Guns as Protection

My Original Post – 11 July 2007

Guess I have to weigh in here.

IMHO, advocating the proliferation of guns is absolutely the worst thing we can do to address this question. Meeting violence with violence is not the answer.

I don't care how much target shooting or hunting you've done, until you have killed another human being with a gun, you simply cannot imagine the downside effect it has on you. I can guarantee you will never again be the same person.

It makes more sense to take all reasonable non-violent precautions to ensure one's safety as best you can. Carrying a gun will never ensure total safety; in fact, it adds a significant risk in the form of either an accident or the attacker gaining control of the gun.

Then, of course, there's that Guns and PMS thing...Think I'd rather face that lion or tiger bare handed than meet up with one of those.

Mark’s Response – 11 July 2007

Meeting violence passively resulted in the deaths of the two women that Kim knew. Same was true in Madison, Wisconsin; Kansas City, Kansas, and I'm sure many other situations recently. In each case, had those women been armed, they would have had a chance, and might be alive today, and you cannot point to any fact that will dispute that.

None of those women were armed, and each is dead today. If any of them were my mother, wife, sister or daughter, I would want them to have a firearm, and a fighting chance to survive.

Have you killed a human? Have you ever protected yourself with a firearm? Have you ever had a firearm held on you? The vast majority of police and sheriff officers in this country haven't, but they still carry. And those who have killed in self defense, though they are never the same, are still living and breathing, and loving their families, and parenting their children.

The mere process of carrying a firearm is not an act of violence, and I contend that those who do carry are safer and more precautious than most.

I find it interesting that anti-gunners think they are more intelligent than the founders of this great nation. Even though the founders understood the awesome power of firearms, they also understood that we have the God given right to protect our property and our own lives, and they finally, after great debate, scripted the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

For me, I trust that women are capable of handling firearms, and that they are intelligent enough to know when, or when NOT to use a firearm in self defense. I encourage women and men to purchase firearms, learn how to use them, apply for conceal carry permits, and confidently carry their firearms anywhere they are legally allowed, whether that be while fishing, hiking, biking, driving, shopping, or worshipping.