Gun control advocates do their best to ignore the 800-pound gorilla in the gun rights room: armed self-defense. How in the world do you counter the idea that Americans shouldn’t be defenseless against violent crime? The usual “answer” . . .
Never mind that! Disarm the attacker! Disarm all attackers! Disarm potential attackers! Disarm all potential attackers!
If you think about it — and gun control advocates strongly suggest you don’t — that’s a really stupid “argument.” What happens when someone slips through the disarmament net, as they do every single day of the year, sometimes in shockingly spectacular fashion?
People die.
Generally speaking people don’t want to die. So they do things to forestall the inevitable. Like . . . buy a gun.
The only way to convince someone that buying a gun is a bad way to defend themselves: tell them owning a gun is more dangerous — lethal! — than not owning a gun.
Never mind the millions of Americans who own and OMG carry guns without shooting themselves or any other innocent person. Or the millions of Americans — yes millions — who manage to use a gun to defend themselves without shooting themselves or other innocent life.
Yup the stupid “arguments” against armed self-defense start to pile-up, as stupid arguments are wont to do. But things get really dumb when antis try to show people they’re better off without a gun when attacked.
Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Ross of washingtonpost.com presents I’ve had guns pointed at me. I’m glad I didn’t have one.
“Get on your knees,” said the one with the TEC-9. I obeyed, and both put their guns to my head. At that point, I was subject to a psychological phenomenon I’d never believed was real: I had an out-of-body experience. I was suddenly a good 10 feet away, watching this strangely quiet scene. And in a state of otherworldly calm, I thought, “You’re going to hear two pops and then you’re dead.”
They demanded my wallet, which I handed over before they trotted off.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Mr. Ross is about to say “if I’d had a gun I would have escalated the situation, been shot and killed.” Which may well have been true.
On the other hand, these armed muggers could have shot Mr. Ross even after he complied.
A possibility which may account for the general lack of “Whew! Thank goodness I didn’t have a gun when I was mugged” articles. Not to mention “Thank goodness I didn’t have a gun when I was raped” articles.
The fact that Mr. Ross doesn’t go all “What could I have done?” may betray the author/victim’s unspoken understanding that anyone with half a brain — or a set of balls — would prefer to have a gun on their person when facing grievous bodily harm or death (e.g., summary execution) rather than not.
Oh wait. Did I say Mr. Ross doesn’t play the “a gun would have made things worse” card? He does! After chronicling his second close encounter with an armed thug. And it goes a little something like this . . .
Halfway through our meal, two men wearing pantyhose to cover their faces entered the restaurant. The first approached the bank of tables where we sat, pointed a sawed-off shotgun at my wife’s face, and ordered everyone to get on the ground.
You might argue that I was trained by now because, as I lay on my back staring at the ceiling, I’d laced my hands behind my head, as if reconciled to my fate. My friend nearest me, meanwhile, had gone into a fetal position, holding all his cash in the air — and he’d had five years of jujitsu training. The assailants split up, the more efficiently to rob the place. Soon the one carrying the shotgun was back at our table.
We looked directly at each other. He then lowered his weapon and took, of all things, my Blackberry. When he turned to walk away, I remember thinking, “If I had a gun now, I could shoot him.”
But then what? His partner could be heard across the floor, pistol-whipping the kitchen staff. Who knew what would happen after I squeezed off a round? Who might kill whom, or get caught in the crossfire? And when the police did finally arrive, a couple of minutes after the pair fled, what was even more obvious was that the delay probably saved lives. Two minutes earlier and it might have been a bloodbath.
And there you have it. Be a good little victim and don’t make things worse. See? You did the right thing! Although the pistol whipped kitchen staff may have had a different perspective.
As would the victims of brutal attacks that didn’t end so tidily. And their families, friends and colleagues. And those who can’t speak on the subject because they’re dead.
Just because a teacher is armed doesn’t mean he or she is a deterrent to an attacker, any more than a vicious-looking dog is. The only thing that arming our nation’s teachers would do is further escalate an insane situation, one where educators with Glocks, say, are asked, in active-shooter situations, to take aim at assailants with AR-15s. It’s not just adding exponentially more lethal contingencies to an already deadly situation. It’s like bringing a lacrosse stick to a gunfight.
That’s the latest wrinkle in the “you don’t want to own a gun” canon: a handgun is useless against an AR-15. (Hence the picture of someone buying an AR at the top of the Post’s post.) I reckon that’s a good argument for giving teachers access to AR-15s, but what do I know?
