[livius]

I think we’re relying way too much on guns here. I have no objection to more people being able to be armed, but that alone is not going to protect us.

We have to have a “fight-back attitude” on a personal level. Somehow, we’ve lost that.

And we also have to be assured that, if we fight back, then we are not going to be attacked by our legal system for defending ourselves. If somebody had shot Cho just as he started out, I bet that person would be in jail right now. We’ve been taught to be passive and we have a legal system that protects the evil and crazy ones among us more than it protects the decent citizens.

[ExGeeEye]

If somebody had shot Cho just as he started out, I bet that person would be in jail right now.

1. Sure, if you caught him coming out of his quarters on his way to his first victims, but then (a) he hadn't shot anyone and (b) no responsible armed citizen would have confronted him unless he had his piece out.

2. Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six, especially in western Virginia.

[Joe Brower]

livius wrote:

"I think we’re relying way too much on guns here. I have no objection to more people being able to be armed, but that alone is not going to protect us.

"We have to have a “fight-back attitude” on a personal level. Somehow, we’ve lost that."

From my personal experience in various exchanges I've had on the VA Tech shootings, both online and off, this brand of cowardice is rampant among the general population. Combine that with their absolutely slavish ideology that somehow, despite it's horribly apparent failings, the great god Government will still save them, and you have a nation full of soft targets. To suggest otherwise is to immediately be attacked in the most rabid, virulent fashion one could imagine.

Most people under age thirty are nothing more than a helpless herd of sad, angry, brainwashed sheep. I hesitate to call them "Americans". Over three decades of easy living and PC, warm and fuzzy, "nothing's worth fighting for" happy-crap, both in the schools and the mass-media, has yielded and expected result.

I'm sure their masters are very proud.

Just my view from the saddle,

[Copernicus]

We have to have a “fight-back attitude” on a personal level. Somehow, we’ve lost that.

A nine year old child DID have a fight-back attitude. She saved the lives of her siblings. A gun would have made a big difference.

Best regards,

Mary Carpenter In Her Own Words about gun control:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K73pWPAYg0g

http://www.grnc.org/mary_carpenter_letter.htm

Mary Carpenter's letter to the North Carolina General Assembly:

All the gun laws you can imagine cannot change the heart of a killer and you know it.

Until man's heart is changed, we will be like sheep led to the slaughter without our weapons of defense.

May you stand before God and man as my two precious grandchildren's killer if you pass any more gun legislation that will make me a felon should I own a handgun or any other gun for that matter.

[ExSoldier]

We have to have a “fight-back attitude” on a personal level. Somehow, we’ve lost that. And we also have to be assured that, if we fight back, then we are not going to be attacked by our legal system for defending ourselves.

Either you're sheep, wolf or sheepdog. Me? I'm a sheepdog. I choose to be so. It wasn't always thus, however. It took a serious shock to my system of personal security beliefs to change me. That happened quite early in my life, around age 13. These days, I ONLY HANG WITH SHEEPDOGS and find my company of friends to be quite delightful. As a sheepdog, I'm comfortable in nearly every environment where I can carry my gun. That's like breathing. In my current situation in my classroom where it's a potential VT "Gun Free Shooting Gallery" I have to be more alert which is also second nature but also very cognizant of "field expedient" weapons. This is what was lacking along with your "fight back" attitude.

If somebody enters my classroom right now with a weapon, my first impulse will be to sling first a student desk at them and follow that up with a fast closure to contact and I'll be striking with the intent to kill. But when I walk to the parking lot, no student desks are available. What do I use? A section of newspaper, rolled and under my arm can be swiftly folded in half to provide a suitable striking instrument. Properly used, it is lethal.

My former Aikido sensei once took on a whole pack of "wilding thugs" in New York's Central Park and laid waste to them. They had knives, he was carrying a copy of The Wall Street Journal, rolled up under his arm. When the cops arrived to pick up the "meat" all they found was a overweight, middle aged guy standing inside a heap of bleeding thugs, all prostrate. They failed to see the blood soaked newspaper in a nearby trash can. Blood soaked because when the paper is folded, the crease becomes the striking surface and when folded, little points are created in the paper and that causes some ripping of the skin when applied with force.

A fight back attitude is critical but so are the implements to execute. For most folks, especially as they age...that translates to firearms. Samuel Colt's invention was called it The "Equalizer" for valid reasons.

This attitude is actually advancing as we speak. It's the reason for the wave of laws calling for changes to the so called Castle Doctrine that previously required victims to retreat before using deadly force in self defense on the street and in some cases at home. These new laws (led by my home state of Florida) also usually prevent a liberal prosecutor from bringing charges in a justifiable homicide just for the deterrence effect on the general population in the future. Fear of the public excoriation and the expense of paying an attorney. ALSO, these laws usually prevent the family of a deceased attacker (or the attacker himself if he survives) from mounting a lawsuit. I think this type of law addresses your concerns.

[ridesthemiles]

We have to have a “fight-back attitude” on a personal level. Somehow, we’ve lost that.

And we also have to be assured that, if we fight back, then we are not going to be attacked by our legal system for defending ourselves. If somebody had shot Cho just as he started out, I bet that person would be in jail right now. We’ve been taught to be passive and we have a legal system that protects the evil and crazy ones among us more than it protects the decent citizens.”

The biggest feeling I get in talking to friends and neighbors is that we are feeling a loss of our safety. In our homes, on the roads with illegal intruders who are illegally driving, in a school, in a sports event, the grocery store, parked at the airport. EVERYWHERE. It is more than pervasive, and I am getting this more and more in conversations. “Where can we be safe anymore” is said more than I would ever have expected.

[archy]

We have to have a “fight-back attitude” on a personal level. Somehow, we’ve lost that.

I'm armed and reasonably well prepared on this anniversary of the Columbine deaths. Are you as well?

[cowdog77]

“They don’t use direct, clear words, because if they’re blunt, they’re implicated.”
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Peggy Noonan hit it on the head... this nation has become so PC that any semblance of common sense has vanished.