GRPC Notes #1

The 22nd Gun Rights Policy Conference was held this past weekend at the Draw Bridge Inn in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky which is just over the Ohio state line near Cincinnati. In following posts I hope to write more commentary on topics addressed by the various speakers.

Gun Control laws Kill people

On Saturday morning Larry Pratt (Gun Owners of America) opined gun control laws contributed to the Virginia Tech tragedy. That observation is confirmed by a number of faculty and students from Virginia Tech. I will respectfully disagree with Larry on one salient point;

It is not the laws themselves that contributed to the event they are only words on a page. Rather it is the people responsible for the creation and enactment into law of those written words that contributed to the massacre.

Of course the Mainstream Media never reported that.

Faculty and Students (over age 21) with legally issued Virginia Concealed Carry Permits affirmed that had they (in different places, at different times obviously) been able to legally posses their firearms on campus any number of lives would have been saved.

You can Monday morning armchair, wail and gnash your teeth all you want to, but these folks lived through it, they were there they ought to know.

Back in April I penned a missive on this blog entitled Reflections on a Tragedy. In it I discussed being aware of what is going on around you and some things to do if you find yourself in a similar situation. In the comments section I was taken to task for a few of the remarks I proffered.

How would people be conditioned to respond to a massacre? should they be given 2 weeks of basic training before, say, high school?

The answer is no and I think I elaborated on that point fairly well throughout the rest of that post. The essence of which is to be cognizant of what is happening around you. Get your eyes off the ground, unscrew that cell phone from your ear and PAY ATTENTION. Paying attention (Situational Awareness) allows you in most cases to spot trouble from a distance and avoid it. No one needs special training.

Quit acting like a victim.

Bad people in honing their craft recognize by repetition certain traits that clue them into who is an easy target and who is not. They didn't have a boot camp to teach them that, it is a skill they develop naturally. (unless they get caught and get a full scholarship to Criminal U.)

Likewise people that refuse to be victims just as naturally develop their own set of skills.

It is called Situational Awareness.

You also said:

"c) They were raised to believe that it is the Governments job to protect them."

Is this not what we pay taxes for?

In answer to the first question it is an absolute and unequivocal No.

I thought the reason we paid for police and military was so that they could "protect the homeland".

The Military may protect the Homeland from foreign aggression but under most circumstances they are prohibited from enforcing civilian law.

As for the Police I have addressed this in the past as well;

Peace Officers are under no legally required duty or obligation to protect citizens as individuals. Law Enforcement organizations by definition exist only to protect the public as a whole. (crowd control, accidents, public disturbances, reckless endangerment).

Bowers v. Devito

(There is no constitutional right to be protected by the state against being murdered by criminals or madmen. It is monstrous if the state fails to protect its residents against such predators but it does not violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, or, we suppose, any other provision of the Constitution. The Constitution is a charter of negative liberties; it tells the state to let the people alone; it does not require the federal government or the state to provide services, even so elementary a service as maintaining law and order.); (No duty to protect) = Rule 12(b)(6) Motion to Dismiss;Cf.

Warren v DC

In a carefully reasoned Memorandum Opinion, Judge Hannon based his decision in No. 79-6 on "the fundamental principle that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any particular individual citizen." See p. 4, infra. The duty to provide public services is owed to the public at large, and, absent a special relationship between the police and an individual, no specific legal duty exists.

And that isn't the only one folks there is nearly a dozen more.

Note: Again as I have said before, Police Officers are some of the most dedicated, under paid and over worked people I know, and there is not one I know that would hesitate to put their life on the line for a fellow citizen.

There are some caveats that go along with that though;

They have to know you need them - if you cannot complete a 911 call how the hell are they going to know you need help or where you are for that matter.

They have to be free to respond - there are only so many Cops on duty at any one time if they are busy assisting a problem more serious than yours they can't immediately respond until they have control of that situation.

Should I tell my disabled grandmother or my 2 year old niece that it's up to them to stop the next 9/11 or the next VA Tech massacre?

Yes you need to tell your disabled grandmother and the parents of your 2 year old niece that they are without a doubt responsible for their own safety.

Do you honestly think that when you call government sponsored dial-a-prayer (911) that a cop is going to be instantly teleported to your assistance.

Exactly how realistic is that?

Get real folks when something bad happens to you it won't matter whether you are a disabled grandmother or someones 2 year old niece Peace Officers will not be there. The average response time, providing they know where to go, in Lincoln, Nebraska is on the order of 7-15 minutes. If I were to bet on it I would say 10-12 minutes.

Even if you can get a call to a police dispatcher and even if your cell phone is GPS capable how much harm can come to you in 7-15 minutes? Oh and 911 calls do on occasion fall through the cracks.

Chances are you were not practicing situational awareness and never saw it coming. In that case the cell phone you are so sure will receive that teleported Cop will be bitch slapped from the side of your head before you can even dial the 9 in 911.

Then what are you going to do? Bleed? Die?

10 minutes, hell 1 minute alone is a very long time in a violent situation.

