Granny, get your gun

February 13, 1:07 PMDenver Gun Rights ExaminerDan Bidstrup

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Perceived as unable to defend themselves, disabled people and older Americans are attractive targets for criminals. Some of them would be unable to protect themselves with a conventional pistol because difficulty with their hands. There's a company working on a solution. It has developed a Palm Pistol which is a single shot 9mm palm gun with the trigger on top, actuated with the thumb. Grip safeties make it impossible to fire with the thumb button alone. There has been a round of jokes about confused, disoriented old folks shooting their caregivers or each other, but they are completely wrong. When folks get dementia or become sufficiently frail, their safety comes from their caregivers. When I am sitting with my 94 year old mother-in-law, I carry a gun. It isn't at all a case of her being unable to discern a credible threat, it is simply that we always have caregivers around her.

The Palm Pistol is a close quarters weapon, and one certainly could not shuffle amok with a single shot, but it could save a life for a wheelchair bound person or a person unable to grip a conventional pistol. The anti-gun crowd believes that only trained professionals in the prime of their lives should be able to carry guns as law enforcement officers or paid private security forces. The right to defend oneself belongs to everyone; the poor, the aged, and the infirm. I love America. Entrepreneurship and innovation are still the best problem-solvers we have. This gun is not yet in production, and the developer is seeking financiers or licensing partners.