Good Guys with Guns

 Tragically there are some bad people in this country who do terrible things. Sometimes those bad people use guns to accomplish their evil acts. And lately this has been occurring far too often, although not as often as some people would have us think. Most estimates suggest that 100 million Americans own almost 400 million guns. Although the incidence of evil people using guns to commit mass murder are always beyond belief, completely unthinkable to any civilized person, as a percentage of good people who own guns those bad people barely exist statistically. 

Alright I see you jumping up and down, shouting slogans, threatening to kill Supreme Court Justices who support the Bill of Rights, but how unreasonable is it to believe that the other hundred million gun owners could be part of the solution? And I don't really see this as a democrat/Republican issue; I see it as an American issue. Consider the young man in Indiana who shot and killed an evil man who was using a gun to indiscriminately kill people. That man at the Greenwood Mall in Greenwood Indiana is for all intents and purposes a hero. Nothing against the police, but they weren't there when they were needed. Another good guy was there and thank Heaven that young man had the guts to draw his firearm and shoot that bastard dead.  

Whats wrong with that? Nothing. That is the main reason why a wise group of men over two hundred years ago included the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights. Some people claim it was for hunting, which was probably part of it. And another reason was to ensure that American citizens had the ability to protect themselves against armed assailants, but the main reason they included the Second Amendment was to give private citizens the ability to organize and oppose the government by force if necessary just like they did. 

I am a responsible gun owner with 36 years in law enforcement and I do not oppose gun ownership. Anyone who wants one should carry a gun. I don't even say they should be 'allowed' to carry a gun since we are a society of laws and the highest law of the land guarantees me and anyone else the right to carry a gun. Many courts have tortured the language to say that the Second Amendment only covers law enforcement officers and active duty military personnel. Nonsense. That simply is not what it says. 

And a courageous citizen armed with a gun at a shopping mall in Greenwood Indiana was able to save several lives by killing a defective human who was indiscriminately killing innocent people who were just trying to enjoy some time at the mall. People who claim guns are bad would rather have someone cowering somewhere in the mall watching that madman kill people while dialing 911 and waiting for the police to sit in the parking lot making a plan. Way back when we still had rotary dial phones my partner and I responded to a robbery in progress at a liquor store. When we arrived we saw that the bad guy was still inside menacing people. We didn't call for back up and we didn't waste time making a plan.

My partner said, "We'll each take a side and quickly enter through the front door. you go left, I'll go right and if the guy doesn't give up we'll smoke him." That was our plan and two minutes later the bad guy was dead. He had already shot the store owner who survived his wound and was threatening other people inside. Today we'd probably be prosecuted for murder, but it wasn't murder. 

The point is we need good guys with guns. The police can't be everywhere, but a hundred million good guys can be an effective force multiplier. Just like we sympathize with the families in Uvalde who suffered so much, we should be rejoicing with people who were saved that day in Greenwood. Anti gunners say this isn't about politics and they are correct. They are wrong about the common sense. Common sense tells us that if an evil person plans to shoot a bunch of innocent people the best chance we have to stop him is for armed citizens to help when needed. 

Common sense will tell you that if that evil person knows he or she might be standing next to a good guy with a gun who will not hesitate to use deadly force to stop the evil doer, he or she will be a lot less likely to try something like that. A couple of other things that 'common sensers' should keep in mind is that an unarmed population is vulnerable to attack from bad guys, and attempting to disarm a hundred million good guys who have a right to own guns is not going to go very well for the invading force. Americans are good people and fiercely independent. They are not going to take well to being bullied by a group of bureaucrats who want to take away their constitutionally guaranteed rights. 

Not a threat, just food for thought.