Understand this;

Even if you completed a call to 911 you are ON YOUR OWN until any kind of help can arrive. The lives and safety of you and your family depend solely on what you do in those precious moments.

Just Co-operate and you won't get hurt

That may have been good advice a long time ago, but times change and so does advice. Todays robbers, muggers and rapists are becoming more violent. In an increasing number of crimes modus-Operandi appears to be "Immediate physical violence". This is done to establish control, exert dominance and reduce the likelihood of resistance before the demand of credit cards/cash/keys/vagina is issued.

Don't believe me? How about the media? Everyday there are news stories from somewhere in the United States that read (or words to the effect);

The Victim - I was not even aware of the thug until they walked up and stabbed/shot/knocked me.

I fail to see how a potential gun shootout between a killer and one or more usually un-trained vigilantes is going to make schools, workplaces, etc. safer and think this is a totally unrealistic option. It's typical libertarian pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking that has no basis (that I'm aware of) in reality.

I reject the words untrained and vigilante in that statement. Does that mean anyone with a fire extinguisher is a wannabe fireman? A first aid kit a wannabe Doctor? A spare tire a wannabe auto mechanic? The firearm is is just another safety precaution that people with concealed carry permits know how to employ but hope they never need to.

No, citizens that have a state issued Concealed Carry Permit do not have the untold hours that sworn Peace Officers have.

Why? Because they don't need it. DUHHHH!!!!

Peace Officers are charged with RESPONDING to situations that they have too little knowledge of. When they arrive they know not the difference between the good and the bad. The training they receive is what helps them sort the wheat from the chaff.

As private Citizen with a concealed firearm do you honestly and truly believe that you need 100,000 hours of training to recognize the thug/s standing right there in front of you wielding a ball bat/knife/gun belligerently requesting your wallet/vagina/car keys is or is not a danger to your life.

Please tell me you are not that dense. Is it really that hard to understand or do you finally get it now?


On a side note, I hear about the potential for vigilantes to step up and stop these types of massacres, but I'm not aware of it having ever happened. Do you know of any instances where it has actually happened?

It would be easy to slough this one off with;

Since legally licensed law abiding citizens are forbidden from carry on Americas campi and by definition they obey the law and leave their firearms etc...

The real answer is yes it has happened, but almost never mentioned in the Mainstream Media.

Here are three examples of just incidents that took place at schools complete with Lexis-Nexis search results:

Appalachian School of Law - Grundy, Virginia 2002

Pearl High School - Pearl Mississippi 1997 and A Middle School - Edinboro, Pennsylvania 1998

Ever wonder why most of these "School Shootings" end in suicide?

Because it is an integral part of their plan from the start.

1. Acquire arms and ammunition (usually illegally)
2. Select a location that will allow for a headline grabbing large body count. (places where no one else will be armed schools/posted malls/concerts etc..)
3. Commit suicide either by own hand or by cop.
4. Die knowing that if not in life in death 15 minutes of fame will be achieved. (Just to insure that fame next day express papers and video to the media prior to commencing the act) (Gee thats never happened has it?)

Peace Officers as a rule can not stop something like that.

Not that they don't want to, because I know every single one of them does. Unless the "shooter" attacks a Police Station it is almost always over before they get there. To survive it is up to the people there to defend themselves until Peace Officers can arrive.

It always seems to me these issues are dealt with by gun freaks from a hypothetical viewpoint (not based in actual history or reality). If you can give me a couple of examples where gun owners have actually been able to repel a mass murderer as he was engaged in a killing spree, I'd be very interested in hearing about them.

There are lots more examples based in actual history or reality, I just gave you three and they all involved Schools. Now you didn't know that because you didn't see it in the Mainstream press. Like so many people you must believe; If it isn't on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN etc.. that it can't, didn't or won't happen. Honest law abiding citizens with firearms use them to protect themselves and families everyday in the United States, but since most of the Press is so bias against guns they will not report that. They can't. It goes against every thing they believe in.

Now I have a question for you;

How can they (the Media) justify their anti-gun mantra in they report the over one million times a year that firearms in the hands of private citizens save lives, stop crimes and bring mass public shootings to a screeching halt?

So much for gun freaks with hypothetical viewpoints aye?

I hope you paid particular attention to the results of the Lexis-Nexis search in those stories. You never knew those incidents were stopped by armed private citizens because the Media in order to protect their agenda REFUSED to tell you. Fair and Balanced? I think not.

The Mainstream media is largely anti-gun and it should be obvious from just those few examples that they are loathe to report on anything that puts firearms in a positive light.

I hope that some what lays to rest the idea that Law abiding citizens with concealed carry permits are untrained vigilante gun freaks with hypothetical points of view.

I also hope it opens some eyes to the fact that;

Peace Officers WILL respond to your rescue, even though they are not required to, as soon as they know where you are and what the problem is. But from the onset of the crime committed against you until they arrive, which in some cases can be minutes or even hours, you are on your own. For the continued well being of yourself and family you must be prepared to act.

Laws do not stop anyone from committing a crime.

Laws are obeyed only by those that are predisposed to societal conformity anyway. They exist then ONLY as a punishment for those that are not so inclined.