Miami to NY to see me at Saturday Night Live for his first time. We were dating long distance. Maybe he was anxious to see me or something.  He had to stay up all night filling out paperwork and getting counseling, because I guess that’s what happens when you shoot someone.  He finally got to SNL and I was on the stage getting out of an alien space ship with eyeballs on my nipples because we were doing a sketch about a planet where women’s eyes have mutated to their nipples because men stared at women’s chests for so long.  Kirstie Alley was our leader.  I said, “Paul this must be so surreal for you…to kill someone… and stay up all night…and see me in a spaceship.”   

Paul said, “It is.”  

When I introduced him to the cast, Mike Meyers said, “Hey, you got any war stories?  Ha, ha!”  

Paul said, “I killed a man last night.”  Silence.  

I realized our worlds were completely opposite.  But we do have some things in common.  1) We both like donuts 2) We both could die, him for real and me onstage, and they’re equally painful, and 3) We both get rewarded for a big bust! 

Anyway, don’t feel bad for the man who got shot.  He was drunk and firing a gun at his wife because she wouldn’t “wife swap” anymore.  She called 911. The SWAT team arrived.  The man aimed at Paul.  End of story.  The woman was saved. 

The purpose of a gun is to protect the innocent.
     (Or, feed them. Hunting is practice for the day when we might need to catch our dinner.)  

My gun is still sitting here.  Hasn’t moved.  Hasn’t killed anyone. 

But, I’ll be keeping it just in case.

INEVITABLY, ANOTHER SOLDIER SNAPS

Distraught pacifist conscientious objector tormented by horrors of war, as far as you know

Newsroom experts: stress, violence, stupidity, tragedy a way of life for GIs

Former M*A*S*H stars say it’s finally time to disarm the military

Hollywood insiders: Sean Penn early favorite for lead in planned Oliver Stone biopic

Nidal Hassan – not a fan of taxes Fort Hood: Another Black Eye For Teabagger Movement Connecting the dots: 2006-8 Tax returns show anti-government extremist carefully itemized deductions Like many Town Hall protesters, Hassan motivated by rage, pattern baldness Phone records: suspect tried to join Hair Club for Men Tearful Pelosi pushes Congress for new Tea Party regulations: “our lives are at stake”

Closet Dittohead? Investigation: Ft. Hood Killer Had Access to Fox, Talk Radio, Right-Wing Blogs Receipts show killer’s apartment had cable ‘03 Nissan registered to Hassan had AM radio Napolitano: “I told you so” Sources: Despite 17 citations as Countdown’s ‘Worst Person In The World,’ FBI failed to detain Limbaugh Defiant Palin rejects calls to apologize

Hassan: NRA poster boy GUN GOES ON RAMPAGE IN TEXAS Experts say shootings could have easily been prevented if guns did not exist; others argue bullets must share blame Gun facts: scary, loud, shoot people

Reverend Nidal Hassan say Gimme that Old Time Religion Fundamentalist Religion Seen As Motive in Ft. Hood Massacre Devout churchgoer evangelized conservative views Shooter’s former Virginia home was mere hours from Jerry Falwell compound What did Tilton, Swaggert, Osteen know?

Billy Ray Hassan – average American Southerner Another Typical Day in Dixieland U.S.A. In the land of cotton, some hear echoes of Civil War in latest violent redneck rampage American-born killer was son of the Jim Crow South NASCAR may have been involved Britons warned: limit U.S. travel to safe areas such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles

Hassan: owned GameStop member card Did Violent Video Games, Rap Lyrics Drive Killing Spree? Video: Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario Cart remain on shelf at Fort Hood PX Lil’ Wayne goes One-on-One with Wolf Blitzer Larry King Live Special tragedy coverage with panelists Nancy Grace, David Hasselhoff, Joan Collins

Tailgater of Terror Caught in the Middle of an NFC East Rivalry Sports psychologists: strain of being a Redskins fan in Cowboy country may have led to breakdown for former DC resident Jurgenson, Staubach team up for NFL sportsmanship pitch Skins fans fear backlash Special “Outside the Lines” interview with NFL Commissioner Goodell: “this is precisely why we banned Limbaugh”

Nidal “Ozriel” Hassan: tormented by popular kids ‘Ozriel’: Portrait of a Bullies’ Target Another Columbine? Sensitive, artistic outsider said ostracized by Army jocks, “in crowd” Found solace in poetry, music, MySpace Weekend “EmoAid” benefit concert to raise awareness about at-risk youth, reunite CSN&Y

