And so on. Ad nauseam . . .
Each student acts somehow furtive, somehow ashamed, as though they are doing something they wouldn’t want to tell their mothers about.
Their mother’s mothers would be turning in their collective graves over this ridiculous attitude!
A firearm is a tool, and our grandparents and great grandparents knew it very well. Yes, a firearm can certainly kill. So can a power saw, and I know what I’m talking about. I almost watched my adopted brother bleed to death from such a horrific accident. Screwdrivers and ice picks are among most popular murder weapons. And an automobile is deadliest machine of all! Automobiles kill many, many more people than those killed by firearms each year.
So which of these devices do you think we should ban?
Tools, including firearms, do not get up and do evil deeds by themselves. I tell my concealed handgun students, again and again, there is no such thing as an “accidental” discharge. There is only a negligent discharge. If you learn safety rules, and make them a part of your every instinct, firearms are no more dangerous than any other tool. And they are far more useful!
Oh, I can hear your collective gasp of horror all way down here in Texas. Yes, dammit, firearms are useful!
You constantly hear claims that firearms are killing kids left and right. The simple truth is that more kids are killed playing high school football each year than die from firearms related incidents, including suicide! Another fact that might interest you is that zero percent – that’s zero percent – of kids who are given firearms and proper training in their responsible use ever commit crimes with those firearms. The firearms used in juvenile/young adult crime are all illegally obtained anyway.
Yet firearms are used by law-abiding citizens to prevent a staggering 2,500,000 crimes each and every single year! And on almost every single occasion, no shot is ever fired.
Now tell me truth. If someone told you about a tool that could prevent 2,500,000 crimes per year, and didn’t tell you it was a firearm, you would definitely call that a useful tool, wouldn’t you? Of course you would!
So why does everyone choke on idea that firearms are useful?
My students have come to me because they each have made a decision to take responsibility for their lives and lives of their loved ones. It is a difficult and courageous decision, mark of a true adult. They have faced and accepted reality that police nearly always come anywhere from minutes to hours after crime is committed, and therefore are incapable of protecting victim.
The men and women who come to me for concealed handgun instruction have recognized this, and they have decided not to be victims. They have decided, like courageous five aboard Flight 93, not to go quietly to rear of airplane and call home.
They have decided, like founding fathers of this country, to bear arms for lawful and moral purposes. This is not an act of cowardice. It is an act of great courage. Our forefathers who took up arms pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. Those were not mere words then, and they are not just words now. Everyone who chooses to bear arms today is making same pledge.
You don’t believe me? Well, look at it this way. If I observe an unarmed citizen in life and death trouble, and I am armed, I have a moral obligation to step in and at least try to save his or her life. In doing so, I am almost certainly risking my own life on his or her behalf. If I am so unfortunate as to be forced to shoot someone in course of offering said citizen my aid, I will be paying lawyers and fending off civil suits for rest of my days – which should effectively wipe out any fortune I am ever able to accumulate. Finally, very subject of firearms is so emotional that it is entirely possible that a jury may convict me of an actual crime even though I was acting in clear self-defense or defense of a third party. This may not touch my “sacred” honor, but it certainly affects my public honor if I am so unlucky as to be convicted of murder!