http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese418.html
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The Ideal Self-Defense Weapon

by Charley Reese

People who believe in gun control are ignorant,
superstitious or stupid. Violence is not caused by
inanimate objects. Criminals, by definition, do not obey
laws, including gun-control laws. Therefore, the only
accomplishment of gun-control laws is to assure the
criminals that their victims will be unarmed.

When the state of Florida was considering a law allowing
honest citizens to carry concealed weapons, my liberal
colleagues at the newspaper became virtually hysterical.
They were certain the murder rate would skyrocket and that
there would be shootings on every street corner and at
supermarket checkout counters. The law was passed, and the
murder rate did not skyrocket. Nor did hundreds of
thousands of Floridians apply for concealed-weapon permits.
After all, lugging around a pound or so of iron is
inconvenient.

What their hysteria revealed, however, was how far removed
from reality elitists are. How could any sane person
imagine that his fellow citizens would suddenly go berserk
if they had access to a firearm? It shows you what low
opinion elitists have of their fellow man.

Having been born in the Deep South by the grace of God and
having lived in the South, by choice, my whole life, I have
lived among people who had access to firearms. In the
South, there is a cultural rule: Never insult a man you are
not prepared to fight, and never fight a man you are not
prepared to kill. Southerners, unlike people in some parts
of the country, all have lines they do not allow other
people to cross.

I have been blessed to live with such people. I guarantee
you that Southerners would not stand around and watch some
criminal murder a woman, as happened in an infamous case in
New York City.

On one of my visits to Georgia, I heard a local newscast
about a man who attempted to rob a store and was captured by
the store’s customers. The news story said police planned
to charge the man “as soon as he is released from the
hospital.”

Another point to consider about gun control is that no
criminal attacks an innocent person in the presence of the
police. Even if the victim can get to a telephone, he has
to deal with the criminal until the police arrive. So ask
yourself: How do you plan to deal with a violent criminal?
The best thing to do is shoot the villain.

A friend of mine, a South Korean tae kwon do master and a
former member of South Korean intelligence, was laughing one
day about kung fu schools, which teach students the use of
the broadsword and the halberd.

“Who is going to walk around carrying a broadsword?” he
said. “Besides, if your life is in danger, use a gun.”

Some years ago, a store owner in Texas, after several
burglaries, decided to sleep in the store and eventually
killed two armed burglars who broke in.

“Now I know what a conservative is,” the store owner said.
“He’s a liberal who’s been robbed one damned time too many.”

The gun is the ideal self-defense weapon. It can be wielded
by a woman, a child, an elderly person or even an invalid.
There was an old saying in the American West: “God created
men, but Sam Colt made them equal.”

The Supreme Court is about to decide an issue based on the
Second Amendment. God only knows how the court will rule,
but the Bill of Rights is crystal-clear. It guarantees the
people, not the states or the militias, the right to keep
and bear arms. Let’s hope the Supreme Court justices
understand plain English.

December 3, 2007

Charley Reese [send him mail] has been a journalist for 49
years.