Junk food junkie? Twinkies Claim Another 13 Victims Hostess corporate spokesman defends controversial creme-filled sponge cake, but mounting scientific evidence links mass murder to unregulated transfats Witness: Hassan yelled “I want a candy bar” during spree Kraft, Kelloggs, Hersheys bracing for lawsuits Are you raising a potential Cereal Killer? Nutritionists show you how to cut your kids’ sugar intake to prevent another bloodbath

No Country For Old Men From Fort Hood to Waco to Dealey Plaza to Bush Compound, death is a way of life in the Lone Star State Statistic: Texas still lags in access to public broadcasting Download Morning Edition’s exclusive in-depth podcast, complete with mournful banjo dirge interlude

Lessons of Ft. Hood: Military Bases Need More Mental Health Professionals

An Ethiopian Jewish woman soldier takes aim. Both men and women serve in the Israeli Defense Forces. Thus, there is a weapon in almost every Israeli home.

Before our son Ariel Chaim ZT”L passed away, age twenty-two, in 2003, we spent a good deal of time discussing the Second Amendment, the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

Ariel was amazed that so many American Jews—overwhelmingly liberal and secular—aligned themselves with the advocates of gun control, in reality a movement to banish the private ownership of guns by lawful citizens.

Trapped and Defenseless
During the Los Angeles riots of 1992, my wife Karen and I, Ariel and Offspring #2, were inside a film theater. Abruptly, an angry mob congregated outside; soon they were trying to break down the doors. Trapped inside, we were all terrified. I held Offspring#2 in my arms; she shivered like a frightened rabbit. Karen gripped Ariel’s hand.

“Don’t worry,” we were assured, “the police will be here soon.”

But the police did not arrive that night, nor did they protect the city from arson, looting and murder. In fact, we watched in disbelief as news cameras captured images of police officers standing idly by while looters gleefully committed their crimes.

A few days later, I purchased a pistol, a 1911 .45 ACP.

I bought a gun because I realized that the day will most certainly again arrive when civil order breaks down and we are flung into a cruel Hobbesian landscape.

Here’s my three part series on the LA Riots, Hollywood is Burning:

Part I

Part II

Part III

As Ariel’s conservative political opinions took form, he logically and ethically fell on the side of legal gun ownership. But because he was first and foremost a Torah Jew, first and foremost a Talmudic scholar, Ariel placed gun ownership into the framework of Jewish law, halacha.

Ariel wanted to put down his ideas on paper. Unfortunately, he never had the opportunity to write an article on halacha and gun ownership.

And so I humbly jot down a few of Ariel’s ideas. Any mistakes in this article are mine and mine alone. I write from an imperfect memory, from conversations with my beloved son held years ago, and from the few notes he managed to scribble while sick and undergoing chemotherapy and radiation.

The Sword is Not the Cause
Ariel pointed out that in his commentary on Genesis 4:23, Ramban, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, the towering medieval scholar, writes with refreshing clarity:

“The sword is not the cause of murder, and there is no sin upon him who made it.”

In other words, a weapon, be it a sword or a gun, is neutral. It can be used for good or evil. Thus to label a gun as “bad” makes no sense, for a gun can be used in self-defense which the Torah sees as an obligation.

The Torah (Exodus 22.2) teaches that, when necessary a householder may kill a burglar to save his own life.

The Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin (72A) says:

“He who rises to kill you, you must kill first.”

It seems odd to have to defend the most basic notion of self-defense, but in America today, the shrill and self-righteous voices of pacifism and appeasement have become alarmingly prominent.

Ariel and I agreed that if gun control advocates had their way, the only people with access to guns would be the police, who cannot be counted on for security, and criminals, who can be counted on to be, well, criminals, with no respect for the hundreds of firearm laws already on the books.

Jew with gun. An Israeli soldier of the elite Nahal Brigade, during the Second Lebanon War.

Tyrants Ban Gun Ownership to Secure Their Power Base

Ariel also pointed out that in the story of Purim the Jews were granted royal permission to defend their lives. The King’s edict did not order the army to protect the Jews. Instead, the Jews were permitted to purchase arms in order to defend themselves.

Obviously, as a minority in the Persian Empire, Jews were forbidden weapon ownership.

This is not unique in Jewish history. During the Roman occupation of Judea, Jews were forbidden to own swords, spears or any implements of war. What better way for a ruling empire to control an unruly and rebellious population?

And of course, in Europe, one of the first laws that Hitler imposed was an all-encompassing weapons ban. Imagine how different Jewish history would be if every Jewish family in Europe owned at least one gun that had six bullets in the chamber.

