Where were the Minutemen?
Ok.
Arizona has some of the least restrictive laws in the nation regarding the carrying of loaded firearms.
As I understand it, the average citizen aged 21+ can carry, concealed or exposed, without a permit.
Gabby Giffords was pro-gun. She was opposed to illegal immigration. She advocated increased border security, accusing the Federal government of failure to live up to its responsibility to defend the national border in her state.
I wish that more Democrats, heck, even the Republicans in Connecticut, took her positions on those issues.
From where I sit, it looks to me as if the Obama administration, and Carolyn McCarthy, and Senator Charles Schumer, and the rest of the gun-ban crowd, had more to gain from this assassination attempt, than Sarah Palin, or anyone else on the Right. I find this perspective troubling. Let's leave that stone unturned for now.
What I find even more troubling, is that there was apparently no armed taxpayer in the crowd, willing to engage the assassin and put an end to his rampage.
Maybe there was, and she couldn't get a clear shot. Maybe the (3) folks who caused the shooter to fumble his reload, and then tackled him, did so before an armed citizen could engage.
Maybe someone was ready to engage, and quietly put his gun away, or left it in the holster, when he realized that deadly force was not required.
Maybe he kept quiet about it, to avoid unwanted attention, to avoid being detained as a "person of interest".
Maybe the national media refuse to publish stories of armed citizens helping to end criminal killing sprees.
Or maybe, like many of my pistol team competitors, nobody carries a gun to the Safeway; nobody expected trouble.
The fact is, Trouble comes when you least expect it; when you're minding your own business; like the double-bladed axe, that began it's flight from a passing logging truck, as I pedaled my fully loaded touring bicycle along a road in Washington state, and hit the ground near my wheels.
A gun that's out of reach, unloaded, or locked in the trunk of your car, isn't much good for defense of self and state, when Trouble surprises you.
So why, in Arizona, where the Second Amendment is so well protected, did it not return the favor?
Arizona has some of the least restrictive laws in the nation regarding the carrying of loaded firearms.
As I understand it, the average citizen aged 21+ can carry, concealed or exposed, without a permit.
Gabby Giffords was pro-gun. She was opposed to illegal immigration. She advocated increased border security, accusing the Federal government of failure to live up to its responsibility to defend the national border in her state.
I wish that more Democrats, heck, even the Republicans in Connecticut, took her positions on those issues.
From where I sit, it looks to me as if the Obama administration, and Carolyn McCarthy, and Senator Charles Schumer, and the rest of the gun-ban crowd, had more to gain from this assassination attempt, than Sarah Palin, or anyone else on the Right. I find this perspective troubling. Let's leave that stone unturned for now.
What I find even more troubling, is that there was apparently no armed taxpayer in the crowd, willing to engage the assassin and put an end to his rampage.
Maybe there was, and she couldn't get a clear shot. Maybe the (3) folks who caused the shooter to fumble his reload, and then tackled him, did so before an armed citizen could engage.
Maybe someone was ready to engage, and quietly put his gun away, or left it in the holster, when he realized that deadly force was not required.
Maybe he kept quiet about it, to avoid unwanted attention, to avoid being detained as a "person of interest".
Maybe the national media refuse to publish stories of armed citizens helping to end criminal killing sprees.
Or maybe, like many of my pistol team competitors, nobody carries a gun to the Safeway; nobody expected trouble.
The fact is, Trouble comes when you least expect it; when you're minding your own business; like the double-bladed axe, that began it's flight from a passing logging truck, as I pedaled my fully loaded touring bicycle along a road in Washington state, and hit the ground near my wheels.
A gun that's out of reach, unloaded, or locked in the trunk of your car, isn't much good for defense of self and state, when Trouble surprises you.
So why, in Arizona, where the Second Amendment is so well protected, did it not return the favor?