This may step on a few toes, but I’m going to write it anyway.
I have carried a knife every day since I got my tote-em chip as a Cub Scout, some days I carry more than one. I make some of the knives I carry. Some were given to me by men I love and admire. I carry them everywhere except into the courthouse when called for jury duty and while traveling on a plane. (The first thing I do when I get off the plane is find a store and buy an inexpensive throw-away knife.)
In the almost 50 years that I have carried a knife I have never used one in anger against another person.
For the past 6 years I have legally carried a gun everywhere I go (except one place that’s not a courthouse or an airplane). I carry one at home, on my property, in church, at the store, in restaurants, to my doctor’s office, to my dentist’s office, when I hike with my wife… you get the picture. I practice regularly. I spend a lot of money and time to make sure I am competent in the use of the firearms I carry.
I have never drawn my weapon in anger against another person.
The one place I do not carry is at work. You see, I am a teacher and though the law in my state says that I can choose to go through training and testing to make myself eligible to carry a weapon on my campus, so that, should the unthinkable happen I would be able to defend my students and teammates, I work for a superintendent and school board who have chosen to say no… you are not to do that. I submit to their authority, as they are following the letter of the law and have chosen to lead in a way they feel is best... whether I agree with them or not. Until that rule changes, I will protect my charges with whatever I have at hand. If I must use a stool, a walking stick, or my bare hands, I will be their protector.
All around the world, the unthinkable happens in places with restrictive gun laws. People use knives, hammers, cars/trucks/vans, and their bare hands to kill other people. They use lead pipes, candlesticks, ropes…. No this is not a game of clue, but I think you get the idea. If LEGAL, LAW-ABIDING citizens who owned guns were the source of the problem the death toll from firearm use would be astronomically higher. I am not the problem, and neither are the millions of other law-abiding citizens who own guns.
The world is a fallen place and the heart of man is sinful and some men choose to put their desires before even the very lives of others. Yes, I choose to believe that the 2 greatest laws in all the world are:
-Love God
-Love people….
I choose, also, to exercise my 2nd amendment rights because, “to protect those I love I will do great and terrible things.”
I have heard this analogy often used to describe the role of the protector: In the world there are sheep, wolves and sheepdogs. The sheep are helpless against the wolf. There is no reasoning with the wolf. The wolf cares nothing for the fact that the sheep belong to the shepherd. The wolf wants only to feast upon the dead bodies of the sheep. The wolf only flees when the sheepdog is present. The wolf is an opportunist, he is not brave. The sheepdog must be steadfast, for the wolf is ever on the prowl waiting for the sheepdog to turn his back. Sometimes the sheep are afraid of the sheepdog, because he has teeth like the wolf and is fierce like the wolf, but the sheep run to the sheepdog when the wolf comes because he will always put himself between them and the wolf. Which will you be….? There is no middle ground. The great song-smith and philosopher, Neil Peart, wrote; “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”
The man who shot his grandmother, and killed those kids and their teachers was a wolf…
The man who walked into Parkland High and pulled the fire alarm to get victims into the halls was a wolf.
The man who killed the kids in Sandy Hook was a wolf.
Where were the sheepdogs??? We did not allow them to guard the sheep… If the sheep are really important, we need to guard them. The sheepdog will never harm the sheep, but he must have teeth and claws fierce enough to keep the wolf from acting on his murderous desires.
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