I was in my jeep on a hot summer evening just as the sun was going down. I enjoy having the doors and top off. I was stopped at a red light and I flipped on my bright lights accidentally. The man in the car in front of me got upset. He got out of his car running toward me yelling and cussing up a storm. This guy was a huge Tongan. My mind was thinking about how just minutes ago my dad and I had watched the news telling of a man who was in his jeep and was shot because he didn’t give his jeep to the man fast enough. Franticly, I thought that I needed to protect myself. With shaking hands, I grabbed my pepper mace from my purse. Thinking, oh this will be good if he’s on drug’s I can just tick him off more by spraying him with my pepper mace. I thought I could just run him over, or I could drive through the red light and might cause a car accident. I could honk the horn scream as loud as I could bringing as much attention to the situation as possible, in hopes that someone might come to my aid. Being in this situation made me feel incredibly small, vulnerable and alone. I was without the usual doors that offers some protection with locks. From then on having had this experience, I wanted to have a carry permit, just in case I need to protect myself or others that I love. Have you ever be in a situation that made you feel inferior like I did in this situation? Eleanor Roosevelt said, “ No one should ever make you feel inferior with out your consent.” With a gun, you can be sure no one makes you feel inferior without your consent. No one should ever be able to make you feel that way.
Not using the right to bear arms takes away the ability to save our life when it is being threatened. Using gun’s gives us the ability to over throw a corrupt government. The loss of using gun’s goes hand in hand with losing the freedoms that comes with the help of using our gun’s.
You can save your life by carrying a gun with you. In the book “Guns in the United States,” it told of some instances how having a gun helped protect an innocent civilian. An intruder entered a woman’s house and chocked her. She fell quickly to the floor and pulled a shotgun out from under her couch, scaring the intruder away. (Page 27-30, Dolan & Scariano)
Having talked with a retired Police Officer Ralph Whitaker or know as my Grandpa I interviewed him. I asked him if he had been called to a house where a citizen had shot or pulled out a gun saving their own life. He said no, but he was sure that people had used a gun scaring off the predator. Most of the times in that situation people didn’t fill out a police report, thinking no harm no foul.
We see in movies how the bad guys are able to get gun’s without much trouble. It happens in the real world too. During the interview, I was told the unforgettable story of Officer Percy Clark that still is told today in the halls of the police department. Percy was an excellent marks man, he was the instructor who trained the police officers in combat shooting. Percy was on a stake out with other police officers. The police had been told that the pharmacy was going to robbed for drugs. The robbers came out of the pharmacy, Percy said, to the two robbers “gentlemen you are under arrest”. One of the robbers started to fire on Percy shooting him in the eye, killing him there in the street. Percy’s two police friend’s were on the stake out with him shoot, killed the one of the robbers, and arrested the other. The gun that was used to kill Officer Percy Clark was seen as a prize to many criminals. The weapon was a nickel-plated lama. This story emphasizes that criminals have guns and are not afraid to use them even against law enforcement that are armed and trained. That makes it even more important for people to know how to protect themselves against criminals. How can we permit the criminals to have gun’s and we not, defend ourselves? We make our self’s a target.
In the book “ Gun’s In The United States” it says that “ The bumper stickers reflect a fundamental anti-control view: that the nation’s 70 million legal gun owners and the vast majority of law-abiding Americans are not responsible for today’s gun violence and crime. To substantiate this view, they point to studies showing that 99 percent of our legal gun owners do not commit crimes with them and that most violent acts, in the home and on the street, are committed by people with histories of violence.” (Page 29-30 Dolan & Scariano) The statement shows that it’s not the law-abiding American’s who are the killers but the people who have committed violent crimes in the past. In addition, Jefferson said “ laws that forbid the carrying of arms… disarms only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes… Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”
I read on the Internet a quote from Admiral Yamamoto it states, “You cannot invade mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass.” The Japanese realized that we were packing and anyone at that time of the Second World War people would have shot and killed them on the spot. Now we are also seen as the country that slaps the terrorists on the hand saying “ bad child must not crash planes into highly populated buildings. If we are going to allow the criminals to walk around us, don’t you think we should at least have something to protect ourselves with, like a gun? After all, we are responsible for our life.
We have the ability to resist tyranny with the help of a gun. James Burgh was a British Author who wrote Political Disquisitions said, “ The possession of arms is the distinction between a free man and a slave.” (Page 27-30 Dolan & Scariano)
The saying that has been said in many movies’ and in many school grounds is when a bully is picking on a smaller person someone yells “pick on somebody your own size”. The revolver is known as a peacemaker it was and is an equalizer to this day. If you have a big man and a small man fight, the big man has a better chance than the small man does of wining the fight. However, a gun kills a big man and a small man in the same amount of time. It doesn’t help if you are bigger or smaller a gun has the same effect on both of them. A rhyme my Grandpa told me is “ If you meet a bully twice your size call on me, call on me I will equalize”. The revolver is known as the peacemaker.