Only this: people who don’t want to carry a gun to defend innocent life are OK in my book. That’s their choice. I have a hard time accepting hoplohobia from teachers, but it’s not my job to force anyone to tool-up.
That said, unarmed disarmists — gun-free gun control advocates who want to stop other people from being able to use a gun to defend themselves from grievous bodily harm or death — deserve nothing but contempt.
They are a direct threat to our safety, both individually and as a society. Same goes for the news organizations that give gun control advocates the oxygen of publicity.
Hey, if you can’t trust an armed robber to do the right thing, whom CAN you trust…?
What really pisses me off is people like him are the reason it is profitable to mug people. But of course they never see it that way.
Well I guess you can trust him as much as you can trust any liberal.
“two men wearing PANTYHOSE (?) to cover their faces entered the restaurant.”
Do thiefs still use those as a disguise? Highly doubtful!
I heard that “ski masks” are more popular, practical and, quite FASHIONABLE!
Right. And where the fuck did they find a Tech 9 these days? They rob a museum before they jumped him?
lots of people have tech 9s
to use for the purpose they bought them, home and self defense
i have a thompson hits a lot harder,i carry it a violin case
I’m throwing the BS card on that entire narrative.
What a maroon! I’d say he got lucky twice.
I’d say he’s probably just making sh*t up.
Lol, Ghost written by Brian Williams.
He thinks we’re gulli-bulls!
What a narcissistic tw@twaffle to believe the choices he made are the right and only way they should be done.
Or that we’d care.
Or that we’d ever not kill him before letting him decide how we should act, much less how we should defend ourselves.
Or, that we were the people in in pantyhose masks. . .
/sarc, for one of them.
I’m gonna go out on a limb here and suggest he move away from wherever he is.
#sh!thole
Tsk, tsk! Don’t you know that crime is, like terrorism a normal part of living in a big city. That you don’t accept it is your problem…
/do I really need a sarc tag?
That’s kinda the thought that crossed my mind. Where does this dumbass live… California?
Tom how could you have taught anyone math when you wrongly claim NFLers disproportionately commit crimes!?
How could you teach anything that requires critical thinking when the very source you cite as supposed evidence for NFLers disproportionate criminality says JUST THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOU CLAIMED!?
And how can we rely on anything you post when your copy and paste omitted the one sentence that contradicted your racist smear of NFLers as disproportionately criminal!?
Ah yes, the dulcet tones of a pistol whipping happening in the next room. So very relaxing.
Guy would probably be singing a different tune had the perps been intent on gang raping his wife instead of robbery. Then again, maybe not…
He would’t be singing a different tune. He’d probably would pray they didn’t come for him next.
Oh, come now. In the first encounter he liked being on his knees an in the second he was completely relaxed laying on the floor, looking up, hands behind his head, no trouble in the world.
Now imagine the problems if he was armed! Or if cops didn’t wait around the corner, waiting for the perps to leave. Someone could have been shot. Maybe even killed! The robbers for example, that would be tragic. Right when they started to turn their lifes around too.
I’m not taking self defense advice from someone who thinks that pistol and lacrosse stick are equally useless in a gunfight.
If this pansy wants to be defenseless – that’s his problem. But it starts to be my problem when he wants us to be defenseless also.
I’d like to see the police reports from these incidents personally. Can we get a #releasethereports Twitter thing going? I highly doubt these incidents aren’t at least embellished.
Not a police report, but here is info on the one –
http://nashvillecitypaper.com/content/city-news/police-seek-two-men-hostile-holland-house-robbery
So a revolver changed into a tech 9?
Hmmm guns that Biden says are “good” guns, shotgun and revolver
Bear in mind that a lot of news reporters don’t know the difference between a revolver and a pistol, and the author of the article probably doesn’t know the difference between a revolver and a Tec 9. Given his general scaredy-cat ignorance, I would suggest he probably doesn’t know the difference between a firearm and a cap pistol.
Haters gonna hate but that’s what I call a success story.
If you are a criminal, it is one hundred percent success. For robbed and assaulted victims, not so much.
Where in the heck do you live that they are BOLD enough to ROB a restaurant DURING biz hours?
a gun free zone!
now there is your problem –now fix it!
His ultimate problem is that he has no situational awareness. That’s really the root of his issues.
His argument against arming teachers is a non sequitur. No one is asking teachers to go out hunting the shooter but if the BG manages to breach the classroom at some point he’s gotta come through the doorway where he’s nicely framed and actually pretty easy to put down with a handgun if you’re ready and waiting for him.
