“‘I know everything about you,’ said the caller in a high-pitched voice. ‘I’ve been watching you. Your every step. I’m coming for you Emily.’ Also, ‘I’m a crazy mother f–er. This is not a game. This is not for some f–ing scary f–ing movie. This is real business.’ Finally the caller ended with, ‘Don’t you think of going to the police.'” So, Washington Times gun rights gal Emily Miller received a death threat. Not that it’s all about me, but so have I. Several. The main difference between Ms. Miller and myself (other than the obvious): I have a RI weapons permit. And a City of Providence concealed carry permit. Ms. Miller can’t carry in D.C. That’s left her a bit “on edge” . . .
Listening to the message, my hands were shaking so hard, I couldn’t dial the phone. With my heart pounding, I ran to my car and drove to the nearest police station. It was dark out, but I looked in my rearview mirror as I drove, hoping just to get in the parking lot before something happened.
I played the message to the desk officer, but she was nonplussed. “Did you break up with a boyfriend recently?” she asked. No. “Is there an ex-husband?” No. “What about a girl who thinks you dated her boyfriend?” No, I said there’s nothing like that in my life. I refused to be brushed off as a girl in a love triangle.
“You should know that this might be a threat of violence,” I said pointedly. “I’ve been writing a series of articles in the newspaper about getting a gun in D.C., and some people aren’t happy about it.” That was enough to get her to call a detective to the front desk to take me seriously.
So if you’re a single woman in the nation’s capital who doesn’t write for a national newspaper/website, you’re SOL. Actually, you’re SOL even if you do. The po-po told Ms. Miller it was OK to buy pepper spray on the DL: ““Look, if you use it for self-defense, we won’t charge you.”
Somehow in the convoluted logic of public safety laws in the District, I am supposed to be comforted that if I attempt to defend myself with pepper spray against an armed homicidal maniac on the street, I probably won’t go to jail for it. I don’t blame the police for this stupidity, but rather the liberal city council that passes these inane ordinances in the name of public safety.
Ms. Miller concludes by railing against waiting periods for permission to keep a gun at home.
This is what makes the waiting periods so dangerous. People get guns because they [the people] aren’t safe. When you arbitrarily make them wait, while not disarming the bad guys, you’re just setting people up to be victims.
Methinks Ms. Miller needs to think a bit more globally and focus on the right to purchase and carry a firearm in DC. Meanwhile, if I were her, I’d be tempted to carry anyway. A real career builder, should things go south. At least in theory.
[Note to Ms. Miller: knees bent, butt out]