And Now, Aurora, IL....

"Wife Of Aurora Shooting Victim Reveals Husband's Final Text Message"

"I love You.  I've been shot at work."

The headline and last text message as given in the HuffPo article regarding this latest mass shooting.

I am sickened by these events and the usual anti-firearms sniping that follows them.  I am a former federal officer.  I have nothing but the highest respect for police officers.  They have an incredibly difficult, and ofter thankless, job.  So I'm not taking pot shots at them; their hands are tied by department policies.  

At the same time, I am reminded that the supreme court has, on more than TEN different occasions, ruled that law enforcement has ABSOLUTELY NO DUTY TO PROTECT INDIVIDUALS; their responsibility is to society as a whole.  Whether  - or IF - police respond to any given call for help, according to these rulings, is left ENTIRELY up to the policies of the individual department.  And we have seen, time after time, the results of these policies.  

In this instance, law enforcement was made aware that the shooter had a criminal history.  Evidently, they sent him a letter requiring him to surrender his weapons - and then they never followed up to ensure that he actually did.  Before Parkland, law enforcement met with the shooter on more than THIRTY occasions, KNEW that he had a propensity toward violence, yet he was left free to carry out his attack.  Situation after situation like this exists, and in fact is quite normal proceeding mass shooting events.  

Yet all those who oppose firearms ownership can tell us is, "Trust the police to protect you.  You don't need a firearms to protect you and your family, that's why we have police."  And then, to make matters worse, they go on to intimate that the millions of lawful firearms owners and carriers, the vast majority of whom have never been involved in any crime of any sort, are somehow to blame for these events.  

Illinois has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, yet they have stopped nothing.  The factory where the shooting was carried out was a posted "gun free" zone, yet those signs - the SAME signs that are supposed to protect children in schools across this nation - did absolutely NOTHING to prevent this shooting.  In fact, the shooter knew he had ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD to shoot as many people as possible before the police world arrive in sufficient numbers to come after him.

Nationally, per the National Sheriffs' Association, the average police response time to a 911 call is 18 minutes, a relative eternity; such events are usually over in under thirteen minutes.  Yet the best advice the government will give us - and it is now parroted by employers as well - is run if you can, hide if you can't, and as a last resort, throw things at the attacker and HOPE you will dissuade him.  

Thomas Paine, in his essay, Thoughts on Defensive War, made these observations:

"[...] Whoever considers the unprincipled enemy we have to cope with, will not hesitate to declare that nothing but arms or miracles can reduce them to reason and moderation... These people [the victims - added] are either too superstitiously religious, or too cowardly for arms; they either cannot or dare not defend; their property is open to any one who has the courage to attack them... Thus the peaceable part of mankind will be continually overrun by the vile and abandoned, while they neglect the means of self defence. The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside. And while a single nation refuses to lay them down, it is proper that all should keep them up. Horrid mischief would ensue were one half the world deprived of the use of them; for while avarice and ambition have a place in the heart of man, the weak will become a prey to the strong. The history of every age and nation establishes these truths, and facts need but little arguments when they prove themselves."  

Paine was a Quaker and a pacifist, but he still recognized the reality that we have the right and obligation to defend ourselves; failure to do so only emboldens bad guys - whether the bad guy is a co-worker, or an attacking nation.  We will never be able to completely prevent such events.  If it isn't guns, it will be knives (look at the mass knife attacks that have taken place in China and Britain), bombs, chemicals, or some other form of weapon.  But we CAN give people the means to defend themselves and those around them as best they can.  Calling 911 and waiting for the cavalry just isn't cutting it.

One final thought: as far as I am concerned, any organization that prohibits people to exercise their God-given right to self defense is both implicit in, and responsible for, any injuries and deaths that occur as a result of their policy.