That door is not referred to (by some) as a “fatal funnel” for no reason.
A TEC-9 and a sawed off shotgun?!
I know, where does this guy hang out?
But, but, but the NFA is effective, so criminals can’t have sawn off shotguns. Maybe the story isn’t true.
I’m raising the BS flag here. This guy is obviously not a gun guy, so how would he know a Tec-9 from any other weapon? Also, I like how he throws in the fact that his “friend” had years of Ju Jitsu training and he still didn’t try stop the robbery. In my opinion this article is a complete and total lie.
A Tec-9 is fairly distinct.
99% of the US population that at not gang bangers themselves would not know what a tec 9 looks like
Hell, even most gang-bangers probably couldn’t ID a Tec-9. I haven’t seen one for years because they’re bigger pieces of junk than Hi Point pistols. And the shape makes them rather difficult to gang-banger carry
What a big girl…they could’ve raped you, shot you for fun or blown your goofy little head off. Yep you’re too stupid to be ARMED😄
Honestly I’d just laugh if he got raped. Feminine liberal men probably need to worry about that kind of thing these days.
Hey, it’s a lifestyle choice over which he has no control.
And then you have to wonder about his wife.
He sat there, helpless, hands behind his head and watched a thug point a shotgun at his wife’s face?
Maybe they deserve each other.
A victim. ..professional one at that. Hangs around other professionals too.
Can’t get my mind around this mindset they have.
So…….don’t plan to defend yourself AND be glad the popo gonna be late.
Not wanting to be a victim mindset helps.
Judo plus army bayonet training and some luck worked fine 22 years ago when I walked around a corner and had two males try to club me. I had his weapon in my hands so fast that his associate just stood there while his partner hit the ground.
Not a defensive use a I didn’t draw. I did put steel cap boot on neck while I called the cops after his partner ran. Had he been a bit further away different story.
You wouldn’t have heard one pop.
I’ve been shot twice and never had no out of body experience, pissed off as hell I just couldn’t get up. FLAME DELETED
It’s rare that you see a guy so emasculated that he crosses his legs while standing up but, here we are.
A gun gives and takes away options. If I’m wearing a gun there’s things I won’t do- getting drunk in public being the biggest example. But it allows one a way to defend one’s self (and others, if that’s your thing) that otherwise doesn’t exist. It remains, though, an option, not a requirement. The inability of supposedly intellectual people to understand this is frightening.
It’s cool that he survived his encounters and can talk about it. However, he is engaging in some very faulty logic to think that is evidence that being disarmed is wise. After all, plenty of people who were killed in similar situations were also disarmed and just can’t tell their story.
“Washington Post Mugging Victim: I’m Glad I Didn’t Have a Gun!”
Y’know, I’m also glad he didn’t have a gun. All libtards should be disarmed, whether they like it or not.
Honestly, if he wants to give an opinion, at least qualify IDPA marksman. Someone who really doesn’t know how to handle a pistol has no business telling people what can or cannot be done with a handgun.
And I don’t care what gun your carrying, if I can get the jump on you within 50 feet, you are dead, and at 100 feet, I have a hell of a lot better chance than the other guy.
Worst that could happen if a teacher has a handgun and shoots at an attacker with an AR-15 is that the teacher gets shot and killed. But there’s the possible alternative of the attacker getting shot and killed, or disabled, or driven back and held off, etc…whereas with no gun, the teacher likely still gets shot and all the students.
Or, even more likely, the shooter then tops himself. Lets not forget, in nearly every instance when a mass shooter (or would be mass shooter) faces return fire, even inaccurate return fire, the coward then turns his weapon on himself. Plus, schools, even hallways, are not hundreds of yards long. Sure, a handgun lacks the practical accuracy of a rifle. But at classroom distance, that’s less of an issue. Couple that with some very basic combat tactics (as another commenter has already mentioned, it doesn’t take an expert marksman to shoot someone skylined in a doorway at point-blank, ESPECIALLY if they’re not slicing the pie because they don’t expect armed resistance)
Kyle,
I agree completely
If you hide, and the killer enters the room, and you don’t fight fight back… then there is only one possible outcome
You and everyone else get killed
If you fight back then there is the possibility of survival
Even if you only have improvised weapons
If you have a pistol, then you have a fighting chance
Even against a rifle
Just because a teacher is armed doesn’t mean he or she is a deterrent to an attacker, any more than a vicious-looking dog
Except data show that armed teachers or administrators ARE a deterrent. A deterrent doe not mean 100% prevention.