Surprise Folks, Evil Exists

One of the hallmarks of modern Liberalism is an astonishing inability to recognize, much less confront, evil. Therefore it becomes psychologically necessary for the liberal to place the blame on an inanimate object—the gun—rather than on the person who pulls the trigger. It is easier to fault the gun manufacturer for the horror at Columbine, rather than admit that two sixteen-year-old boys are evil.

The Jewish attitude, Ariel maintained, is to place the blame where it squarely belongs: on the two young men; to declare their evil, and never again utter their names. For just as goodness is a reality, so is evil.

Try and imagine, said Ariel, if one or two Columbine teachers had guns with them. Imagine if these armed teachers had been able to protect the students who were massacred.

There was another aspect to these stories that Ariel detected and deeply troubled him. The media invariably referred to Columbine and 9-11 as “tragedies.”

“They are not tragedies,” Ariel insisted. “They are atrocities.”

A tragedy is when people are killed in a flood, a fire or an earthquake. But when people are murdered in cold blood, it is an atrocity. Again, Ariel pointed out, the media—overwhelmingly liberal and marinated in moral equivalence—is unable to distinguish malevolent acts from natural disasters because their moral compass is broken.

Ariel concluded that Jews in America should be at the forefront of the right to keep and bear arms. For Jews to rely on the power of the state for protection is sheer foolishness. Time and again, Jewish history reveals governments cruelly betraying their Jewish citizens.

And though Ariel felt that America was “different,” he maintained that allowing the state to make ownership of weapons illegal is a dangerous policy that opens the door to tyranny in the name of social justice.

But like so much else in American Jewish life, liberal/progressive Jews have signed on to aggressively utopian ideologies that go against their self-interest. Instead, countless Jews espouse principles that feed their need to feel virtuous. But in the end, these beliefs defy common sense and display an appalling ignorance of Jewish history, halacha, and human nature.

“
“Announce this among the nations:prepare for war; arouse the mighty; let all the soldiers approach and ascend. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning forks into spears; the weak shall say, I am strong.” Joel 3:9

Copyright © Robert J. Avrech

Note:  No, I do not actually think that George W. Bush was a war criminal. Even though I was undercover, I felt dirty just wearing the shirt.

Frommer says he’ll consider whether “tourists should safeguard themselves” by avoiding the crime-ridden hellhole that is the Grand Canyon. After I read about this, I decided to do a search to see if Frommer ever made similar pronouncements about other cities or states. I wondered if he had ever told people to avoid Washington DC, where, according to a US Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2004 report – that place topped the entire country in crime.

Zilch. Nor could I find any such commentary, regarding Detroit, Memphis or Miami – the only large cities in the US with more than 950 violent crimes per 100,000 people, according to FBI’s 2008 crime report. And what of President Obama’s very own Chicago, a city experiencing a dramatic uptick in shootings, muggings and other violent gang activity? Did Frommer warn travelers away from that bullet-ridden borough?

Nope. Fact is, Frommer went after Arizona, because it’s an easy target. It’s just a buncha white rednecks with guns, even if one of the white rednecks is uh, black. And it fed Frommer’s ego: voicing an opinion in sync with the liberal, like-minded media provides him, for a brief moment, an elevated sense of self.

But I sympathize. All he does all day is make travel guides.

Maybe he should get out more.

Tonight, we’ve got Jim Nortion, Faith Salie and Tucker Carlson, and Mad Men’s Rich Sommer!

From The Hollywood Reporter’s interview with “Avatar” Director James Cameron at San Diego Comic-Con 2009:

THR: You’ve mentioned this ["Avatar"] is a parable.

Cameron: Really what this film ultimately does is hold a mirror to our own blighted history, where we have a culturally advanced civilization supplanting more “primitive” civilizations. Some of these civilizations and cultures have a lot more wisdom than we’ve shown. We just have bigger guns. We have ships that can cross oceans, we have horses and armor. And this country we’re in now was taken from its indigenous owners. And it’s kind of owning up to our own human history.

From earlier in the interview:

Cameron: We use the term Aliens twice. Once in (alien language) Na’vi, “Faketuan,” and once spoken in English towards the end of the film. Both times, they are talking about us.

Cameron on “Avatar”:

Cameron: I like this film. It’s the shit.

Read the entire interview here.

***

FLASHBACK: John Nolte’s “Dances with ‘Avatar’“:

According to Cameron, the story tension centers on a conflict between Earth’s “Military Industrial Complex” and the Na’vi, who are peaceful, live happily in the forest “when humans are not trampling their planet,” and ultimately “prove to be wiser than we are.” When provoked, though, they are “ferocious warriors.”

