Roy Exum
I am no fan of Dianne Feinstein, an ultra-liberal from California who serves in the U.S. Senate, but completely agree with her belief after last week’s massacre in Las Vegas. “I’m not sure there is any set of laws that could've prevented it.” That’s proof that I don’t care how you may stand on gun control, the “lone wolf” was a kook that flew under the radar. Killed were 58 people and 489 injured before police could stop it.
Thus, I contend even more strongly that the only thing to stop bad guys with guns is good guys with guns. My second-largest fear, as we embrace this chaotic chapter in time, is that I would ever be forced to take another human’s life with a firearm. What would you have done had you been with your friends at a delightful concert in Las Vegas when a rain of death began? What if you could have shot back?
I can tell you that my biggest fear is being defenseless and watching people I love being killed by some psycho. I rarely carry a firearm – and I am licensed – but when I foresee a potential problem I don’t hesitate to put a hammer-less .38 Special you can hardly see in my hip pocket and I carry a much more lethal large-caliber Glock in the car. I never dreamed it would come to this but the raw truth is “return fire” is the greatest deterrent to ‘enemy’ fire.
Mrs. Feinstein can say what she may about her recourse but if a deranged psychopath opens up with a lethal barrage, I can guarantee the most liberal of all liberals would want to be sitting right next to me at a gun fight. As I have written, there are 300 million firearms in this land of 325 million people. “Good guns” outweigh “bad guns” by 95 percent but “no guns” against a domestic terrorist have zero chance.
My God, the victims were enclosed by a fence, in a fish bowl, and the gunman probably never aimed as he swept the crowd. And the Hollywood libs cry for gun control… it’s completely senseless. Please, this was the 275th “mass shooting” in the United States this year! People died because not one of us fired back. I grant you, I couldn’t hit a 32nd story window with a two-inch sub-nose in the next 60 years but, by golly, I could have tried.
With the Glock, I have a better chance but at least I would have had a tool to use. Ask one of those whose bone is shattered and is bleeding – you want me to carry “a good gun?” Mrs. Feinstein, you admit there is no law that could prohibit the Las Vegas slaughter yet you offer no solution. Since time in memorium, the only way you stop force is with force.
So where are we here? Look no further than Orlando, California, or the murder capital of the United States – Chicago. There is a great gun class given by off-duty members of the Chattanooga Police Department’s SWAT team. They just brush the surface in the two-day session which is required by the state to get a carry permit but in the class are a number of people who have never fired a pistol.
For each it is frightening the first time they hear the noise and feel the weapon recoil but that is why everybody who carries a pistol should know what it’s like. A pistol demands deep respect and, as more and more Americans believe in “self-defense,” safety and knowing how to handle a gun is paramount.
Not long ago the liberals among us were furious when a group of second graders were taken to a gun range. Please, would you rather the seven-year-old finds his father’s pistol in the top drawer of his dad’s desk? Every child should know never, ever touch a pistol at any time. But with some knowledge of kids who don’t always follow orders, what can possibly be better education than taking a school class where professionals can let them hold an unloaded pistol, learn that it is lethal, and hear the loud sound of a policeman shooting at a safe target?
I wish our public schools would partner with law enforcement officers to help our youngest learn to dial 911 if they ever see a firearm in a strange location. Our last census was in 2010 and that year 31,076 Americans were killed by firearms. Another 73,505 were wounded but, man, it is a lot worse today.
In the 20 years our nation was in Viet Nam, we lost 58,000 soldiers. We’ll kill almost as many in one year in our own country. I don’t want any “good person” to fall prey to that so I will carry my “good gun” and try to help until the cavalry shows up. It sure beats sitting there bleeding.
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CAUGHT IN CHAOS? -- I talked to a close Special Forces member around my age who has been in a lot of gun fights about what any of us should do if – at a fenced-in concert – automatic weapon fire began to rain down. Imagine, you are trapped and there is no cover! “Immediately locate a victim and lie down on the opposite side of where the gunfire is originating. You can’t fight back if you die … the first thing, if you have no firearm, is your undivided concern for the person who is down. Sure, their body is shielding you but that’s not how we see it.
“You are providing aid where there was none before. You hope they are only wounded, and you can make a tourniquet with your belt, literally jamb your finger in a bullet wound to keep them from ‘bleeding out,’ mouth-to-mouth resuscitation … you can do a lot. Encourage the victim that help is coming, to stay awake, but if you are standing and running around, you’re a far bigger and easier target than you would be if assisting somebody who has been hit and lying next to them on the ground.
“If they are dead, get small and motionless. Everyone should realize that in a fire fight, the hardest thing to do is to stay focused and force yourself to be as controlled as you can. Breathe evenly. Pray. Most firefights never last long. Stay calm. And when help arrives, yell as loud as you can: “Medic! Medic!”
“Don’t waste words. They know what that means. They know what to do. When control is restored, help … don’t run no matter how scared you are. The danger is past. Look for others until medical responders get there. That’s really the critical minutes when lives are saved.”
“Above all, stay in control of yourself.”
royexum@aol.com