Owning or carrying a gun for self-defense requires a measure of courage. Taking responsibility for your own safety, the safety or your loved ones and/or other innocent life is a courageous act. Why? Using a firearm for self-defense puts the gun owner in the crosshairs. As our readers acknowledged in our post on countering terrorism, defending yourself by force of arms is an inherently risky business. It requires no small measure of intestinal fortitude; before, during and after an attack. I’m not saying that people who don’t have a gun for self-defense are wimps but . . .
OK, I am. If a person understands the dangers of going through life unarmed and accepts their potential fate, they get a pass. But if they refuse to acknowledge the danger, or worse, try to disarm their fellow citizens in some misguided attempt to protect themselves, they are wimps of one sort or another.
We could talk about how America became a nation of wimps. How and why Travis County decided that the West Ridge Middle School Wildcats’ motto would be “Respectful, Responsible, Safe” instead of, say, “Decisive, Determined, Dedicated to Freedom.” Or something like that. The real question is, how do we fix this?
On the gun front, I’d like to see firearms training and rifle teams back in the schools. More than that, I’d like to see the NRA and the firearms industry break the mainstream media ban on firearms-related advertising. The People of the Gun have a compelling message: defend freedom. Until and unless we get out of our echo chamber and change the culture, we’re fighting an uphill battle. Get our message into the mainstream and we’ll win.
Your thoughts?