But last week, as I watched the situation unfold from Studio D (a comfy perch protected by armed security) I couldn’t help but be reminded of one simple fact that led to this event: the unarmed are always vulnerable to the armed.

And that made me realize that this ship is no different than a shopping mall or college campus – it’s a place where people congregate or work – all operating under the assumption that we live in a sane world where if you just live your life, people won’t kill you.

Not always. In a free world, we forget how easy it is for thugs and psychopaths to take advantage of that freedom.

Which is why good people need guns.

I mean, how can a tanker that size – it’s a town on water – be so vulnerable to a pack of underweight thugs?

The underweight thugs had guns.

Seriously – I don’t get the argument against arming a few folks on planes, ships and campuses. If bozos like me in the media are protected by armed dudes at every turnstile, why can’t we have the same for undergrads or seamen?

I also get the argument that no employee of a company needs to risk his life to protect cargo that isn’t his. But tell that to Brinks. They drive around with far less valuable stuff – and they’re armed to the hilt. And come on – if you had a relative on a ship, or working at a mall, for that matter – you’d want to know they’re safe.

So Sunday was truly an amazing day for America and our military. But let’s try preventing this crap from happening again. A three inch 50 caliber might be a start. I hear it goes great with a cable knit sweater and a pea coat.

Tonight we’ve got Monica Crowley, Liz Wiel, comedian Joe Devito, and some other surprises!

Life’s episode “Initiative 38″ has a fairly unbelievable plot: a woman working on an initiative to ban handguns is murdered and there is one major suspect, P&K, a gun company. Here is some of the dialogue:

Detective Charlie Crews (Damian Lewis): We are saying that someone came here to kill your wife. Can you think of who that might be?

Harold Amis: Yes, I can. Initiative 38.

Woman who works for Initiative 38: Initiative 38 is a comprehensive ban on handguns. Lisa was working to get it passed.

Detective Seever (Crews’ partner): How comprehensive?

Woman who works for Initiative 38: We were working to take back our streets.

Seever: Getting any push back from the gun companies?

Woman who works for Initiative 38: Getting push back? Ya, there was a lot money coming in against us from the other side. From P&K guns. I didn’t think that they would do this though. Lisa was the face of Initiative 38.

Seever: Lisa Amos is the face of Initiative 38. If that passes, P&K guns gets hit hard.

On the one side, the show notes all the carnage from guns being used to kill people. The only argument offered for guns is that they produce jobs for those who make them and that guns are the one manufactured product left that we can produce cheaper than China.

Of course, there is no mention of defensive gun use and that guns are used to stop crime about 4 to 5 times more frequently than they are used to commit it. No mention that while police are extremely important in stopping crime (indeed, my research shows them to be the single most important factor), the police themselves understand that they virtually always arrive on the crime scene after the crime is committed. Obviously, the question of what victims should do when they are facing a criminal by themselves is ignored.

The notion that gun makers, which are fairly small companies, are going to donate a lot of money to defeat an initiative as the episode suggests is also fairly unbelievable. The donations to defeat such initiatives would tend to be a lot of very small donations from people who care about being able to defend themselves and their families and the principle of self-defense.

“House” often goes after gun ownership. It only mentions people not having health insurance more frequently. In the episode “Simple Explanation,” Kutner (Kal Penn) commits suicide with a gun. There is all the normal dialogue about how he probably bought the gun for self defense and instead used it to commit suicide.

For those interested, the National Academy of Sciences released a 2004 report that comprehensively reviewed academic research studying guns and suicide. The panel set up under the Clinton administration surveyed the extensive literature from public health, economics, and criminology. The Academy concluded that, “Some gun control policies may reduce the number of gun suicides, but they have not yet been shown to reduce the overall risk of suicide in any population.” The point is that there are a lot of ways to commit suicides, and you would pretty much have the same rate of suicide even if guns disappeared tomorrow.

However, I would argue that there isn’t even a lot of evidence that gun bans or gun lock laws reduce gun suicide rates.

Kal Penn was killed off in the show so that he could go work for the Obama administration. It is probably somewhat appropriate that he got killed off in a way that provided a politically correct lesson for viewers.

A few days ago, an even more egregious travesty upon the innocent occurred in upstate New York.  A disgruntled man blocked off the exit to a community service building with his car, then went around front and entered the building firing a high-powered rifle.  Before the rampage was done, fourteen souls were gone, including the shooter’s.   

Predictably, there surfaced immediately the usual suspects who painted this tragedy as further evidence that more comprehensive and restrictive gun laws are needed, now more than ever. 

