Saturday, March 20, 2010

When Seconds Count...

I read an unsigned editorial in the Toledo Blade , an online publication, expressing concern about citizens confronting armed criminals rather than leaving it to the police who are trained and have the responsibility for such matters. (A tip of the cap to Say Uncle for finding this obscure news tip.) I’ll discount most of what was written with a short but very true axiom, “When seconds count, the police are only minutes away”.

I was immediately suspicious of the editorial; unsigned and published leads me to believe it was planted. News outlets have fairly strict policies when it comes to opinion articles; why bend the rules for this one? The fact that an opinion piece was approved, an opinion that citizens taking up firearms to defend themselves from criminals is too dangerous, leads me to believe the Toledo Blade has a bias against 2nd Amendment rights protected in the Bill of Rights. Why doesn’t that surprise me?

The job of the police is to “Protect & Serve”, specially trained to neutralize hazardous situations, finding and stopping criminals and especially the safe use of firearms; something you idiot civilians have no business even touching. Isn’t that what we’ve been reminded each time a shop owner confronts a “would be robber”? It usually turns out one of two ways; either the store owner gets shot by the robber or the robber gets shot by the owner. This works the same for homeowner, delivery truck driver or any number of scenarios

The news team shows up across from where the yellow police tape has been stretched around the crime scene. Your local reporter, microphone in hand and camera crew zooming in at what appears to be a crying witness, always interviews the police spokesperson, “We want to remind everyone this could have turned out much worse, some innocent child walking down the street might have been struck and killed by a stray bullet fired by someone not trained in confrontational situations. This is what the police department is for, leave your guns at home and let us do our job.”

We’re not helpless victims waiting to be next; survival is the responsibility of each individual. Have we forgotten how to defend ourselves or are we pretending society has reached a level above reality? Have we deluded ourselves; believing it’s only rare a criminal will attempt to take advantage of our supposed weaknesses?

Criminals don’t care about laws prohibiting the use of firearms, they don’t care who they hurt or kill as long as they get away with rape, robbery or burglary and can come back again and again. ( I hadn’t intend to include Congress in this; but if the shoe fits…) Our police departments do a very nice job of responding when called; but when seconds count; 4-8 minutes can seem like an eternity, you’d better have more than a telephone to hear your last gasping breath.

We’re Americans with courage and spirit, enough and then some; just don’t say it too loud or the folks who collect your taxes will have you in front of a shrink; you’re a pigeon waiting to be plucked and don’t forget it. When somebody tells you to leave crime fighting to the police, you tell them gun control is being able to hit what you aim at.
Picture of bad guy with a shotgun courtesy of Rockwood Corporation, Speedwell Division , specializing in military and law enforcement targets.

This article has been cross posted to The Moral Liberal , a publication whose banner reads, “Defending The Judeo-Christian Ethic, Limited Government, & The American Constitution”.

10 comments:

Stephen said...

As Zendo Deb says over at TFS Magnum

( http://wheelgun.blogspot.com/ )

Self Defense is a Human RIght.

T. F. Stern said...

Smacklin, Self Defense is just that, a right, not something any government may tinker with. So why is it every government seems to tinker with it? In Great Britain almost any weapon, knives included are looked upon as evil; heaven help the good citizen who uses a weapon to defend himself. I better quit or I'll end up writing another article.

MathewK said...

Nicely said.

Another throwaway, waste-of-space comment i hear often is, if you're faced with the choice, your money or your life, the answer is easy. The implied answer being always hand over the money.

That's simple for the gun-hating moron sitting safe and sound in his home, but when the show owner has to hand over his money every other week, it's not so easy. When the utilities company doesn't wave the monthly bill cos you got robbed, it ain't so easy. When the robber wants to rape you too, it ain't so easy. When the robber wants to have your wife and child too, it ain't so easy either.

T. F. Stern said...

MK, The correct response has to do with sizing up the situation to see if there is a chance to win, either through force or by trickery. The safe answer is to live to fight another day; not always an option depending on the state of mind of the bad guy so sometimes it gets down to who is willing to do the most damage the quickest. This is where progressives lose almost every time, they are unwilling to get down and dirty; even when it is the only way to survive.

The probligo said...

Oh dear, the galah is back again.

TF, I have to agree with your statement "sizing up the situation to see if there is a chance to win, either through force or by trickery. The safe answer is to live to fight another day; not always an option depending on the state of mind of the bad guy so sometimes it gets down to who is willing to do the most damage the quickest."

If I were to open my front door to find the picture you provide as evidence on the other side I think that I would be dead already. Why? He has his finger on the trigger of that shotgun; he has already raped my wife and daughter, and likely my son as well, all post mortem if the truth be known. He wants out, and I got no show to draw anything let alone argue with him.

Would you be able to do any better? I reckon you got about 2/100s of a second to get your gun from where-ever you carry. That is roughly how long it would take for him to pull his trigger.

T. F. Stern said...

Glad I picked a PaperTarget to start with, folks down under give up awful easy it seems.

Starsplash said...

You know I had a crook tell me one day to hand over my billfold(robbery by intimidation). I laughed at the freak and said no! And then glared deeply into his eyes. He turned around and walked away. I guess it didn't help him I was thinking that I would rather kill him as look at him.

On an other occasion while me and the wife were heading down to St Augustine Florida for a vacation back in the day's of car jackings this dude pulls up behind us on the freeway out in the open with his eyes riveted on our bumper. I ( was the passenger) bent over reached under my seat and pull the box with my nine mil out unlimberd it and slapped the clip in the mag and jacked a round in the chamber and then turned around and glared at the zipper head, I enjoy the memory of the guys eyes getting real big and then he pulls into the passing lane and steps on the gas and dissapears over the the next hill.

One more for you. It has to do with an idiot sticking his head in my upstairs home window then smiling around midnight, when suddenly he sees the motion of my left hand reachin around to jack a round from my iver Johnson copy of an M1 carbine with pistol grip stock.

Again with the eyes getting real big and the jumping 10 feet to the ground. and running like he-- to get away from me.

Now it is just me and a five round pump 12 gauge.

Three times I have had to brandish a deadly weapon (I am a registerd deadly weapon), but mainly I think it was the look in my eye that had gone from pleasant to I have no qualms about killing to defend myself and my family.

The old saying; "better to be tried by twelve than buried by six", is alive and well.

The probligo said...

LOL TF. It is actually a case of realities.

Ron, you is one dangerous man for sure. Remind me never to go cross-eyed in your direction.

Starsplash said...

Pobligo My family is first and my life is forfiet; if need be to protect them, otherwise I am just another plain-old-guy.

T. F. Stern said...

I'm just sitting back watching the exchange of ideas for now.

It does all boil down to "what are you willing to do when faced with a dangerous criminal intent on harming you, your family or simply taking what he/she wants?

I kind of like the sticker I've seen on pick up trucks around town, "There's nothin in this truck worth your life".