As I watched the coverage on the Boston Marathon bombing, two distinct things registered in my mind. The first people to tear open the barricades and make their way to the wounded were by and large, not the police, but a mixture of race organizers and ordinary citizens. I commented to my wife that incidents like this are when we find out how we would react to danger and tragedy – do we run toward it or away from it. We never really know until we are tested. Every one of those people is a hero as far as I’m concerned and its a shame that they will never be individually recognized for what they did . . .
The thing that most distinctly registered was the commentary by Jack Williams, one of the local anchors on CBS in Boston. He said over and over again how shocked he was that this happened. What kind of scares me is that I wasn’t that shocked. I was actually surprised that it took this long for something like this to happen.
This line of thinking made me reflect upon a theory that I have. I suspect that if you were to take a poll of three groups of people – one pro-2A, one pro-gun control, and one that does not have a strong opinion either way, you’d find that only the pro-2A people were not that surprised about what happened.
People who have embraced the concept of personal responsibility for their own protection and that of their loved ones are all too familiar with the nature of evil. The evil that enables a person to detonate a bomb that kills an eight year old boy whose only crime was that he wanted to cheer on his father, the evil that enables a troubled teen to walk into a school and gun down first graders, the evil that possesses men as they burn, rape, and murder their own countrymen and women in distant lands – that evil is all too familiar to those of us who have chosen to take responsibility for ourselves.
People who choose — intentionally or through inaction — to live in condition white are always the ones who are shocked by this naked vision of evil. It presents them with extreme cognitive dissonance as they try to reconcile their vision of the State’s almighty protective blanket with the simple truth that the State can’t actually protect them from all dangers all the time.
Would the outcome have been different had the crowd been packed with 2A people? Maybe, maybe not. I do know that people who believe in personal protection are usually more aware of their surroundings and are on the lookout for things that seem out of place.
Would one of us standing near the finish line have noticed someone doing something suspicious with a trash can? It’s impossible to say, but one thing we can be relatively sure of is that those in condition white had a near-zero chance of noticing something as their world view didn’t allow for the possibility that something bad could happen – especially with all those police officers around.
If there is to be any silver lining in this terrible tragedy, it’s that maybe a few more people will come to the realization that they need to step up and take responsibility for their own safety. Uncle Sam can’t do it for you. I’m not saying they need to jump on the pro-gun bandwagon, nice as that would be. What I am saying, though, is that they need to open their eyes to the nature of evil and choose whatever path their conscience dictates.
So lets recap:
1.) Today, Law enforcement rarely arrests individuals in violation of NICS law.
2.) Today, Prosecution rarely advances cases against those individuals who ARE arrested.
3.) The NICS system is incomplete because very few groups have the funding, resources, or will to submit names of individuals.
BUT…
1.) We assume expanding this program will lead to more arrests (without additional funding).
2.) We assume we’ll catch the bad-guys, even though we don’t even prosecute the bad guys we DO catch (without additional funding).
3.) We assume that data will be complete without violating innocent citizen’s rights, but NOT lead to a registry in order to complete such data.
Riiiiight…
I wondered the same thing. I wondered if I were there if I would have noticed something not right. I will never know but I do know that I would have had a better chance of seeing something that was not right far easier than most others.
After sitting in Church and watching over all the people no one but me keeps their head moving and scanning the whole Church. I sit in Restaurants and keep my head moving and am amazed at everyone else with their heads down eating or talking to their table mate and not paying attention to what is going on around them. Where ever I go I see this same thing. Everyone in their own little world not paying attention on what is going on around them.
I agree that pro-2A people, like myself, are not shocked and I find it odd that a news person would be shocked at such a thing. There were plenty of people at that event and some of them are bound to be pro-2A people. I say this as someone who grew up in the Boston area and knows the city pretty well. After all, there are lots of military folks who run that race, and their families are there watching.
So no, I don’t think that a crowd of only pro-2A people would have noticed anything more at this event or any other where everyone’s attention is on the event. However, a day at the mall is different. There is nothing on which to focus one’s attention so pro-2A folks probably do notice more.
Hope this bill bites the dust… KEEP CALLING!!!! ROBBLE! ROBBLE! ROBBLE!!!!!!!!!
Harry Reid was the last to vote he knew it wasn’t going to pass. He just saved himself the trouble of voting for a dead bill. Let’s be clear his vote did not change anything.
There are 8 more amendment votes scheduled for today, if I remember correctly.
Keep your eyes open.
This is far from over. Because elections!
It’s simple, really. If they don’t come for the guns, they won’t get the bullets. And don’t give us any of that “we’re just following orders” bullsh1t. That excuse went bye-bye with Nuremberg.
In regards to Cornyn National Concealed Carry Reciprocity Amendment , as much as I want it, I would rather have the states come to an agreement with one another on an individual bases than have it forced top down. It’s come to a point where the more the Feds gets involved in Constitutional issues, (without proper amendment procedures and/or the use of Constitutional convention) even with the “best” attention, it becomes a mess. Regardless as good as a sign this is, we still have to maintain vigilance for Liberty. No doubt Reid will continue to try to push this through once more. Oh and look, there’s the president up there again, using those poor parents of Sandy Hook as a political weapon. Shameful.
Troopers you know its an unconstitutional law, don’t enforce it.
You took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of both NY and the United States.
You have nothing to fear from me or my guns.
I have the utmost respect for you and am glad your willing to do the job.
Do what we all know is to try to enforce an unjust, unconstitutional illegal law……
Then you might just have a bit of a right to feel my wrath if it should happen we cross paths over this.
Just do it as you feel is right and tell Cuomo what bus he can take out of town.