In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.

But first let me say that my heart breaks for the families of those killed and wounded in this past week’s slayings.  They were done in both cases by deranged men, intent upon murdering innocent and unarmed people.   You will notice that in the most recent case, the scumbag killed himself quickly and painlessly before having to confront the consequences of his evil actions.  (And those of us who believe in the afterlife know of what consequences await him.)  The shooter at the convalescent home took on a policeman and one shot dropped him.   What’s my point?  Almost all of these killers are cowards.  They arm themselves to the teeth and go up against an unarmed enemy no more formidable than a cornered herd of sheep. 

How very brave of them.

The Main Stream Media is busy screeching two questions:  1) Where did the shooter get the weapons? and 2) What was his motive?

I’m sorry… but who gives a sh*t??  Anyone can get a gun anywhere in the world, regardless of the prevailing gun laws.  As for motive…hey, I don’t care whether he was frustrated about his unemployment, or the fact that he couldn’t speak English, or his favorite for American Idol got voted off.  What difference does any of that make when a deranged asshole decides to go postal?   Is society now to walk on eggs, even more tolerant and deferential than we already are; constantly scared to death that we might inadvertently say or do something that may offend a tender sensibility and trigger a violent orgy of mass murder?  Hey…not in my movie.

A day after the horrendous mass-shooting in Binghamton, a deranged scum-dog kill-‘em-there A-hole gunned down three Pittsburgh Police Officers.  His picture (along with assorted tattoos) was immediately thrown onto the media screens, quoting his words that, “Crazy to me is going through the motions … Crazy to me is letting each day slip past you. Crazy is being insignificant. Crazy is being obscure, pointless.”

 My plea to ALL media:  Stop putting their faces on the news!   These scumbags who are virtually screaming, “Hey world look at me!  I killed a bunch of people!  Now I matter!  I’m a star!!”   (Yeah, pal – nice career move.)   You, in the media, are giving these coward miscreants exactly what they want – to be media stars for 15 minutes.  They couldn’t get enough attention to suit their self-possessed, meaningless existence, so they went for the easy way into infamy – they locked and loaded and snuffed out a bunch of innocent lives.   ”But it’s our job to report the news,” you say in your lame attempt to insulate yourselves from complicity; but you in the media are accomplices in this sad, sick media mobius.  Report the news and refuse to put their pictures up!  Refuse to give them what they want — media exposure.  Don’t let them ‘go out in a blaze of glory’.  Do not yield to the impulse to pick the low hanging fruit; let the other jerks do that.  Be better than the rest.  Your coverage encourages other would-be psycho killers.  Surely you can see this.  Surely there must be some moral integrity left somewhere in the media.   How about exercising just a modicum of social responsibility for a change?

But I digress.

It is a grievous sadness that anyone had to die at the hands of these demented homicidal losers.  Dialing 911 is of course a good thing when the sh*t goes down – but the police are a dispatch call away.  The responder in last week’s case in Binghamton, N.Y. was there very quickly, less than five minutes, I understand.   But generally it takes an overworked police force longer to arrive on the scene – at least it does in my neighborhood.   But even at five minutes…a lot can happen within that time.  And in New York, by the time the several SWAT teams arrived, the damage was done, fourteen people were already dead.  

Beyond the inevitable, yet ultimately meaningless, questions of why he did it, there’s a much more important question we should be asking ourselves:  What if one or more of those innocent civilians had been packing, and was trained, and drew his or her gun…and shot back? 

Things may have turned out very differently.

What is needed, now more than ever, is for Americans to pull their heads out of their tails and become proficient with firearms.  And then, having gained competency with their safe usage, arm themselves.   And then, having armed themselves, be prepared to deploy those arms in the responsible defense of innocent life. 

Guns stop crime.

Sorry for the whiplash all you Lefties just got doing the double-take on that last line.  (Call your chiropractor for an adjustment, it’ll be all right.)  But yes, guns stop crime.  Now, of course, that’s an intentionally incomplete statement.  Obviously, guns don’t stop crime in and of themselves, any more than guns cause crime.  A gun is an inanimate object, a tool, incapable of doing anything on its own.  And like any tool, it is the user that determines the outcome of its utility.  Statistically, guns in this country are used more to stop crime than perpetrate crime almost thirty to one. An armed citizen can stop horrendous murders The so-called “gun-free zones” are a joke.  Who pays attention to those zones?  Law abiding citizens.  Your friends, peace-loving people.  Who ignores them?  The bad guys.  And also…smart people, who risk imprisonment and persecution to protect their loved ones against the bad guys who might want to harm innocent life.

