Someone else gets it right

From Prescott, Arizona.

Gun control proponents turning us into cowards

By BOB SHIMIZU

The "rabbit people" are launching another torrent of invective against the
private gun ownership in the United States.

"Some nations bloodied by massacres turn to gun control" by William J. Kole
of the Associated Press fails to state how many times a firearm, or the
threat of one, has deterred violent attacks.

Seung Hui Cho, the shooter at Virginia Tech, acted illegally, so why didn't
the law stop him? Mr. Cho illegally falsified the statements on his Federal
Form 4473 to buy a firearm. He knowingly and illegally carried a gun onto
school property. Cho murdered 32 innocent victims. Finally, Mr. Cho took a
coward's refuge in suicide, his only benevolent act.

Now, college campuses across the country know how unprotected they are. The
police cannot protect the citizenry. At best they can collect forensic
evidence and try to catch the perpetrators, if they're still available.

But blood still stains the walls, and lives remain ruined.

Every U.S. citizen has the right to safety and self-defense. When did we
start thinking that anyone else can "protect" us? When did we come to think
that giving up the tools to protect ourselves means that society must kill our
own snakes for us? Why are we turning into cowards?

Nowhere is this misbegotten ethic more in force than on our liberal college
campuses, where it used to be perfectly fine for students to have
marksmanship classes and clubs. Colleges used to give young citizens a proper
grounding in the principles of government. Colleges made sure students understood
that they are the government and the state serves the people.

The dysfunctional leftist ethos has eroded that teaching along with the
malignant disease of "political correctness." Any confrontation somehow is
"bad." Any heartfelt discussion between opposite points of view is "violence."
Today, in the face of real violence, college kids are unable to do anything
about it.

Nowadays, cowardice is so prevalent that no Virginia Tech students had the
courage to rush Mr. Cho. That concerted action might have stopped things then
and there. Instead, the moral outrage that we might have felt even 40 years
ago has turned into retreat that lets a mad dog strike at will.

We make much of kids jumping out of windows to escape Mr. Cho's predations.
Had I run from this fight, I'd feel like a coward.

It's not the kids' fault. It's ours. We failed to insist that they learn
correctly - that they and they alone are responsible for their safety. We
made them into "rabbit people." We made them into rabbit people because we are
rabbit people.

Every time such a horror occurs, we demand that politicians "do something."
So, they try to ban the object involved rather than state things as they
are: No one can protect you from a mad dog. You have to deal with him
yourself. But after the crushing defeat the left suffered in 1994 after attacking
the Second Amendment, you can be sure they'll tread cautiously. A few
functioning Americans still exist out there.

That's why of the four flights terrorists hijacked on 9/11, one plane failed
to reach its target. That's why a teacher who retrieved his weapon from his
vehicle stopped the Oct. 1, 1997 school shooting in Pearl Miss., and
arrested the criminal. In some cases, Americans still are willing to stand up and
stop the outrage themselves.

The Jan. 31, 2006 Roanoke Times reported that the House Committee on
Militia, Police and Public Safety voted down HB1572 which would have allowed college
students and employees to carry handguns on campus.

Delegate Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah County, proposed the bill on behalf of
the Virginia Citizens Defense League. Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker
was happy with the defeat.

"I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's
actions," he said, "because this will help parents, students, faculty and
visitors feel safe on our campus."

A popular bumper sticker reads, "Think globally, act locally." If the
citizens of Prescott want to keep their kids safe at Prescott College, Yavapai
Community College and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the governing boards
of those respective organizations can thumb their noses at federal and state
laws about firearms on college campuses and let concealed carry permit
holders keep and bear arms on school property.

Such people have no criminal record, and have demonstrated both an
understanding of the use of deadly force and the proper manipulation of their weapons.
That would deter any mad dogs among us.

Do they have the courage to act in the face of this outrage? It's a
solution that would work.

(Bob Shimizu is a local businessman, an avid shooter, and a concealed carry
permit holder.)

Arizona is another state that gets it right, allowing open carry, and has a Shall Issue policy on CCW permits.