You may recall our recent post Amanda Marcotte: Guns Are Like a Dildo in a Drawer. Ms. Marcotte argued that American gun owners don’t need guns because they don’t need guns. The odds of needing a firearm for self-defense are so low anyone who exercises their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms is paranoid (or worse). As our readers pointed out, the odds of needing a fire extinguisher in your home are also low. People have them because the cost of not having a fire extinguisher when you need one are high. Same thing with guns. And there’s no getting around the fact that . . .
Bad things happen to good people. People minding their own business in places where you wouldn’t expect evil to appear.
Click here to read the latimes.com story of an attack on an Asian family shopping at the San Jose Walmart. Short story shorter, a woman named Maria Garate [above] smuggled a crowbar into the store, approached the family and hit the four-year-old girl, who was sitting in the shopping cart. When Garate tried to swing again, the father stepped in to take the blow.
Bystanders helped subdue Garate, preventing further injury. The child survived the attack with non-life threatening injuries.
The DA said Garate targeted the family because they’re Asian. Garate told investigators she was upset that the child did not die. And Marcotte wonders why anyone would carry a gun for self-defense. That said . . .
Anti-gunners — for whom the term idée fixe was invented — will no doubt argue that a self-defense firearm would not have changed the outcome. Given the element of surprise, neither parent could have drawn a firearm from concealment before the initial strike. Even if they had, it wouldn’t have stopped the initial blow.
True, but that’s hardly the whole story . . .
Carrying a firearm tends to increas the owner’s situational awareness. Extra awareness may have given the couple enough time to prevent the original blow – by moving away, striking Garate with an object, drawing a firearm and perhaps shooting her. But that’s pure conjecture based on a supposition without any statistical evidence. Yes, but there are lots of ways this could have played out . . .
What if the father hadn’t been able to intervene? What if he wasn’t there? What if Garate had killed the father with her first blow, then turned to murder his child? I’m not saying the mother couldn’t or wouldn’t have been able to defend the four-year-old, but how? How do you stop someone trying to kill your child with a crowbar in a Walmart?
Shoot them. Why not? Who wouldn’t shoot someone trying to kill his or her child? Is there a more effective method of self-defense? Maybe. Maybe not. It depends on the situation. But if shooting an attacker or attackers is the best solution, you’re going to need a gun. Which Marcotte doesn’t think anyone needs – even if someone does. Because that someone isn’t likely to be her. Or you. Unless it is. Then what?
Then, if you live in San Jose and you can’t get “permission” to carry, or you live somewhere else where you can carry and choose not to, you do what you can with the tools you have – without the one tool that gives you the best chance of survival. Good luck with that.