The news offers two more examples of how trained civilians with firearms could have prevented bad things from happening. In Woolwich, London yesterday two insane individuals ran over a man and crushed him between their car and a sign. After that they jumped out of the car and started hacking and chopping him with meat cleavers and knives. This resulted in death and near decapitation for the wounded soldier.
I am struck by the thought that this could have been prevented if someone had been able to engage these two wackos before they were able to finish the job they started. It is also incredibly fortunate that these two psychopaths did not injure anyone else because the police did not appear for 20 minutes. Instead of doing anything about it a crowd of people gathered to watch these killers rant about Allah and record video on their cell phones. Pathetic.
The two were stopped when finally a police officer with a firearm appeared on the scene. The two men had an old “rusty” firearm of their own which they did shoot at the police officer which malfunctioned and blew the thumb off one of their hands.
Image courtesy of Daily Mail
What would you have done had this unfolded in the US where we can still carry firearms? Even though the potential of us loosing that right guaranteed by our Second Amendment is under threat everyday, good guys can and do prevent crimes like this all of the time. Had there been someone near these two men when the crime initially occurred that would have been able and willing to step up to the moment, this soldier may still be alive right now. Obviously, the wouldn’t have stopped a car, but the ensuing carnage that happened next may have been prevented.
The second reason comes from somewhere closer to home, but never the less still in an area where firearms are not allowed freely for the average citizen. In Queens, New York last month a man was apparently kidnapped right off the street by three men who pretended to be police officers. They flashed a badge and threw him into a van and drove him to a warehouse where they kept him for over a month. During this month, he was burned with acid, beaten, threatened with mutilation and death. For this month he was bound at the hands and masked.
This one is more complicated because the assailants were acting like police officers so your average person on the street would be less likely to step into that situation; however it is telling that we as society have become so accustomed to police driving up and throwing someone into the back of a car and speeding away, that nobody cares.
In an earlier post I established my belief that law abiding citizens have a duty to carry concealed weapons if they have any desire to stop bad things like this from happening. If more good people carried guns I believe incidents like this would decline. Statistics from the FBI show that violent crime rates have dropped for at least 5 years which runs counter to the argument that more guns equals more murders. The sales of firearm purchases have exploded in recent years so there may be some link that may be drawn between these two facts. The more people it seems to me that have guns, the less violent crime we see.
I do feel sorry for the families of these two tragedies and we hope for their peace and healing in the case of the soldier in London. We should use these two examples as yet another illustration where
- The police can’t protect you from bad things.
- Taking guns away from people doesn’t prevent murder.
- There are still plenty of evil people in the world.
- There is something that we can all do about it.
The police took twenty minutes to get to the scene with firearms to stop these two men. How horrific would it have needed to get for the crowd to attack them and bring them down? What if they had gone into a school heaven forbid?
These two didn’t have assault weapons or pressure cookers, yet they were able to kill a man and hold a crowd of sheep at bay for twenty minutes.
If you have been considering carrying a concealed weapon or even purchasing your own firearm for the first time here is my advice. First, consider if this is a responsibility that you will accept. Taking another’s life is not something that can be erased. You should weigh these options with a significant gravity. Carrying a gun isn’t like Jack Bauer on 24 and if you have to use it, you could die in the process or accidentally kill an innocent. If you believe you need a weapon for self-protection and are willing to use it then I would suggest you get trained, become very proficient with your firearm choice and carry concealed. You could be the person standing between a killer and an innocent life.
If you are already a concealed carry permit holder I hope this reinforces your resolve and determination to not only carry every where you can legally but mentally prepares you for a situation like this. I personally hope I am never faced with a choice like this but I do believe that if I were, I would do what I could to save a life. I hope if I were on the receiving end of an attack like this, one of you would too.
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