http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/01/how-about-more-hate-control-before-more.html
The four posts explored various aspects of the current gun control debate in light of the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting. Included in those discussions was an inventory of the instances where legal gun possession of law abiding citizens resulted in the saving of the lives of innocent people at the hands of criminals and thugs.
The point made at that time was that lives are saved everyday by citizens exercising their rights to bear arms. To arbitrarily remove that right is likely to result in a loss of life that gun control advocates refuse to acknowledge. Yes, Newtown was tragic. But you have to look at both sides of the equation, how many lives to legally owned guns SAVE everyday?
Australia found out that when they removed their citizens’ rights to bear arms, violent crime increased substantially. Chicago has some of the stiffest gun control laws in the world and they are becoming known as the murder capital or the world, over 500 homicides a year.
To continue with that point, consider the real life examples that have come to the forefront since we listed out those previous gun bearing, self defense examples:
1) TV news reports from an Atlanta television story recently carried the story of a gentleman named Mark Sikes. Mr. Sikes is a disabled, wheel chair bound Army veteran whose home was broken into by a burglar. Fortunately, Mr. Sikes was resting in bed and had a legal handgun in a nightstand next to the bed that he accessed and pointed at the man who had broken into his home. Mr. Sikes announced that he was armed and that was enough to scare off the intruder. Who knows what violence and other crimes may have happened without the gun, given Mr. Sikes' limited mobility and limited ability to physically defend himself.
2) A Washington Times article from January 23, 2013 reported on a pit bull incident that could have been fatal for an 11 year old boy who was just out riding his bike in his neighborhood. During that ride, three roaming, unattended pit bull dogs took the boy down off of his bike and starting attacking and biting him.
A neighbor saw what was happening, ran back into his house to get his gun, and started firing at the dogs to stop the attack. His actions resulted in the death of one of the dogs. His gunfire attracted the attention of a police officer on duty who hurried over to the attack and shot and killed the other two dogs.
The neighbor’s actions prevented very serious injuries to the boy and given pit bulls’ strength and disposition, the neighbor possibly saved his life. A great story, a young child’s life saved. Well, almost a great story.
The police are conducting an investigation into the neighbor’s behavior regarding whether or not 1) he had a permit to legally possess his firearm and 2) whether he took his firearm beyond his home’s property line to save the young boy. Violation of either of these conditions could land the hero neighbor in jail and have him face a hefty fine.
My kudos to the neighbor regardless if he followed the law or not. If he hid the fact that he had an illegal gun or he refused to take the gun beyond his property line as the law requires, a young boy would probably be dead today. Let’s hope the law and prosecutors are fair in this case even if the gun was owned illegally (confiscate it) or he left his property boundaries (give him a stern warning). A life was saved by a compassionate person using a gun.
3) On January 24, 2013, WHAM-TV in Rochester, New York reported on a apartment invasion that was thwarted by the resident having a legal AR-15 weapon in his room. Two students sharing an apartment woke one morning to find two intruders in their living room at the bottom of their apartment’s stairs.
One of the students, Christopher Boise, retreated to his room where he took out his legally owned AR-15 weapon, a weapon politicians like Diane Feinstein want to make illegal for Americans to own. He set himself up in a defensive position within his room and shortly thereafter, one of the intruders began to open the room’s door, only to be confronted with an AR-15 barrel pointed at him.
That was enough for both intruders to leave the premises immediately without harming the occupants and without stealing any possessions. Police reported that the resident, a student at Rochester Institute of Technology, was legally sanctioned to possess the weapon. Violence thwarted.
4) Consider a KHOU-TV report from June, 2010 as it relates to self defense in Houston:
- The teenage son of a county deputy was home alone one afternoon with his 12 year old sister when two thugs tried to execute a home invasion, trying to get into the front and back doors before breaking a back window.
- The teenage boy grabbed his father's assault rifle and knew what to do with it, arming the rifle and shooting at the two intruders.
- The home invaders fled, leaving a trail of blood.
- Shortly afterwards, two people showed up at Tomball hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds.
