‘Politically Incorrect’ gun defense

By Larry Pratt

Well, now. This is news! And good news, too. I mean, how often do you see
anybody on national TV actually making sense when they talk aboutguns?
Right. Hardly ever. But, on ABC’s Nov. 3 “Politically Incorrect” program,
comedienne Vicki Lawrence and television’s Judge Joe Brown had many common
sense things to say about owning firearms. Judge Brown was raised in one of
the toughest neighborhoods in South Central Los Angeles. He graduated with
top honors from UCLA’s Law School.

On this program, discussing the most recent workplace shootings inHawaii by a
man who legally owned the guns he used, Lawrence adamantly opposed taking
guns away from responsible citizens saying, “You’re not gonna ever get them
off the streets. You’re not gonna get them away fromthe gangs. You’re not
gonna do that. So, why are you gonna take themaway from me?”

When the host of the show, Bill Maher, disputed the notion that victims of gun
crime would have been safer if they had been armed, Brown, said, “Well, let’s
put it this way. I tell you what. I would have felt a lot better if when (in
Hawaii), somebody walked in and said, ‘All right, this is going down. I’m
going to blow you away,’ that somebody else (armed) would have been able to
say, ‘Well, you know, make my day. I got my stuff. Let’s see if it works.’
See, that way you’re not holding your butt in your hand. You got something
else showing.”

When another guest on the program suggested that the shooter inHawaii should
have been legally limited to only two guns (instead of the 17 he reportedly
owned), Brown said, to applause from the audience, “I mean, what difference
does it make? If he had one or two, he could have done the same damage, but
if you had your own, you could have stopped it. You want to give Big Brother
more authority than he’s already got?Goodness!”

When guest Peter Frampton, the rock-and-roll guitarist from England, said it
was “ridiculous” to advocate that teachers in our public schools be armed,
Brown said, “Tell you what, down in Arkansas a few years ago, some kid went
amok with a pistol, and he started shooting the school up. The principal went
out, got his .45 out of the trunk, drew down on the kid, he threw the gun
down, (and this) stopped the tragedy.”

“Now see, I’ve noticed this,” said Brown, “I’ll tell you as acriminal court
judge, when you’ve got armed citizens, the crime drops.”

What Brown is alluding to — though his geography is a little off — is a
1997 shooting in Pearl, Miss., where Luke Woodham shot two students to death
and wounded seven others at Pearl High School. During this carnage, Assistant
Principal Joel Myrick got a handgun from his truck, blocked the road as
Woodham was on his way to kill some other students, and ordered him to the
ground at gunpoint until police arrived. Myrick has said he has no doubt
Woodham would killed more people if he had not been stopped since he had 36
rounds of ammo in his pocket when he wasfinally subdued.

Referring to the slaughter at Columbine High in Colorado, Lawrence said, “OK,
let’s talk about teachers. What if somebody had had a gun at Columbine? Could
they not have shot those guys instead of getting on a cell phone? … I ain’t
going into a public school unless I’m armed anddangerous.”

So, let’s hear it for Vicki Lawrence and Judge Joe Brown! — two of our
citizens who are not afraid to defend our Second Amendment rights. And on
national TV, too. What a breath of fresh air.