See?  Now this is exactly the kind of circumstances I am talking about:

One man grabbed Gloria Turner and pushed her toward the register. She said the other kept his gun on her 62-year-old husband, who also goes by the name Shoats.

She said she tried to open the register, but one of the men told her she wasn't moving fast enough and tried to shoot her husband. He missed -- and his gun jammed.

At that point, Bobby Doster pulled out a .380-caliber handgun and shot one of the suspects. Gloria Turner then went for a 9 mm pistol she keeps near the register.

"All hell broke loose," she said. "I was trying to shoot and dial 911 at the same time."

Both suspects took cover behind the store's meat counter as the owners opened fire. Gloria Turner said she doesn't know how many bullets were fired, or how many times the suspects were hit.

Police arrived about five minutes after receiving Gloria Turner's call; the suspects died a short time later at a hospital.

The bloodshed, nevertheless, startled Gloria Turner, who has been around guns all her life, and has used them for target shooting. "But I never figured I'd have to use them on anybody," she said.

We own guns in the hopes that we never have to shoot anyone - just as we buy house insurance in the hopes we never have a fire, and car insurance in the hopes we never get in an accident.  Some people want to deny us the ability to purchase the necessary insurance - the ability to defend our lives and freedom from those who would take them from us.  I think it is appalling to want to leave innocent human beings helpless and at the mercy of those who would kill or control them.  It is ultimately the infantilization of your fellow man.

Tags: firearms, politics
Current Mood: busy

This story just warms my heart:

Das Zürcher Knabenschiessen! (Swiss Teen Rifle Festival)  The time of year (every year, since 1657) when young swiss boys (and now girls) of many ages ride ferris wheels, eat cotton candy, then compete to shoot targets with service-grade assault rifles.  These are real assault rifles - not the toys the "Assault Weapon Ban" was targetting.  5,631 teens participated - and imagine, not one fatal wounding.  It's a miracle.

And yet, despite this proliferation of dangerous weapons (shooting is the Swiss national pasttime), Switzerland had a homicide rate of 0.96 per 100,000 - very low.  Proof enough that there is no positive correlation between gun ownership and crime - guns are not the cause of crime, they are only one of many possible tools in crime.  Obviously, a box cutter can be just as effective a tool in crime.  The solution is not to ban box cutters, it is to solve the source of crime - and to punish criminals.  Spend more time worrying about those people who are actually a threat to you, and less time worrying about whether little Billy could be down at the shooting range with his dad having fun.

Thanks to Marginal Revolution for the link.

Tags: firearms, politics
Current Mood: envious