Last week the New York area experienced a series of coordinated terrorist attacks. New Jersey had the pipe-bomb explosion that, thanks to a delay in a charity run, failed to do serious harm. Then there was the blast in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York, which injured 29 people. An additional “pressure-cooker bomb” was found unexploded a few blocks away.
Sure, a gun isn’t of much use against an improvised explosive device. But the same weekend involved an attack by a knife-wielding man in Minnesota that should serve as a textbook example of why many of us carry our firearms pretty much all the time. And why more people should.
After all, we still have the typical threats from robbers, rapists and road rage psychotics. And the soaring gang-related homicides in Chicago and other cities are yet another reason to be armed. Then there is the specter of the mass public shooter, such as occurred in the 2012 Colorado theater incident.
About an hour outside of Minneapolis, in the quiet college town of St. Cloud, a man went on a stabbing rampage in a mall, seriously injuring eight people.
Note that the Crossroads Mall is…you guessed it, a “gun-free zone.” But the good news is that an off-duty cop, who is also a firearms instructor, did have his gun with him, and was able to shoot and kill the attacker. Once again, a “good guy with a gun” makes the difference.
But what if he had not been there? How many more innocent people might have been injured, or even killed? All because of the absurd policy of preventing lawfully armed individuals from being able to defend themselves (and others).
Hey, I’m not naïve. I know a good many of you ignore the “No Guns Allowed” signs that appear in various locations around the country. But most people do respect such regulations, which reduces the number of potential “first responders” who may be able to stop an attack.
Additionally, and in some ways even more importantly, gun-free zones have proven to be a virtual invitation to potential killers. In the Colorado theater massacre, the shooter admitted passing up several closer movie houses in favor of the Century 16 theaters, which prohibited firearms.
Yet in spite of all of these events, I still run into people who have the legal ability to carry, but who admit that they “hardly ever do” or that they carry “only when I go into the city.” To me, that is like only wearing your seat belt when you go on the highway, in spite of the fact that most auto fatalities occur within a few miles of home.
In all my carry classes, I have always told my students to stay vigilant and to carry as often as possible. Now more than ever, we encourage you to do the same. The old saying is true: “Better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it.”