An armed, trained citizen can make a difference. 

I’ve never worked for the police force, nor have I ever been in the military service.  But I’m around guns and gun owners a lot.  Aside from having had extensive tactical firearms training over the years (professionally and for fun), I also do competitive shooting events all over the country.  And I admit that when I first started, it was a daunting moment when I realized that I was surrounded by a large group of people, each of whom had a gun on his person.  But what I came to realize is this:  There is not a safer place to be, than surrounded by a bunch of responsible, armed gun owners.   I’m not sure of the origin of the saying (but I heard it first from a gentleman named Massad Ayoob in his book In the Gravest Extreme):  “An armed society is a polite society.”

Now…  I understand this is anathema to many on the Left…and probably some on the Right.   Fantasies of ‘the Wild, Wild West‘ roam through their minds; people brandishing guns at the least provocation, shootouts in the streets, neighbors drawing down on each other if one refuses to turn down the music or take in their trash cans.  And sure, there are exceptions to every rule…parts of the Middle East come to mind…

But in civilized society, this saying largely holds true.  An armed society is a polite society.  There is something that comes over a person once they, A) have been highly trained in one or more of the firearms skills, and B) are armed with a gun.   One’s countenance steadies.  Your very carriage changes.  You become a model citizen; because along with the actual physical training of gun handling and manipulation, safety awareness, loading, malfunction clearance, and general marksmanship…comes education.   Legal, civil, ethical…and moral.  

More specifically, you learn the hypothetical ramifications of getting into a real gun fight.  You learn what is likely to happen should you elect to produce your weapon in defense of innocent life; and also what the police response is likely to be, step-by-step, from the moment the initial 911 call goes out, to you either being turned loose…booked for a crime… or worse.  (the ‘or worse’ would be waving a gun about as amped-up officers arrive on scene, draw down on you, misinterpret that you’re the good guy – and shoot you my mistake.   It’s been known to happen.)   You learn how you are likely to be handled, possibly ordered or thrown to the ground and cuffed.  You find out what the questioning process is, how the investigation is handled and what your likelihood of going to jail…or being released. 

And beyond the legal problems — you may be sued, either by the wounded bad guy himself, or by the family of the dead bad guy.  You learn that you are talking a minimum of $50,000 in legal fees just to defend yourself.  You may lose your job.  You may lose your house.  You may lose your standing in your community, the respect of your friends, and you may have to move out of the area.  And that’s if you were completely justified by law in the shooting. 

But beyond the legality of the shooting…and the civil action that may or may not be taken against you…is the moral issue.  There are psychological issues.  How would it make you feel to hurt someone, even kill them…though you were completely legally justified using your weapon.   How does it square with your ethics or religious beliefs?  Is your marriage affected adversely?  Do your children look at you differently, having to defend your actions at school?  What does that feel like?

Your reaction may surprise you.  I have known people who have produced their weapon in defense, have been involved in a gunfight; and I know people who have had to take a life.  In each instance a common reaction held true:   First, there was an immediate elation and relief at having survived a potentially lethal situation.   This was quickly followed by anger and deep regret at having been forced into the fight.  Then, came an unmistakable sadness and devastation.   I’m not talking about the steeling of the heart necessary for the combat veteran; I’m talking about a typical law-abiding citizen who finds himself in the unenviable position of having used his weapon in lethal defense.  The use of deadly force has lasting impact and permanence of consequence.   It’s no small deal.

A trained, armed citizen learns the legal, civil and moral ramifications of being involved in a gun fight to such elaborate and excruciating extent, that I guarantee you:  the very last thing you ever want to do is get into a gun fight. 

But what if we citizens were armed?  What if we took the Second Amendment to heart, not only as our Constitutionally-guaranteed right…but our responsibility?  What if the two cowardly mass-murderers in North Carolina and New York couldn’t be sure they would be confronting unarmed citizens?  Maybe they wouldn’t have entered the buildings in the first place? 

Maybe…maybe not. 

But one thing is irrefutable:  In every state where law-abiding citizens are allowed to carry guns, violent crime drops to almost zero.  And everywhere people are prohibited from owning or carrying guns…burglary, armed assault, and home invasion crime sky-rockets.

Criminals in prison testify that the number one deterrent to them committing violent crime upon a citizen…is the fear that their possible mark might be armed with a gun.  It naturally follows that the biggest fans of gun control…are the criminals.   They love when their targets are disarmed by gun laws.  Because only law-abiding citizens pay attention to them!  Criminals certainly don’t.

