Gun Control: Answering an L.A. Times letter . . .

June 23, 8:35 AMLA Gun Rights ExaminerJohn Longenecker

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Some of the time I'm on the lookout for error in gun control issues. Part of what many gun rights activists do is educate the electorate in what it is about guns as a powerful multi-faceted part of our liberty culture. My own mission is that it's not even about guns, but about personal burdens no one can assume for you, only to your regret. The armed citizen in the United States does not fight tyranny by a gun directly, the armed citizen discredits go-nowhere anti-crime programs which, by themselves, tyrannize taxpayers. The armed citizen -- under citizen authority and law -- impeaches the very need for so many such programs on the face of them. . . . ordinarily, but for gun control. Activists seek to unwind safeguards of our liberty to the detriment of the entire nation, including themselves.

Advocates of gun control don't realize that they are saying to loved ones how they must not be asked or even expected to protect them. Dispatching the burden of your own personal safety is a manifold disaster; not only can the police not protect you, but it is not their job (as found in dozens of cases such as Lynch v. NC DOJ and Castle Rock v. Gonzales, Supreme Court, 2005). Each ruling along with many others was that you have no constitutional right not police protection, and that police have no duty to protect individuals from the criminal acts of others. And that's only the beginning of why Americans ought to have lethal force ready and within reach at all times. Paranoid? About as paranoid as owning a few fire extinguishers around the home.

I read in the Los Angeles Times this morning a reader's letter to the editor. Raymond Bruce Schweiger wrote the Times his answer to the Times coverage of booming gun sales, June 17. Schweiger wrote that he is asked all the time by friends if they should buy a gun. (I don't know why anyone would ask an anti-gun citizen this.) Schweiger wrote that he always says the same thing, and I quote him: "A gun in your house is most likely to be used against you or your loved one. Kids find guns no matter how well they are hidden, and get hurt. Angry people find guns and do things they regret. Desperate people bring their own guns. Guns get taken by people unprepared to use them. If you are in a position in which you need a gun, you are already in too much trouble."

The translation for that last line is this: Being alert, having a plan, and having superior force is important. Simple. I'll remark more on this below.

The armed citizen in the United States does not fight tyranny by a gun directly, the armed citizen discredits go-nowhere anti-crime programs which, by themselves, tyrannize taxpayers. The armed citizen -- under citizen authority and law -- impeaches the very need for so many such programs on the face of them.

Let me respond to each line. A gun in your house is not most likely to be used against you. It is a myth of the left to say, as the left often does, how armed self-defense is futile. Is it? Think 2.5 million police reports that say otherwise.

Kids find guns. The solution is to train children, and there are very good programs for parents to learn how to do this effectively. Parents already supervise their kids against household poisons, car keys, straying from home, watching electrical outlets, drowning in the bathtub, all foiled by good parental supervision. Who's the adult here?

Angry people find guns.. The country is filled with angry people who also find and steal getaway cars, knives, they find cronies to join them as multiple assailants, they find bludgeons, drugs, and many have their bare hands with which to abduct children.

Guns get taken by people unprepared to use them. Guns which are ‘taken' are likely by persons already prohibited from being in possession of a gun. So much for gun control. These people also steal cars, where outlawing cars would not work either. These prohibited persons also steal money, and I doubt we're going to ban money. Is it wiser to ban the object, or to ban the behavior? Stealing is already a crime, and what it is they steal is hardly as important.

Finally, if you are in a position in which you need a gun, you are already in too much trouble. I think Schweiger means something about blaming a rotten attitude of problems which seem to follow some people around, that blame the victim mentality of assuming that someone in trouble has it coming. We see this a lot in anti-gun rhetoric. Some anti-gun activists go so far as to wish gun owners ill will in their own homes for owning a gun.

If you are in fact in such a position when you need a gun, you make the entire point of gun ownership: it's better to have one and not need it than to need it and not have it.

For most Americans, you do not find violence, it finds you. It is wrong, just wrong, to blame the target of crime for preparedness and to bring the force of the State to unprepare them for how they will meet crime.

Many Americans know all about interest rates, dental insurance, unemployment and more, but when it comes to violent crime, how the family will meet, manage and survive an encounter with violence is the most neglected area of household management.

More Americans are buying guns, which was the L.A. Times story which started this dialog. It's about preparedness of how the Administration will handle crime, justice, and other things in this nation. people are tired of being beaten, robbed and losing loved ones in situations which might have been controlled by the honest citizen on their own citizen authority. More are surprised to learn how anti-gun rhetoric has obfuscated this authority to act. It could have saved a great deal of unnecessary heartbreak and national treasure. Let us hope that awareness of that citizen authority will prevail over those who cannot imagine themselves acting in their own self-defense.
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