The world the people behind Mayors Against Illegal Guns inhabit seems to be mighty black and white. With maybe a slight green tinge to the sky. Mark Glaze, executive director of MAIG, believes that someone should only be allowed to use a gun to defend themselves if their attacker also has a one. In his opinion, the lack of a gun indicates that the attacker “just wants to have a fistfight.” Yeah, well, tell that to the two people per day in this country who are beaten to death with their attackers’ bare hands. Or the 12 others who die every day from attacks that don’t involve firearms. In those cases, Mark Glaze would rather the victim not even have the option to defend their lives. Here’s the transcript of a conversation he had recently with noted Constitutionalist Chris Matthews via FreeBeacon.com:
MARK GLAZE: Very often somebody will come at you. They might want to have a fistfight. They might come at you with an axe handle.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Would you consider the guy with the axe handle armed or not?
MARK GLAZE: Not with a gun.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I would consider him armed [laughter].
MARK GLAZE: I have a word for him. I grew up in Colorado where my dad was a gun dealer, and a guy who shoots somebody who has anything other than a gun when they could have done something else like talk or fight with their fists –
CHRIS MATTHEWS: How do you talk to a guy with an axe handle?
MARK GLAZE: Well, you fight him. You run away. You deescalate the situation.
What’s Glaze’s position on those who can’t fight? Or can’t run away? Or don’t speak the same language as their attacker and thus can’t “deescalate.” Do those people have a right to armed self defense? What does it tell you when Chris Matthews is the voice of reason in any given conversation?