Monday, April 1, 2013

We Need Guns to Protect Ourselves


By J.L. Stewart

One of the arguments gun-control proponents like to trot out is that armed citizens cannot stop gunmen in a mass shooting.

Apparently they do not know about Joel Myrick.

In 1997, Myrick, an assistant principal at a Pearl High School in Mississippi, pulled a .45 caliber pistol on a 16-year-old student who shot two fellow students, one of them his former girlfriend, at the school. Myrick was able to retrieve a gun from his truck and stop Luke Woodham’s killing spree.

If it weren’t for heroes like Myrick, more people would be dead.

Imagine if an adult at the Newtown, Conn., elementary school last December had a gun. Today, 20 children and six adults would be alive. A well-armed faculty and administration could have taken out Adam Lanza before he used the Bushmaster .223 to kill.

We all need to arm ourselves against the criminals and madmen who walk among us. All law-abiding citizens need protection. And we all have the right and freedom to do so because of the Second Amendment.

Those who want to take our guns away say we will be safer without so many firearms. Nonsense. If criminals know we armed, they will be more reluctant to try to steal, rape and kill.

I want to protect myself and my family at all times. As a neighbor down the street has done, I plan to hang a sign on my fence that says, “Never Mind the Dog, Beware of Owner” so that everyone knows our home is armed.

Gun-control advocates say that carrying guns in public will make society more dangerous. They don’t know that holders of concealed weapons permits already are carrying all kinds of guns in public places. The irony is, these brave citizens are protecting them from harm, putting their own lives on the line to help their neighbors.

Not only do we need guns, we need the high-powered weapons the liberals want so badly to ban. Excuse me, why should we let the criminals outgun us? I personally do not want to be limited to only seven bullets. Give me an automatic weapon so that I can fight back against the criminals, who will never have a problem getting guns.

In 2011, there were 1.18 million violent crimes in the U.S., according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Clearly, crime is rampant and could happen to any of us at any moment. We can’t depend on calling 911. Do we really want to depend on the police and the government?

We must question those politicians and activists who want to take our guns away. What are their motives? Guns are not the only deadly weapons available. If these politicians and others are arguing to ban guns, then why not knives, hammers, tire irons or even cars?

A well-armed citizenry is the only way to combat tyranny. We all need firearms in our homes and in our schools. Plus, it is our constitutional right.

J.L. Stewart is a freelance writer

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