None of the gun laws being proposed would deter an attacker either by this WP strawman.
by the way a vicious looking dog, like a gun Is a proven deterrent, prison interviews with armed robbers, home invaders and rapists prove they both are.
Be a good little victim and just wear this yellow star.
Be a good little victim and live in this area of town.
Be a good little victim and get in the train car.
Be a good little victim and get in the shower.
I don’t own/carry guns so I can not be a victim of a petty robbery, a home break in, or a terrorist shooting at church. I’m prepared for those things as a result. The reason I own/carry a gun is to make sure the government won’t one day say those things to me.
Being a student of history, I always wondered why large sums of people would obediently walk into gas chambers or in front of firing squads. I asked what made these people so different than us. The truth is that they weren’t that much different than people today.
Mr. Ross enjoys anal and having a weapon might have robbed him of that opportunity.
Blaxit
Im always glad when a person who is glad he didnt have a gun, doesn’t have a gun.
He’d have shot the wrong person, or himself, his girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever, and then sued the gun manufacturer, the restaurant, the NRA, etc.
Never force a beta to be an alpha, it doesn’t end well.
These are the clearest examples that The Post doesn’t believe in individual choice, when it comes to firearms. Person X made a choice and believes it was correct in Situation Y. Therefore everyone should make the same choice. QED.
Your assailant is glad you were unarmed too. That was baked into the equation when he targets you.
What a load of crap. Tec-9???I figured by now, all Inte-tec products had broken frames.
When did this shit happen?? 1985???
Is this dumbass lying sack of pig shit a failed television writer??
This is why these people (I use that term loosely they may identify as a rainbow stuffed unicorn) should be sterilized. I’m sorry this “man” takes pride in being professional prey but I would rather be an amatuer shooter and armed victim than a professional victim. Sure I ain’t the greatest pistol shot ever (minute of pop can at best at 10-15 yards) but at least I have the option to attempt to defend my life while this fool doesn’t afford himself that option and actively works to remove\convince others to remove that option.
Non-predator humans SHOULD be sterilized for the good of the species.
Imagine a lion or wolf that hated killing — it’s against nature, regardless of what Hollywood cartoons might depict.
I pretty sure if this the criminal said: I going to borrow your daughter for a little fun, he would be thinking …. THANK GOD, I thought he was going to take me instead.
Trust me. Guys like this always give money to professional panhandlers, because it makes them feel so good and superior.
The idiot was lucky they didn’t gut him just because they could.
This is such a bullshit fake news story. If he was mugged it went most likely like this, if he was robbed it was two black guys with a nickel raven and a Jennings. But most likely, he’s such a beta that two black unarmed kids walked up to him, asked for some change, he pissed himself and gave them his wallet as he begged for them not to rape him.
He must be pretty sharp about firearms to pick out the model of gun right off. He didn’t have any trouble differentiating it from the MP-9, the Gustav M/45 or the KG-99. The sad thing was his lack of concern for students. Parents, listen up. Your teachers are going to roll over and pretend it’ll all go away and they will not do anything to protect your kids when some low-life idiot with half a brain comes in to shoot everybody up. I’m surprised he didn’t suggest having a Go-Pro on his chest so he could get some Youtube footage of the shooter standing over him blowing kids away. Some of you suggested he wouldn’t defend his daughter if she were assaulted…deranged, selfish and merciless parents have given their kids up to save their own skins in the past. He seems to think that is a virtue. I don’t read anywhere that it is an admirable trait. Just glad I’m not related to him.
Best definition of Freedom is: “Your right to make choices I would not make for myself”. That said I carry every day every where legal. Not a cowboy, don’t want to hurt anyone but more than 50 years ago decided my welfare was up to me. It is altogether to common today for the thugs to kill all the victims to avoid identification, for gang reasons, or to watch you die. If you’re a thug and think an old grey haired guy is a good choice have at it. We’ll see if that 100 rounds a week at the sillouettes and steel pays off. Leashing the sheep dogs does not make the sheep safer!
“the latest wrinkle in the “you don’t want to own a gun” canon: a handgun is useless against an AR-15.”
Except when it isn’t useless:
2012: Citizen [ w .357 revolver] shoots trailer park gunman, saves Texas officer.
https://www.policeone.com/Officer-Safety/articles/5939904-Citizen-shoots-trailer-park-gunman-saves-Texas-officer/
Gun registration, followed by confiscation, followed by “arrests”, was how the NAZIs managed to murder 20 million German citizens (only 6 million of the 20 million were Jews)