Flood the Zone

Brace yourselves for the inevitable cascade of anti-gun knuckleheads in the wake of the tragic shooting of an Arizona Congresswoman.   One Hundred and Thirty One victims in Washington, DC during 2010 didn’t bring them out but the wounding of a Congresswoman will.  Indeed the early reports were trying to pin this one on Sarah Palin before we found out that the shooter is a liberal. 

Yet another violent liberal has violated every gun law on the books.  Early reports say he was a fan of Mien Kampf and the Communist Manifesto both written by famous liberals.  However this criminal act will predictably trigger an outcry for more restrictive gun laws.  That is not the answer to violent crime or lunatic crime in the United States.  The real solution is to flood the zone with guns in the hands of the law abiding citizenry.  In an environment where there are no guns a lone gunman is king as in that Safeway on Saturday, as on the Virginia Tech campus and in many places these lunatics choose to commit violent acts.  These madmen aren’t crazy enough to attack an NRA convention or Hunting & Fishing shows, rather they are more likely to attack a school.  Had the Congresswoman held her meet and greet at a Cabelas or a Bass Pro Shop I’ll bet you even this lunatic would have thought twice about his attack. 

The United States of America has a militia or armed citizen tradition.  In “33 Questions About American History You’re Not Supposed to Ask” Thomas E. Woods Jr. points out that contrary to popular mythology and movies the “Wild West” wasn’t really very wild because most everyone was armed.  It’s amazing how polite people are when you have a pistol on your hip.  The James-Younger Gang met their particular Waterloo at the hands of an armed citizenry in Northfield, MN.  In any similar scenario today citizens are completely at the mercy of any barbarian who decides to do violence. 

Last year a retired Baltimore policeman stopped a robbery while waiting in a restaurant for his take-out order.  His decades of training and experience didn’t go to waste in retirement as he was armed.  Every town or county has a potential cadre of citizens who have the training, temperament, and experience to carry firearms in public places that would make them orders of magnitude safer than they are today.  Retired and former military members would be superb “deputy sheriffs” in the manner of the old West.  Retired policemen should be required as a condition of their retirement to carry firearms in plain view as their active duty fellows do.  Experienced hunters and target shooters would also be a superior group to recruit deputies from. 

You want safer streets?  Put guns in the hands of men and women who know how to use them – then all you barbarians look out.