Rob Morse writes [via Ammoland.com]
The French interior minister spoke this week. He said the ministry had learned important lessons. The ministry now understands the recent violent Muslim attacks in both Paris and Brussels. After much discussion, the ministry now guarantees that police and military anti-terrorism units will respond to any terrorist attack in 20 minutes or less. Civilians will have seconds to respond, yet the French interior ministers promises help in 20 minutes . . .
Twenty minutes is long enough for a terrorist group to take hostages and take control of a concert hall . . . again. Twenty minutes gives terrorists time to plant bombs in a soccer stadium or a major hotel .. again. A few Muslim terrorists could kill hundreds of people in an airport in 20 minutes . . . again. It seems the French interior minister didn’t learn his lessons at all.
The lesson for the French people is painfully clear: the death of French citizens is politically acceptable no matter how many are killed. That is a bitter pill to swallow. My readers in the United States are shocked at the French government’s indifference to dead french civilians. Please consider this next news story before we Yanks feel superior.
Senior US military leaders spoke earlier this month. They said that US troops should stay disarmed on US bases. Our soldiers should call for help when they are attacked. We’ve already seen how poorly that solution works. We’ve seen our soldiers killed at home. We’ve had Muslims murder US servicemen at Fort Hood and recruiting centers in Chattanooga. Waiting for help to arrive left many servicemen dead.
It is clear that senior US military leaders will allow soldiers to be killed and wounded . . . again. As with French citizens, dead US soldiers are viewed as acceptable domestic casualties so that senior government officials can serve their political masters.
It makes me sick that US military leaders are so politically correct and personally pliable. I don’t feel much better about the French Interior Minister. In both countries, the central government asks innocent civilians to wait and die until government forces arrive.
Both governments are ready, willing and able to disarm innocent citizens, leaving them as vulnerable targets. Presenting disarmed citizens as bait for terrorists is a horrible idea. Almost any other solution would invite fewer terrorist attacks.
In most of the United States, as in Switzerland and Israel, armed citizens are the distributed defense that is always at the scene of mass public violence. We’ve seen armed civilians stop mass murder time after time.
Unfortunately, that solution fails the big government political test. Armed citizens don’t increase government funding. There isn’t a government bureau of the armed civilian with a multi-billion-dollar budget and huge contracts with political kickbacks. Instead, interior ministers and military leaders stay stuck on stupid with their politically correct ideas. I wish they would consider something other than staying trapped inside the politically correct box.
Instead, we get more of the politically correct status quo. We should expect the same old dead bodies if we provide the same old bad solutions. Sadly, that solution works for big government politicians.
There is a lesson here for all of us. Big government can only think in terms of big government solutions. Big government politicians don’t benefit from small solutions that actually work. Small distributed solutions don’t provide concentrated political profits for politicians. We’re asking an elephant to dance. It can’t.
Shame on us for asking our government to again fix a problem of personal protection. The last time we asked the government for help with personal protection we got the Transportation Safety Administration. I’m tired of having government employees grab my ass. It is time we learned.
We already have a solution at hand. It is available in seconds rather than minutes. Now we need to get government out of the way. Pants on, Gun on. It worked before. It will work again.
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Rob Morse: Rob writes about gun rights at Ammoland, at Clash Daily and on his SlowFacts blog. He hosts the Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast and co-hosts the Polite Society Podcast. He is an NRA pistol instructor and combat handgun competitor.