On the Defensive

If we ban guns, only the criminals will be armed.

by Michael Washburn

The keen intellects of several of New Jersey's top prosecutors were on display last week, when they gathered in Phillipsburg near a bridge linking their state and Pennsylvania. They decried the level of gun violence in New Jersey, a problem they blamed not on the prevalence of parole for vicious criminals, but on Pennsylvania's respect for the right to bear arms.

Forgetting that for much of our history, America was both a heavily armed and a relatively peaceful society, the prosecutors blasted the availability of guns in Pennsylvania. We have heard similar arguments about the need to fight crime in Philadelphia by giving the city different laws from those that the "pro-gun rednecks" in other parts of the state take for granted.

But it is folly to make it harder for law-abiding people to obtain guns. We need them. In the first half of September — the same period in which these prosecutors were talking about strict gun control — firearms were key to self-protection in incidents around the country that you won't hear about on NPR. Here is just a pair of them:

• Dry Ridge, Ky.: Two thugs kick in the back door of a 79-year-old man's house, anticipating an easy beating and robbery. The resident, no match in a fistfight for even one of the hulking thugs, takes out a .357 revolver and shoots the intruders, who stagger onto the driveway and collapse. The neighbors are shocked but relieved, because they've got kids and it could easily have been one of their homes.

• Tucson, Ariz.: Two robbers break into a woman's home with the apparent intention of raping and robbing her. According to the Tucson Citizen, the intruders restrain the woman, along with a female houseguest, and start searching the house. The home's owner manages to free herself, and saves the guest and herself from far worse trauma by taking out a hidden pistol and blasting both intruders.

Criminals will always try to prey on the elderly and on women. And they are likely to have access to guns indefinitely, given the number of guns illegally circulating and the vast quantities purchased and buried in anticipation of tighter laws. As long as there are lots of guns in the world, and the means to make them, they have the potential to end up in criminal hands.

Cases like the two above illustrate the essential role of guns in protecting people who are physically no match for the aggressors, or who are confronting criminals possessing guns illegally. Cases within just the past few weeks — listed online at the Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog and in local media outlets around the country — could fill every page of this City Paper.

Sadly, the notion of self-defense as an imperative — even a right — has eroded a great deal in our political culture. Those who exercise the right court the label "racist" — because they might shoot a criminal who happens to be black — or "trigger-happy," and many employers bar their workers from resisting thugs. Ronald B. Honeycutt, a Pizza Hut employee in Indiana who shot a thug trying to rob him during a delivery, learned this when Pizza Hut fired him. Attorney Rick Whitham told World Net Daily, "I hope the media will realize the incredible unfairness of a huge company telling its employees — in essence — they must agree to die for the company rather than use legal means to defend themselves."

But some people are sending that message on a wider scale. Look at the 79-year-old man in Dry Ridge. Gun control would have told him, in essence:

You're going to have to let the robbers do with you as they will. You might survive their blows, and you might not. You might avoid a fatal heart attack, and you might not. In the event that you survive, you can call the police, who may or may not catch the perps. Will the courts and jails keep them off the streets? Sheesh, how naive are you?

But this is one American who decided to cut out the middle man. Those of you who live in Philadelphia should be grateful that one of your fundamental rights is intact.

(editorial@citypaper.net)

Duane Swierczynski is off. Editor's Letter will return next week.