The Real Price of Gun Control
March 20th, 2009 in Guns, Newspaper ~ (1) Comment“The look in their eyes changed in an instant from threatening to fearful, and they immediately turned around and ran in the opposite direction. The light changed. I drove away. No one was hurt, but a gun in my formerly liberal hand had, I believe, probably saved my life, or at least prevented me from likely injury.”
These were the words of Katherine von Tour, a former Handgun Control, Inc. employee who is now a member of the Gun Owners of America. What changed her mind? The L.A. riots.
She writes: “Within a week, the very street where this incident happened had erupted in rioting, looting and killing. I watched on television as the Korean grocers defended their property with AK-47′s and AR-15′s, and thus prevented it from being torched and looted. The police couldn’t stop the violence and killing.”
Sure, guns are used in violent crimes every day. But for every one of those, why don’t we hear about the five or six attempted crimes thwarted by armed and responsible citizens?
It is absurd to think that gun control will reduce violent crimes. Firearms have been a part of our nations heritage from the beginning, but it is only in recent years that crime rates have exploded to such epidemic proportions. What has changed? Certainly not the invention of guns.
Folks, we need to get real. Like Susan Gonzalez, another former gun-hater: “Reality set in when I was shot, to the point where I realized why my husband and others had guns for self-defense.”
An armed public is the single greatest fear of would-be muggers and murders. The town of Kennesaw, GA is living proof. Since their city ordinance requiring every head of household to own a gun was passed over 25 years ago, not a single resident has been involved in a fatal shooting – as a victim, attacker, or defender, in spite of critics’ dire predictions of “Wild West” showdowns.
Tom Palmer of the Cato Institute put it this way it in an interview on “20/20”: “If someone gets into your house, which would you rather have, a handgun or a telephone? You can call the police if you want, and they’ll get there, and they’ll take a picture of your dead body. But they can’t get there in time to save your life. The first line of defense is you.”
According to the Women Against Gun Control (www.wagc.com), gun control is “the theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.”
Imagine watching your spouse or child being shot without mercy, and being absolutely helpless to stop it. This is the real price of gun control.
By Jonathon Hill, in response to Jenne Malmgren, “Our precious ‘right to bear arms’ too often comes with a high price: death“, by Jenne Malmgren, Anderson Independent-Mail 3/15/2009
References and Notes:
“Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.”
– Women Against Gun Control, http://www.wagc.com
“Reality set in when I was shot, to the point where I realized why my husband and others had guns for self-defense.”
– Susan Gonzalez (http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/071800/met_3568307.html)
“Women must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself.”
– Susan B. Anthony, July 1871
“The look in their eyes changed in an instant from threatening to fearful, and they immediately turned around and ran in the opposite direction. The light changed. I drove away. No one was hurt, but a gun in my formerly liberal hand had, I believe, probably saved my life, or at least prevented me from likely injury.”
– Katherine von Tour, a former Handgun Control, Inc. employee in “My Transformation From Anti-Gun Feminist To Armed Feminist”, http://gunowners.org/sk0101htm.htm
“It equalizes unequals,” Palmer told “20/20″. “If someone gets into your house, which would you rather have, a handgun or a telephone? You can call the police if you want, and they’ll get there, and they’ll take a picture of your dead body. But they can’t get there in time to save your life. The first line of defense is you.”
– Tom Palmer, The Cato Institute
On January 16, 2002 in Grundy, VA, two Appalachian School of Law students upon hearing shots went to their cars, got their guns and restrained the shooter until the police and arrested him.
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_School_of_Law_shooting
In March 1982, 25 years ago, the small town of Kennesaw – responding to a handgun ban in Morton Grove, Ill. – unanimously passed an ordinance requiring each head of household to own and maintain a gun. Since then, despite dire predictions of “Wild West” showdowns and increased violence and accidents, not a single resident has been involved in a fatal shooting – as a victim, attacker or defender.
– 25 years murder-free in ‘Gun Town USA’, 04/19/2007, WorldNetDaily (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55288)
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