During my 26 years as a police officer for the city of Greenville, I never considered the average citizen and his guns (military sty1e or otherwise) a threat to my safety. Thegreatest risk to police and the public is a changing demographic that reflects loss of traditional norms and standards, and a dysfunctional judiciary, including our U.S. Supreme Court that has made consistent, timely applications of the death penalty impossible.
When news of the horrific slaughter at Newtown, CT, reached anti-gun politicians (who spend most of their time under the protection of armed security) and the liberal media, they began their usual “blame the gun” propaganda. Never mind that such maniacal carnage could have been created with a baseball bat. The truth about guns and crime does not fit their agenda for making all firearms in the hands of the public as contraband as cocaine. Thus they ignore hundreds of “saves” that occur each year due to lawful acts of citizens using guns to defend themselves and others, most often without discharging their weapons.
Equally immaterial to these bureaucrats is the fact that tens of millions of semi-automatic, high-capacity, military-looking rifles (erroneously labeled “assault rifles” by these types and the media) are in the hands of citizens, yet only a minuscule fraction of one percent have been used in criminal acts. Nevertheless they are crusading for laws that will ban the lot, knowing such laws affect only the law-abiding—not psychopaths and sociopaths that use them to kill.
I have been a member of the National Rifle Association for 35 years and am about to renew
my membership. I firmly agree with Wayne Lapierre, the organization’s Executive Vice President: The best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.