God made men (and women), Sam Colt made them equal.
In light of the Supreme Court Heller decision, I agree wholeheartedly with Megan McArcle's Guns are a feminist issue. (Hat tip to Anne. Read how her handgun saved her life here--The Time I Used My Gun in Self-Defense.)
My handgun enables me to go hiking or riding in the wilderness without always having to be escorted by Jack Bauer, as much as I do enjoy that. It enables me, a middle-aged mother of two who's a far cry from Xena, to protect my children too. I remember the Take Back the Night marches in college, where we young women walked arm in arm across campus with candles, trying to re-assert our rights as women to move about in the world without fear of being raped or murdered. I believe I narrowly escaped both during college. A man came tried to come in on me in the shower (He was halfway through the open window, pulling aside the shower curtain in what was closer to a real-life Psycho moment than I care to remember) in the boarding house where I was living. Having to run, dripping wet and naked, for help, is not something I hope I ever have to do again.
A girl friend of mine was not so lucky. The next year when she was walking home from her waitressing job at 10PM at night, you know, she was trying to pay her own way through college, she was brutally gang raped. They took all of her clothes. She had to stand in the street until someone finally stopped to help her. They never caught those bastards who left her nearly dead and robbed of every shred of human dignity.
Needless to say, Sam Colt is a friend of mine.
So is my Glock.
Comments
I agree, the combination of wilderness (whether rural or urban jungle), nutters and criminals, and ineffective law enforcement does make a gun in a trained hand a very useful compromise. After all, "phasers set to stun" never really made it to consumer products. My Californian ex used to comment that, when people had guns, there was more respect about. I can believe that. It may be safer if no-one has a gun, but it's safer if most people do than just a wayward minority. (If we'd have lived in the US, I'd have bought a gun. Partly for self defense against her abusive worst!)
The best course of action now sounds like official gun handling courses so that the new buyers are well trained. I'm sure that such courses exist.
Around the home, I gather that a pump-action shotgun is the best way to stop an intruder.
Odd, too, looking at your previous post. Annie Oakley (was it her?) could carry a gun but social convention obliged her to wear a dress. That's a good illustration of how far apart Europe and the US were even a century ago.
Out of interest, in the event that one person shoots another in self defense, what sort of position does the law take? What sort of burden of proof exists to show that the aggressor had ill intentions?
Posted by: Transylvanianhorseman | June 29, 2008 2:44 PM
I have a shotgun too. Yes, it's the best for home defense. I'd hate to have to use it, though, and hope I never do.
Yes, that's Annie Oakley. She looks so prim in her dress until you get to the fact that she's packing. ;-)
I think you'd better be able to prove that you were protecting your life, if you're going to protect yourself with a firearm here. Government seems to come down on the side of the criminals more and more.
Here's an interesting article about a fellow in Albuquerque who shot and killed a man who tried to steal his car and then threatened to come back and get this ex military man's family later with his gang reinforcements. http://kob.com/article/stories/S484301.shtml?cat=501
Initially, they put him in prison and made him pay some kind of restitution to the family of the criminal. Then there was such a public outcry in the city of Albuquerque, that they let him out after three months. The governor may even pardon the guy. I think he should, frankly. I'd sign that petition.
I'm afraid we're just going to see more crime with our economy taking a turn for the worse here. Santa Fe and Albuquerque are being inundated with illegals who don't have jobs, who are barely subsisting in the shadows, and yet they've brought their families. Quite a few of them seem to feel entitled to be here while hardworking citizens pay for their health care and public school. I'm pretty sure I was the only legal person standing in line at Wal-Mart the other day. I don't have anything personal against these folks, but they need to immigrate within the rules, which of course my government isn't enforcing for a variety of reasons. They're bringing a criminal element here along with TB and other diseases we haven't seen in this country in years.
It's disheartening. And scary at times. I wonder what is happening to my country?
Posted by: I Gallop On | June 29, 2008 4:22 PM