Shoot First, Questions Come Later

All good people by now have learned there was another mass shooting Wednesday - involving a school - during which innocent people were killed and wounded.  And, as good people, many have a reaction to that senseless act.  Some blame white people, some blame guns, others blame mental health issues, and still others blame a lax law enforcement.  Here's a quick newsflash:  law enforcement isn't responsible for protecting folks, it's only responsible for curbing law breaking.  Which kinda leaves the task of personal protection and safety to each of us individually.

I'll undoubtedly get flamed for this, but I offer it up, anyway.  As does most common sense solutions, it will work.  Here're the facts:  the ratio of the number of casualties - those killed and wounded - is disproportionate to the number of shooters.  That means that one or two shooters can effectively kill dozens of unarmed folks in a very short period of time.  Think about San Bernadino, Fort Hood, Sandy Hook, Columbine, Pulse Night club, congressional baseball game, Boston Marathon, Las Vegas and way too many others.  What's the common denominator?  Unarmed victims.  Oh, and so-called gun free zones.

But the argument demands we show an opposite trend.  One where an armed good guy stops the armed bad guy.  And we can.  Here are just a few. 

In 1997, the assistant principal of Mississippi’s Pearl High School, Joel Myrick, used the .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol he kept in his truck to detain 16-year-old Luke Woodham after the teenager stabbed and bludgeoned to death his mother at home and killed two students and injured seven at the high school. 

A decade later, in 2007, Matthew Murray killed four people at Colorado Spring church before being shot by church member and volunteer security guard Jeanne Assam.

Last April, an Uber driver with a concealed-carry permit shot and wounded a gunman who opened fire on a crowd of people in Chicago’s Logan Square.

This September, an usher at a Tennessee church used his personal firearm to subdue a masked gunman who had already killed one woman in the church’s parking lot and injured six others inside.

Some years ago, science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein stated a startling but universal truth in one of his books. "An armed society is a polite society.  Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life."  Well, now.  Isn't that concept one of the primary reasons the Founding Fathers so adamantly created the Second Amendment?  It was.  They understood so very well those quaint human attributes like personal responsibility and self preservation.  

Today, anyone with a keyboard or a Guy Fawkes mask can vent his anger, rage, frustration or disenfranchisement.  In perfect anonymity.  Exercising his right to an opinion, but without the responsibility to back up his words.  And in many cases, that leads to even more anger, resentment and disenfranchisement - and to a shooting.

But good guys - armed and vigilant - can and should shoot back.  Men and women alike.  Get armed, get trained, and get ready to save someone's life.  Or your own.

So, yes, all you snowflakes out there, more guns  - not fewer - is absolutely the answer to the problem when in the hands of responsible and capable adults.  When crazed lefties, like the vast majority of these shooters actually have been documented to be, decide to get their fifteen minutes of fame, and try to best the last killed-in-action number record, they may think twice about their plans of going out in a blaze of glory when a responsible adult shows up armed.

In the face of leftist rage - think Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Black Panthers, Antifa, Resist, and more -  I'm reminded of Teddy Roosevelt's famous advice.  "Speak softly, but carry a big stick."

Sage advice, Teddy.  Get a gun, learn to use it properly, and carry it every day. I do.