The Constitution is My Carry Permit

My fellow RedStater who goes by the handle, “Write Winger” kicked out a great article a few days ago regarding a bogus study alleging that states with fewer gun owners and more restrictive laws have fewer mass shootings. I won’t waste your time by repeating what my associate wrote. Please do, however, check out his well-written article, as it reinforces the view that the leftists will stoop to any level to disarm Americans.

Shortly after Winger’s article, another RedStater, Brandon Morse wrote a stellar rebuke to the liberal trope that the “Good Guy with a gun, doesn’t exist.” Great article; I suggest you look his over too. Morse’s last paragraph is a perfect lead-in to my offering.

Morse’s conclusion,

At the end of the day, when it comes to a sudden attack, a civilian carrying a gun is more likely to stop it. While police may arrive on the scene to help, they’re usually minutes away when seconds count.

Oddly, the leftists continue to promote laws that effectively disarm law-abiding citizens despite the fact that they have been proven time and again, not to work. What’s worse, not only do these laws not work but, in the case of mass shootings, they greatly increase the casualty count in a mass shooting situation.

There is a reason mass killers choose gun free zones. They want to murder the greatest number of people in the shortest possible time. In a gun free zone, governments and sometimes even private entities use the force of law to preclude effective resistance, relying on a rapid response from police forces. However, as Morse points out, “When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.”

This was glaringly true in a Sacramento mass shooting in November 2017. Police arrived on the scene in minutes, just in time to explode “suspicious devices,” evacuate the wounded & unhurt and sadly, to count the dead. The killers? Gone, to be later killed in a roadside shootout with police.

The above is most certainly not to disparage law enforcement. Law Enforcement did a stellar job. Like most of the men and women in that profession I have had the privilege to work with, these warriors, despite their own personal risk, “ran to the sound of the guns,” one ending up wounded in the roadside shootout. Rapid and effective police work led to finding the killers and sending them to their just reward. The police and other first responders were heroes, all.

But, that’s not the point. In mass shootings, the critical issue is time. It is borderline axiomatic that no matter how many gun laws we enact or how many unconstitutional federal regulations a President signs off on (Bump Stock Ban) none of these can ever prevent a determined killer from gaining access to a firearm and getting off the first shot. Leftist platitudes notwithstanding, that’s the way it is. Period. Full Stop.

The critical time element spans from that first shot until the first “good guy with a gun” shows up. The time it takes for that good guy to show up is inversely proportional to the casualty count. On multiple occasions, a speedy arrival has limited a possible mass casualty event, to one or two victims. It’s self-evident that the quickest a good guy can show up is if he is already there.

There are a couple of ways to ensure such instant arrival of the good guy with a gun. The first is pretty common—armed security officers. You see this at many government facilities. In certain situations, this might be the preferred solution. However, this solution is not universally practical or necessarily even desirable.

There is the added expense and, possibly worse, forcing citizens to undergo an airport-style screening in order to go to the movies. Most importantly, it abdicates the responsibility every adult American has for his own protection, that of his family and his fellow citizens.

The other way to ensure instant arrival of the good guy is lawful concealed and/or open carry by law-abiding adult citizens who have not been adjudicated mentally incompetent to do so by a judge. Gun free zones preclude this possibility. By force of law, they prohibit adult citizens from defending themselves, their neighbors, and, in the case of schools, the children in their charge. As in the December 2015 shooting in San Bernardino with 14 dead, a gun free zone allowed killers to ply their evil trade in a leisurely fashion, even having time to reload in order to continue their mayhem.

It’s time we as Conservatives publicly and loudly rebuke the liberal left along with their RINO enablers. We need to call them out in simple, clear language. We need to demand the left be accountable for their continued desire to prescribe solutions that not only don’t work but take away our right to self-defense and cause needless deaths. It’s time we look them in the eye and instead of acting as though their policy is a legitimate political position, start ascribing malice to them.

Mike Ford is a retired Infantry Officer and former Deputy Sheriff who writes on Military, Foreign Affairs and occasionally dabbles in Political and Economic matters.

Follow him on Twitter: @MikeFor10394583

You can find his other Red State work here.