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Posted on 11/08/2001 5:47:33 PM PST by CHICAGOFARMER

PACIFIST CALLS FOR CONCEALED CARRY TO PROTECT NATION FROM TERRORISTS

By Ron Bain

I'm a natural-born pacifist and almost life-long vegetarian. At age three, I nagged my father mercilessly for shooting a bird. I don't own a gun, and haven't fired one since I was in college. Even then, I shot only at paper targets, bottles and cans. I couldn't even fire a gun at a tree, because it's a living thing.

So you would expect me to be enthusiastically for gun control, background checks, laws against carrying concealed weapons and safe storage laws, right? Wrong.

I respect the Second Amendment and all that it stands for. I love the freedom that the use of guns against tyranny has time and again brought us. I have always supported concealed carry, mostly on behalf of women, because it is proven that sexual assaults go down in communities where carrying concealed weapons is allowed (see More Guns, Less Crime by John Lott, Jr., page 137). Gun control just insures that guns will only be in criminal hands, and not in the hands of good righteous citizens willing to defend freedom and social order with their lives.

Now we face a time as a nation where another form of tyranny -- terrorism -- has raised its ugly head. Never have I, a pacifist, felt so strongly the call, the need to arm myself in defense of our nation. Think about it for a moment: what better defense can there be against an unidentifiable enemy who has infiltrated our borders than an armed citizen militia?

The next terrorist assault won't take place anywhere near metal detectors, government buildings or military installations. Likely future targets are metropolitan traffic jams, bridges, electrical transformers or sub-stations, water reservoirs and dams, stadiums, parks and plazas. Places where people gather with low levels of security. Open locations with large or small structures that could be sabotaged, causing disproportionate amounts of damage.

What are you going to do if you see someone obviously trying to blow something up? Call for the police and hope that they show up in time? Or draw your weapon and save some lives?

The National Rifle Association and similar organizations can provide a valuable civic service in these times of uncertainty and war, and that is training inexperienced citizens such as myself in the basics of handling firearms and self-defense. There's enough danger in the world without adding more untrained, nervous pistol wavers to the mix.

County sheriffs, who already have all the power they need to do so, should begin offering training classes for concealed carry permittees, requiring the training classes before issuing the permits. Police departments should begin offering civil defense and personal defense training to women, young people, and those of us who have conscientiously refrained from firearms training. The scope and flexibility of the National Guard should probably be expanded to allow for more participation from male and female citizens.

Not since the Revolutionary War has there been a time in America when it was so incumbent upon the average citizen to be prepared to defend nation and home. It would not surprise me if there was a sleeper cell of terrorists living right now in Denver or Colorado Springs, waiting for the signal from overseas to act.

Let's fight the Al Qaeda with the things they hate the most: freedom, liberty, equal rights for women, a renewed commitment to the rights guaranteed in the Second Amendment. We need all the armed patriots we can get right now.

Copyright ©2001, Independence Institute INDEPENDENCE INSTITUTE is a non-profit, non-partisan Colorado think tank. It is governed by a statewide board of trustees and holds a 501(c)(3) tax exemption from the IRS. Its public policy research focuses on economic growth, education reform, local government effectiveness, and Constitutional rights.

RON BAIN is a staff member at the Independence Institute.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES on this subject can be found at: http://www.independenceinstitute.org/

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