Fred Thomson has a column up today reiterating what we were talking about yesterday, that Americans are our own protectors, more often than not. If he keeps this up, he’s going to be unbeatable if he enters the Presidential race. Here’s why I, officially, heart Fred Thomson:
Still, there are a lot of people who are just offended by the notion that people can carry guns around. They view everybody, or at least many of us, as potential murderers prevented only by the lack of a convenient weapon. Virginia Tech administrators overrode Virginia state law and threatened to expel or fire anybody who brings a weapon onto campus.
In recent years, however, armed Americans — not on-duty police officers — have successfully prevented a number of attempted mass murders. Evidence from Israel, where many teachers have weapons and have stopped serious terror attacks, has been documented. Supporting, though contrary, evidence from Great Britain, where strict gun controls have led to violent crime rates far higher than ours, is also common knowledge.
So why do we still have so many out there spouting off about gun-control? Why does an atrocity like VA Tech create a knee jerk reaction in these people, that we need LESS protection?
The logic behind this attitude baffles me, but I suspect it has to do with a basic difference in worldviews. Some people think that power should exist only at the top, and everybody else should rely on “the authorities” for protection.
Fred is exactly right. Its a completely different world view. A view of “poor me, poor you, where is the government to give me my pacifier?”.
Despite such attitudes, average Americans have always made up the front line against crime. Through programs like Neighborhood Watch and Amber Alert, we are stopping and catching criminals daily. Normal people tackled “shoe bomber” Richard Reid as he was trying to blow up an airliner. It was a truck driver who found the D.C. snipers. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that civilians use firearms to prevent at least a half million crimes annually.
Hopefully some good can come out of this horrific event in Virginia. Hopefully people will start understanding that the evil out there won’t wait for the police to show up, or the school campus to let them know its on its way. Hopefully, some will learn, that sometimes you are the only one who has your back.
