Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Police can’t defend every gathering, so ...








Police can’t defend every gathering, so the people in attendance must take that task on themselves, with or without legal sanction.


"Everything You Need to Know About the AR-15 Used in Orlando," trumpeted Rolling Stone, getting yet another story wrong. More carefully, and generically, the Washington Post announced, "The gun used in the Orlando shooting is becoming mass shooters' weapon of choice."
[

[...]

But tools can be used for good as well as evil—if they're available. The patrons at Pulse would have had the potential to defend themselves against Mateen had they been carrying firearms as is permitted in much of the United States. But carrying guns in bars is illegal in Florida, and well-intentioned people are more easily constrained by rules than are terrorists—a fact on which Mateen may have relied.

Bizarrely, the Sun-Sentinel's Michael Mayo insists that the massacre disproved the value of guns, because one armed guard failed to deter Mateen. He's joined by a chorus insisting that letting people defend themselves is no answer.

But not everybody agrees.

"It is difficult, if not impossible, to foresee such an event," notes Gwendolyn Patton, First Speaker of Pink Pistols, a GLBTQ self-defense advocacy organization. "But if they cannot be prevented, then they must be stopped as fast as someone tries to start them."

Patton worries that further legal restrictions will affect only the law-abiding, leaving them yet more defenseless against future Omar Mateens.

"Ask yourself: If that was Denver, Col., if that was Texas, would those guys have been able to spend hours, days, shooting people randomly? What I'm saying is it makes police around the world question their views on gun control. It makes citizens question their views on gun control. You have to ask yourself, 'Is an armed citizenry more necessary now than it was in the past with an evolving threat of terrorism?'
Tom Palmer, a gay libertarian and one of the original plaintiffs in the groundbreaking Heller Supreme Court gun rights case, agrees.

"Let's get one thing very clear. Gun control advocates disarmed the victims at that night club," he wrote in the New York Daily News. "Legally designated gun-free zones are invitations to killers."

When good people were not rendered defenseless by law, they have stopped mass murderers. Eugene Volokh rounded up a good selection for the Washington Post, but here are two from just the last few months:

In April, a Chicago Uber driver shot a gunman who had opened fire on a crowd.
Weeks before that, Philadelphia police say a good samaritan "saved a lot of people" when he shot and killed a man who opened up on customers and staff in a barber shop. [Full Article]

It's manifestly clear that  we've been invaded, and have a Vichy government to boot.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

According to BearingArms.com:
The rifle used by the Islamist terrorist in Orlando was not an AR-15.

The rifle used by the Islamist terrorist in Orlando was instead a Sig Sauer MCX carbine, a modular, multi-caliber (able to swap to different calibers, including 5.56 NATO, 300 BLK, and 7.62×39) rifle system that sometimes utilizes STANAG magazines common to more than 60 different firearms, but otherwise has no major parts that interface with AR-15s in any way, shape or form.
http://bearingarms.com/bob-o/2016/06/13/narrative-fail-orlando-islamic-terrorist-use-ar-15/
Jim in Texas

Steve said...

And had he used a bomb, non of this conversation would be taking place. The focus would rightfully be on the individual and his motives which even though they are crystal clear to most , they still evade the beltway crowd.

Post a Comment

Just type your name and post as anonymous if you don't have a Blogger profile.