Borepatch got me thinking about self defense. And, honestly, somethimes I think theres a “gunnie moon” that gets us all on the same wavelength, because the bf and I were discussing the subject last night. Anyways, go read the post, and the original as well to refresh your memory. This brought to mind the Grand Rapids, MI gas station incident earlier this year. It seems that for every shooter who acts in self-defense and is found by law to have acted justly, there are many, many more – family, friends, and even perfect strangers (go on, read the comments) – decrying “senseless acts of violence” and “(the victim) never woulda hurt a fly”.
It looked pretty clear from the video that the guy who got shot was poised to commit assault when he, uh, got shot. I’m glad that the law cleared the shooter and he was not charged, and I also do indeed think it’s a tragedy that someone had to die because of their actions. But the wagging of the big “guns are bad” fingers from the peanut gallery really sheds light on a bigger problem: so many people have a grossly deficient concept of responsibility.
This was the subject of last night’s conversation with the bf: responsibility. As Kim du Toit pointed out today, we are actually kinda winning the war for gun rights (I believe Mr. DuToit may have discussed the same gas station incident a while back, as well. or maybe not, but his site is full of win – check it out, if you are not yet familiar). But I don’t know how much difference it can make outside of those individuals who exercise the rights of self defense, because so much more of society appears to believe that it is the government’s job to protect and provide for them, and to keep them out of harm’s way. Our government’s really isn’t to provide welfare and foodstamps and personal home security – it’s to protect our rights, as a whole nation, and as individuals.
It’s pretty sad that we as a culture have sunk so low that we are victimizing ourselves in the eyes of others. The guy who got himself shot at that gas station looked at the guy he was keen on assaulting and it didn’t occur to him that this person might actually act in self-defense. If he had thought, ‘gee, maybe I shouldn’t attack this person; they could justifiably harm me in self-defense’ then he might have been deterred in acting the way he did. Why might such a thought fail to occur to the bastards who break and enter, or commit assaults? Perhaps one reason is the inescapably massive pedantic of the leftists that it’s the responsibility of some governing party to take care of us. If anyone needs another reason to own a gun, or a nice convincing statement for the person who doesn’t feel that they need such a weapon, here’s one of my favs: a large part of society believes either that people are not capabable of self-defense, or they believe that they shouldn’t have to take on such responsibilities. The image being presented is that most people are helpless, and regardless of what I belive, that image is what a criminal will see when he decides to assault me, or to break into my home. the only thing I can do about that is protect myself and not put myself in harms way whenever possible.
Speaking of harms way, I’m not thrilled to work in the middle of a gun-free (aka assault-friendly) campus. And the time has finally come for me to make like a baby and head out. The Hell Experiment part deux is finished, I’ve spent all day sloshing around gloved-hand deep in strong acid on a few hours of lousy sleep (I never met a 3am whopper that didn’t taste good, nor one that has ever led to happy peacefull zzz’s), and tomorrow, the final stage of my thesis research will be completed – at least I hope so.
