Posted on 06/08/2002 12:50:57 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
The old saying goes that God made men, but Sam Colt made them equal. Col. Samuel Colt's revolver continues to serve as an equalizer. Being bigger, tougher and meaner than the next guy may not mean jack spit if the next guy carries a .357 in his waistband.
Bad attitude and big muscles make a poor match for a 200-grain lead slug.
John Birch – of no relation to the famed anticommunist – knows this well. His organization, Concealed Carry Inc., awards a free handgun every month to Chicago residents. The reason? To give citizens in the nation's murder capital a fighting chance.
"I would feel terrible if someone needed a gun and I didn't give him one, and they ended up dead," said Birch, quoted in a May 26 Associated Press report.
Even though "Awards only go to people who are at least 21-years-old, have had a background check, and have completed a firearms training course," the city of Al Capone is going ballistic over Birch's giveaway, in which recipients are selected on the basis of an essay contest and lottery.
"I think he is encouraging violence," said City of Chicago Attorney Mara Georges. "I think he is encouraging civil disobedience. I think he's encouraging people to break the law," namely a 20-year-old, citywide handgun ban.
Warned Georges, "if he's going to violate the law, we are going to have to very, very fiercely protect our laws."
Nearly 700 homicides happened in Chicago last year, and three-quarters of those were gun-related, according to AP. With fewer guns in fewer hands, Georges is confident the murder rate will drop.
Actually, it's the other way around.
"Allowing citizens to carry concealed handguns reduces violent crimes," argues John Lott in his groundbreaking book, "More Guns, Less Crime." Further, "reductions coincide very closely with the number of concealed-handgun permits issued." Having more guns in the hands (and inside the jacket pockets) of Americans deters violent crime, including murder.
The reason for this fact is simple: Firearms reduce the power differential between the weak and the strong, making it harder for the strong to prey upon the weak. Being strong doesn't help much when you're dead or wetting your pants in fear because your potential victim shoved a barrel muzzle under your nose.
Take rape, a crime usually involving a stronger person attacking a weaker person. Typically, the rapist gets the upper hand in a battle of fisticuffs. This is one of the reasons women are often cautioned to act passively when attacked by a rapist.
When you look at the various types of active resistance (yelling, physical force, etc.), fighting back can be more dangerous than passive behavior. But with active resistance that actually shrinks the strength gap – removing the power monopoly from the attacker – the dynamics change dramatically.
Whereas a woman may be severely beaten, even killed, if she resists by using her fists – where the man likely has her outmatched – says Lott, "by far the safest course of action is to have a gun. A woman who behaves passively is 2.5 times as likely to end up being seriously injured as a woman who has a gun."
Who knew Sam Colt was a feminist?
Criminologist Gary Kleck agrees with Lott, noting that firearms benefit women because "guns are the weapon type whose effectiveness is least dependent on the physical strength of its user."
Swinging fists or a baseball bat requires a good deal of force to make them effective. A gun, however, requires very little strength to achieve a very potent effect. It matters little if the man is twice as strong as the woman – he's probably not twice as strong as her friends, Messrs. Smith and Wesson.
Guns empower women, and women are robbed of that power when they are denied access to firearms.
Consider the case of Polly Pryzbyl. After separating from her husband, Polly took her children to her mother's house. When her husband showed up and threatened her, Polly answered by producing a gun. He stood down, but when the police arrived, they took Polly's weapon. A week later, while going to her husband's house to pick up clothes for the kids, she and her mother were gunned down by her husband.
Preventing such tragedies is as simple as letting folks purchase guns and carry them.
Which takes us back to Georges' absurd notion that reducing gun availability will take care of Chicago's homicide problem: Says Lott, based on his research, "The largest drops in violent crime from legalized concealed handguns occurred in the most urban counties with the greatest populations and the highest crime rates" (emphasis added).
Chicago, instead of hounding Birch, ought to be helping him hand out more guns. If Sam Colt were still around, he would.
John Birch – of no relation to the famed anticommunist
That John Birch was a missionary in China, who was murdered by the Chinese communists.
Robert Welch named the anticommunist John Birch Society after the missionary as he considered him the first victem of the cold war.