In history we can look back and see how giving guns up was the biggest mistake Europe ever made. Not having gun’s made it almost impossible to get rid of the corrupt government. Hitler said “The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors that have allowed there subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty. So let's not have any native militia or native police. German troops alone will bear the sole responsibility for the maintenance of law and order throughout the occupied Russian territories, and a system of military strong-points must be evolved to cover the entire occupied country.” Adolph Hitler, dinner talk on April 11, 1942, quoted in Hitler's Table Talk 1941-44: His Private Conversations, Second Edition (1973), (Page. 425-426. Translated by Norman Cameron and R. H. Stevens.)
Even Hitler got the point that once you have control over gun’s the people have no power. They must wait for someone to come to their aid. From Europe’s mistake, we hopefully learned that when their gun’s were taken away the people of Europe had no way to fight back effectively. The people of Europe became slaves of fear and lost their freedoms. They had let themselves become slaves. They could only stand by and watch the great destruction happen to their beloved country. They had given up their power as a people, when they gave their gun’s away, their freedoms and became slaves.
You are at the mercy of someone else when you are unable to defend yourself. Roosevelt said, “ Speak softly and carry a big stick”. What Roosevelt was saying was protect yourself but don’t provoke it. With a carry permit you are only suppose to pull out a gun when you are going to use it. Your not suppose to have it in sight or provoke people with it. You can’t always depend on police officers or others for your safety. You have to stand up on your own to feet and defend yourself. Most of the time when people are in scary situations it is usually when they are alone and unprotected. You are usually by yourself when you are going to be attacked. A well-known saying is safety in numbers. However, I say that safety is in how accurate and how well you know how to use your gun. A retired Police Officer Ralph Whitaker said, “That citizens need to defend themselves police can’t be every where at once”. How often do we hear that a shooting happened during the middle of the day? Not very often, but you do hear more often of people’s houses being broken into and stores being robbed early in the morning or late at night.
John F. Kennedy said “ today we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom”.
George Washington our first President said “ A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government”.
Our past President’s realized why it was important to have gun’s in our society and carry them daily. Then why have so many views in our government changed? Are we as a country going to turn into Europe? Charles A. Beard said “ you need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.”
During the interview, I asked Ralph if he thought we should be able to shoot people that break into our homes. He said, “ that it is better to be tried by twelve people than to be carried by six”. You have a better chance of getting a jury to side with you than you can with the criminal who is threatening your life and your families. Most people side with the one who has just had their house broken into and their life threatened.
At the end of my run in with the huge Tongan, it turned out that I didn’t have to defend myself. However, who knows if every situation will just end up with being yelled at. It could have easily ended up worse. I didn’t know he was going to yell and walk over to the drivers side and ask me what my problem was. I was more worried about what I needed to do. The situation I was in could have gone the same way the man’s did, who got shoot. We just don’t know what can happen. For that reason of not knowing what can happen, or who you can run into, I love the boy scout’s motto always be prepared. It doesn’t say what to be prepared for just to always be prepared. I never want to have those feeling of being scared for my life again. We shouldn’t have to fear that our life could end, but we do. We live in a world where we can’t ignore what goes on around us. You cannot be saved through ignorance. We need to know how to protect and defend ourselves because police can’t always be there. Carrying a gun gives you the power to save your life and possibly others life’s. A gun is an equalizer. A gun can help save your life, and it is gives the ability to over power our government if we need to. If we let the freedoms of having guns continue to get more strict we will see our country fall into the wrong hand’s. Destroying what our founding fathers gave us. We should remember that they went against England giving us the country that we have today. George Washington said “ Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty, teeth and the keystone under independence. The church, the plow, the prairie wagon, and citizen’s firearms are indelibly related. From the hour, the pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to insure peace, security and happiness, the rifle and the pistol are equally indispensable. Every corner of this land knows firearms, and more than 99/100 percent of them by their silence indicate they are in safe and sane hands. They very atmosphere of fire arms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference; they deserve a place with all that’s good. When firearms, go all goes; we need them every hour”. Let us stand as a nation strong and able to defend our country and ourselves with the help from gun’s.
Citation’s
Dolan, Edward, and Margaret scariano. Guns in the United States. 1st ed.,. New York, New York: Moffa,Inc, 1994. 27-30
Interview Ralph Whitaker
Dolan, Edward, and Margaret scariano. Guns in the United States. 1st ed.,. New York, New York: Moffa,Inc, 1994. 29-30
http://jpetrie.myweb.uga.edu/TJ.html
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Dolan, Edward, and Margaret scariano. Guns in the United States. 1st ed.,. New York, New York: Moffa,Inc, 1994. 27-30
http://www.sightm1911.com/Care/Gun_Quotes.htm
"Modern Leaders' Thoughts On Gun Control." Good Gun Quotes. 28August2008. The Sight, Web. 17 Dec 2009.
http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/gun-quotations-founding-fathers
"Defending Your Firearm Rights." Gun Quotations ofo the Founding Fathers. Buckeye Firearms Association, Web. 17 Dec 2009.
http://frankwarner.typepad.com/free_frank_warner/2008/06/liberty-teeth-g.html
Warner, Frank. "Free Frank WArner ALIBERAL FOR LIBERRATION." Liberty teeth: George Washington. 28june2008. Web. 17 Dec 2009.