- One was an adult who was hit at least three times. He and his partner, a juvenile are considered the suspects in the attempted home invasion.
- Neighbors of the boy and sister said burglars had recently struck the two houses next door.
5) The Oklahoman News reported a local shooting incident on January 18, 2013:
- Local police reported that five people were trying to burglarize a home in Okalahoma City when the female homeowner shot one of them with her gun.
- A visiting friend of the homeowner, a man, shot another burglar with the homeowner's gun, police report.
- These defensive gunshots forced burglars to flee the scene but they were shortly apprehended by police.
- The shooting victims were taken to a hospital and were in serious to critical condition, police said.
6) An NBC television affiliate WOIA in San Antonio reported on a thwarted home invasion on January 20, 2013. In middle of the morning, a mother and her son were at home when they realized someone was trying to kick down their front door in a home invasion attempt.
While the mother called 911, her son retrieved their gun and fired one shot through the door. After returning fire, the would be home invader took off without ever gaining access to the home and the residents.
7) Staying in San Antonio, on January 21, 2013, television station KSAT reported that a customer with a legal concealed weapons permit was in a liquor store when two would-be thieves entered the store and attempted to steal some beer. The customer reportedly followed the thieves out of the store and shot at their truck as they drove away, preventing the robbery. Police said they did not expect to file charges against the customer, but were searching for the alleged beer bandits.
8) KSAT also reported on another valid use of a citizen with a legal firearm, this story was reported on January 17, 2013 from Canyon Lake, Texas. According to police, a man used his legal shotgun to defend his female neighbor’s home against her ex-boyfriend who was brandishing a baseball bat and trying to break into her home.
The neighbor heard the sound of breaking glass and decided to investigate with his shotgun. He found the ex-boyfriend trying to break into his neighbor’s trailer and confronted him when the ex-boyfriend staring walking towards the neighbor despite being told numerous times to stop. The neighbor shot the suspect in self-defense.
The female homeowner had thrown her ex-boyfriend out of the house in November, but he had been harassing her. He showed up at the home several times and the week before the shooting he broke in and pulled a gun on her. After that, she left her trailer and thankfully, was not there the night he appeared with the baseball bat.
Thank goodness that there are gun laws in place that allow private citizens to defend their homes, their neighbors and themselves from the violent criminal elements that would harass, harm, or kill them. And note that the vast majority of our examples have happened in a limited number of locations in just the past month or so. Imagine how many lives are saved, home invasions prevented, and assets and properties protected over a year's time because of the Second Amendment.
Yes, there is a need for rational gun laws that allow law abiding, responsible citizens to arm themselves. Yes, there is a need to prevent in what ever way possible the mentally deranged or upset from getting their hands on weapons. Yes, there is a need to protect our kids in whatever way possible from future shootings.
But there is no need to ban guns altogether, there is no need to restrict most of the types of weapons, like the AR-15, that politicians like Senator Diane Feinstein want to restrict. Criminals will always be able to get their hands on any type of weapon they want, be it an assault rifle, a pistol, a baseball bat, a knife, etc. The way to protect ourselves against their weapons are weapons for ourselves.
One final thing to keep in mind as we observe all of this political posturing by Washington politicians on gun control. Months after the Newtown shootings, our schools are just as vulnerable as they were on that day in December. Shouldn’t the immediate concern be securing our schools and not trying to make political points?
We pointed out how easy that would be to do in the following post, without raising anyone’s taxes, if the political class would make a few simple changes in their spending priorities:
http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2013/01/how-about-more-hate-control-before-more_18.html
This mostly inane gun control debate is likely to drag on for months and years without resolution and without the needed protection being put in place to prevent another Newtown incident. Shouldn’t that be the immediate priority of Washington and not the shredding of the Second Amendment for no purpose at all?
Note: tomorrow we will continue this series with a look at how the gun control debate and result actions could quickly spiral out of control since many local state and local government entities are threatening not to comply with any Federal directive that shreds citizens’ Second Amendment rights.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
www.loathemygovernment.com
It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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