But if I enact my right in Los Angeles to keep and bear arms…and carry a concealed hand gun…and am deemed a criminal for it…and in deploying my weapon to avert a much more grievous offense against the innocent (a rape or robbery, or murder)… am I a criminal?

Yes…and no.  The Law of Competing Harms, as I understand it, says that you are not guilty of a crime, if in the act of breaking the law, you avert a more heinous crime from being committed.

So I ask myself…what’s it going to be?  In the face of a possible tragedy such as these horrendous shootings, do we just ‘think a good thought’ and hope it all goes away?  Do we trust that maybe a cop will get there in time when it all goes down and only seven people will be killed? 

Or do we step up and declare ourselves to be Defenders.  The American citizen as Citizen Soldier.  Trained and armed.  A model citizen – responsible, professional, respectful.  And if some scum-sucking lowlife shows up at a McDonald’s or a Denny’s where you’re sitting with your wife and kids, and he pulls out an AK-47 thinking this is the day he’s gonna ice some people and get ‘pay back’ for some imagined grievance…  Well there’s a good chance you could completely ruin his afternoon.  

“But what about Los Angeles?  New York City?  You can’t legally carry concealed in these cities.” – Joe Lefty

And your irrelevant point is..?

Am I advocating breaking the law?  Yes.  I’m advocating civil disobedience.  In support of the Law of Moral Common Sense.   I’m not a vigilante.  But I am prepared to risk criminal prosecution in order to defend innocent life.  Concealed-carry permits are almost all but impossible to get in Los Angeles currently, even to a model citizen who is also highly trained in the use of firearms like myself.  So do I have a concealed carry permit?  Yeah – it’s called the 2nd Amendment.

“The competent deployment of a gun, on scales both personal and national, is the guarantor of our freedom.” – Gary Graham

Now we hear from the Obama Administration that the problem is there are too many guns out there.   In a prevailing cultural mindset that wants to avoid accountability, shirk responsibility and just be taken care of…my question to you, dear reader is…  How long are we going to buy into what the Left tells us is the mandate of the Obamanation:  That we must sit back, let the brilliant Obamaheads figure it all out, and simply take care of us?  They will take over and run our formerly free markets, banks, and corporations.  They will monitor and censor our airwaves, creating what they call ‘fairness’, thereby protecting us from the ubiquitous ‘hate speech’ of the Right.  They will take over the medical community and deliver to us ‘free’ health care that will resemble a wasted and decimated shell of its former magnificence.   And then they will compel us to build autos we don’t want to buy, and use energy we don’t want to use, and do things we don’t want to do…all for our own good — if we were only smart enough to realize it. 

And, oh yeah, almost forgot.  They will want to take away our guns.

 As a great man once said, “…From my cold, dead fingers.”  (– C. Heston)  

Well FTS!  We don’t want to be ‘taken care of’.  We want to be left alone.  I say we keep our guns.  We keep our liberty.  We keep our country. 

Who’s with me?

“Thing is, he’s going to kill me.”

“Have you gone to the police?”

“Yes, of course I have.”

“And what happened?”

She shakes her head from side to side, wraps her arms protectively around her chest.

“I got a restraining order against Ned, that’s my ex-boyfriend. But you know what good that is, don’t you?”

“Tell me.”

She inscribes a big zero in the air.

Five Minutes Earlier

It’s a crowded Sunday morning in the Martin B. Retting Gun Shop in Culver City.

There’s the usual cross-section of customers:

Two elderly black women, sisters, who have been robbed countless times by drug-addicts. Ignored by the LAPD, they have no choice but to buy a gun for self-defense. The women wear colorful bonnets. Yup, they dressed up to go gun shopping.

There are a couple of hunters buying high-powered ammunition; they sound like Los Alamos scientists as they discuss the exquisite physics of various exotic slugs. It’s way beyond my comprehension.

Two Marines on leave are stocking up on rugged, combat-ready clips for their side-arms. Semper Fi.

There’s also a young Hispanic apartment manager who lives in a high-crime area. His wife just had a baby—Mazal Tov!—and he wants to protect his family from the local “desperadoes.”

I’m waiting my turn.

Protagonist

And so is a young woman who absolutely sticks out in the gun shop. She’s wearing a cream colored linen baby doll with blue grosgrain trim; on her feet, pink flip-flops that pop off alabaster skin. Her hair is the color of golden Kansas wheat. Mid-twenties, she’s an iconic all-American beauty who makes me flash to memories of a truly insane childhood crush: Tuesday Weld as Thalia Menninger on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

Looking as if she’s on the edge of a meltdown, she paces, glances nervously at the display cases lined with gleaming rows of pistols and revolvers. She makes a move to exit the gun shop, then returns, as if yanked by a fishing reel.

