Gun Owners Are First Line of Homeland Defense
By Christine Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
October 01, 2002

(CNSNews.com) Phoenix – Many gun owners believe that true homeland security comes from having an armed citizenry, and they harbor skepticism about whether President Bush’s proposed homeland security agency will respect gun-owning civilians enough to include them in homeland security efforts.

“We need to deputize the nation,” Neil Schulman, author and pro-gun advocate, told a group of gun owners from around the country gathered in Phoenix, Ariz., for a conference on how to protect gun owners’ rights.

“There aren’t enough cops, sheriffs, National Guard, [and] military to cover every asset all the time,” said Schulman. “With armed civilians, we can be in top alert all the time.

“We are the first line of defense,” said Schulman.

The gun owners who gathered at the Sept. 28-29 conference hosted by the Second Amendment Foundation included many veterans and law enforcement officers, and they heartily agreed with Schulman.

But they also expressed concern that the new homeland security agency proposed by the Bush administration will undermine their ability to protect themselves, their families and the nation.

Glen I. Voorhees, Jr., a SAF board member, believes it’s actually the government, more than terrorists, that has a history of misusing firearms.

Neither the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, nor the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, nor the Oklahoma City bombing were accomplished using firearms, said Voorhees.

But he noted that the federal government did use firearms at Ruby Ridge and Waco in the 1990s. “These are crimes against our people, and these were crimes in which guns were used,” said Voorhees.

“This is the same government…that wants to disarm us so that they can protect us from ourselves,” said Voorhees. “I would caution you to say…not in our lifetimes.”

Homeland security is “being sold as a proposition whereby if you give up a certain amount of your freedoms, they will provide more security,” added Randall N. Herrst, president of the Center For the Study of Crime, a California group that teaches gun owners how to become effective spokespeople for their Second Amendment rights.

“But, as we have seen in cases like the armed pilots issue, you are giving up your freedoms and you’re not getting any security, and we should always oppose that kind of a non-trade off,” said Herrst.

Other conference attendees expressed similar concerns.

“Homeland security done properly is a good thing. I do not believe that it’s done properly now,” said John C. Evans, a gun owner from Tempe, Ariz.

“The bottom line is, they’re creating another super agency that is going to be disconnected from the world,” said Evans. “It’s absolutely going to be unfriendly to people defending themselves. To defend yourself properly requires that you’re able to obtain and practice in the use of defensive weapons.”

For Carma Lewis and Dennis Jackson, both airline employees from Mesa, Ariz., the main concern is arming airline pilots.

“As a flight attendant, I don’t enjoy flying anymore,” said Lewis. “I don’t feel secure. If the pilots were armed, I would love my job again and I would feel very secure.”

“As an airline pilot myself, we need to have firearms as the last line of defense,” Jackson added.

Alicia A. Wadas, a Phoenix resident who heads a women’s self-defense group called Mothers Arms, doesn’t want to leave her personal safety in the hands of government alone.

“My concern is that we don’t always continue to look to the government to protect us, that we don’t always turn to 911,” said Wadas.

“What we believe as Mothers Arms is that we need to be taking personal responsibility for our own safety,” whether at home or against terrorists.