Conservatives need to work the media like this more. It's a large part of the Left's success over the last 40 years.
Please explain to me how protecting yourself from DEATH, encourages civil disobedience? I guest when someone breaks into my home at 3 in the morning, with the expresses desire to kill me I'm supposed to be a good citizen and allow them to kill me? Once again, the mind of a liberal at work for you.
An armed society is a polite society.
I hope I got that right. My second-language was frog - I was born in Canada, eh?..........FRegards
Warned [City of Chicago Attorney Mara] Georges, "if he's going to violate the law, we are going to have to very, very fiercely protect our laws."
Threats like this from Chicago bigwigs usually get followed by some ugliness.
Isn't it interesting that she's more interested in protecting Chicago's unConstitutional laws than in 'allowing' private citizens to protect their own lives and families?
Bad attitude and big muscles make a poor match for a 200-grain lead slug.
Obviously the author has no idea about what he is talking or else the article has been badly chopped up by an editor. For 357 Mag target shooting, I prefer 158 gr semi-wadcutters. For self defence, the Dale Townsend Stopping Power book seems to recommend lighter and faster 125 grain bullets. A 200 grain bullet may be OK in a 45 ACP, but I wouldn't recommend on in a 357 Mag.
But hey, do I expect knowledgable information on firearms or self protection from the press, even if it is the conservative press? NOPE!
Actually he is defending the most important of civil rights, the natural right to self defense. It is the most important of civil rights by way of mapping a correspondence between civil rights and the Hierarchy of Needs theory of management first described by Abraham Maslow (1943) and made popular by others such as McGregor. Note that physical security forms the base of the Needs Hierarchy.
And presumeably, Mr. Birch is taking a stand on behalf of all people, not just one particular minority or another.
I always thought government prosecutors were supposed to protect the citizens, not the laws.
In 1996, I believe, according to statistics provided by the US Dept of Justice (Clinton era!) there were 650,000 attacks made upon would be victims who were armed with a handgun. Of those about 6500 were carried thru to fruition. Thats about 1% So turn it around and you get this: In 99% of cases, where the victim was armed with a handgun, the crime is foiled! Pretty powerful stats. When I was a State of Florida Probation and Parole Officer in the mid 80's I checked this straight from the felons mouths. I used to ask my "clients" what they would do if they thought the victim they had selected was armed? This is the story they would invariably tell with minor variations:
"Oh that's easy...I'd go someplace ELSE! See a cop will bust you but he has to follow the rules and if you don't resist, you're going to be okay. But a CITIZEN with a gun is not under the same rules and he's scared for his family, maybe. THAT guy is going to shoot you dead, and none of 'us' are in this to get killed!"
Add to that some interesting international info, like the crime rates in either Switzerland or Israel. Yeah, Israel has a lot of terrorism, but thats explosives mostly. Street crime is quite low because so many citizens have CCW permits. I remember reading a small article in the Miami Herald some years ago about an outdoor cafe in Tel Aviv at lunch time. A couple of goblins ran in waving guns and yelled something about a stickup...whereupon about five diners stood up, drew Glocks and Colts and opened up, shredding the perps. Nobody missed and they riddled the two bad guys. Finished, they all reholstered and returned to their meal waiting for the cops to show up and clean up the mess. No fuss no muss. Just three weeks ago a couple of Israeli citizens were shopping in a market and stopped a suicide bomber by shooting him dead before he could detonate the explosives strapped to his body.
In Switzerland, everybody is in the militia and each and every village has not one but TWO firing ranges. Every household is issued a full auto weapon and about 3000 rds live ammo. Just in case. Violent crime is not unheard of but it is very rare and there are no columbines or etc.
I have used the above to change the minds of some very stalwart antigun democrats. It sometimes can take awhile, but I find that when you use their own boys (Clinton) stats and some neutral sources for info dramatic things can happen. In many cases, I have wound up teaching formerly antigun folks to get their FL CCW permit. This is very rewarding to me as an NRA Firearms Instructor. I often use the same info in my American Government classes that I teach in an inner city public high school here in south Florida.
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