“Excuse me, do you, do you know about guns?”

She’s even got that vulnerable, tremulous Tuesday Weld pitch to her voice.

And she is talking to yours truly.

“A bit.”

“I’m terrified of guns.”

I hold out my hands as if checking for rain.

“Sounds crazy, I know, thing is—do you think the salesmen are going to be much longer?”

“There’s tons of paperwork if you buy a gun.”

Her eyes dart about, then she just looks at me straight-on:

“Thing is, he’s going to kill me.”

Antagonist

That’s when she tells me about Ned; the evil, the obsessive, the ex-boyfriend.

Ned is a stalker, a human virus who has infected every aspect of her life.

She speaks of restraining orders:

“The thing about them is that people like Ned always find a way around them. He’s there on my computer. He’s a computer guy, for Chrissakes. He knows when I start going out with a new dude and he makes sure to tell the new one all sorts of trash about me. And d’you think the dude sticks around? No one wants that level of drama. I’ve moved twice already and he always finds me. Ned’s always there. Sometimes I wake up at night, go to my window and I’m telling you he’s watching me. Hey, I’m sorry for unloading on you. You must think I’m such a loser chick.”

“It’s fine. I feel awful for you. But it’s good you’re taking steps to protect yourself. It’s admirable. Men like Ned count on women being scared and defenseless.”

She pauses. Looks down at the display of guns.

Conflict

“I can’t believe I’m here. I’ve been against guns and violence my whole life.”

I let this pass. Now is not the time for a self-righteous lecture.

Intertitle: UTOPIA IS THE OPIATE OF LIBERALS.

“Did Ned threaten you, physically, I mean?”

“Said I belong to him and no one else. That’s about it. But I know what he means.”

“What did the police say?”

“The last cop, as he was leaving, whispered for me to get a gun.”

I tell her that owning a gun isn’t sufficient. She has to take safety classes, self-defense classes. She has to know what she’s doing. From the counter, I grab a handful of NRA brochures and press them into her hands. I make her promise that she’ll sign up as soon as she gets her gun in ten days.

“Ten days?” she says.

Nodding, I explain:

“First you have to take a test, here in the store, a written test. They’ll give you a booklet to study. Then you get a certificate making you eligible to buy a weapon in California. After you purchase the gun there’s a ten-day waiting period until you take possession.”

“But why?”

“Background check. To make sure you’re not a felon, a psychopath, an illegal immigrant, a terrorist, a drug addict. It’s the law.”

Once again, she wraps her arms around her chest, as if trying to keep her heart inside her body.

“Ned’s really smart—a psychozoid like you wouldn’t believe.”

Rising Tension

I do not ask her why she went out with Ned in the first place. The answer is obvious: psychopaths are clever at disguising their pathologies. Evil is seductive.

“You’re going to be okay. I know you are.”

She shrugs, scans a row of pistols.

“Are those good?”

“Those are .45 automatics. Probably too much gun for you. I’d recommend a simple revolver. Probably a Smith & Wesson J frame, a .38. But we’ll see what the salesman have to say, they are the experts here, okay?”

She manages a thin smile, her first since I’ve met her.

“Cool.”

“One piece of advice, even before you buy a gun, and this is important.”

“Yeah?”

“Lose the flip-flops.”

She looks down at her feet, curls her toes, lacquered a hot psychedelic pink.

“Huh?”

“You can’t run or maneuver in those things. Get in the habit of wearing a good solid pair of running shoes.”

“Oh, right, right. What was I thinking?”

I lead her to the glass case that holds the wheel guns, weapons that are simple to load, easy to handle, jam-proof. And, you better believe: lethal.

She scans the display. She seems overwhelmed.

Finally, she looks up at me and says: “What’s to stop Ned from killing me in the next ten days?”

I have no answer.

Resolution, Not So Much, For This is, Unfortunately, Reality

Hours later, I tell my wife Karen about the conversation. In the background FOX Cable News is reporting the brutal murder of a pregnant woman. The chief suspect is her ex-boyfriend, an evil piece of human garbage with a history of stalking women.

“I’m terrified I’m going to wake up one day and see that she’s been murdered. Maybe I should have done more.”

“What more could you have done?”

Shrugging, I admit I have no idea.

But Ned is out there, obsessively dreaming, watching, waiting for the right moment — to make her his own.

The Cornered Cat is an excellent resource for women who wish to learn about self-defense and firearms. Highly recommended.

Copyright © Robert J. Avrech