A single step at a time

My friend Ed sent me this link. It seems that some people- the author is presumably a liberal, being a journalist- are thinking that perhaps guns, rather than being evil, might have a place in America.

And that the Second Amendment is not only relevant, but important.

It's a tragedy what happened to the family he writes of, to say the least. But I wish in my heart that the father had gotten a gun at some point. While the gun-grabbers use as one of their arguments the fear that the gun will be used by a family member in a domestic dispute- a claim that I don't buy, under the old "guns don't kill people..." rule- in the end there's almost nothing that could have happened to this family that could have been worse than what they went through.

And the alternative- a member of the family popping one or more of the attackers, prompting the rest to flee- would have been infinitely preferable.

I do think there are other options that families can use. Any military veteran can tell you that the best defense is a "mobile" one, which can respond to a specific threat, rather than a prepared defense (think Maginot Line). Or another option is a "defense in depth", where an attacker is forced to fight his way through several layers to get at the objective.

In other words, you start off with an external camera system and an alarm, that can detect an intruder early on and perhaps deter him, giving the potential victim time to react; whether by fleeing, calling the police (obviously), or grabbing the nearest pistol.

A dog is a solid option too. But they don't work on their own. I recall someone telling my sister and me some years back that in his rural area there had been a rash of break-ins. All the people had dogs, and they all worked in the city. So the attackers knew the houses would virtually all be empty during the workday. So that's when they made their move. Pick a house, take a quick look at it, then start. If there was a dog there, shoot it- there's nobody around to hear the shot, right- and then you're in. Easy as pie.

When the time comes that I get things together again, I intend to have an alarm with motion sensors, cameras to monitor the doors (perhaps even windows) and hopefully a big protective dog- some kind of mastiff would work well.

And of course my trusty pistol by my side. And perhaps a shotgun in a convenient place. Cuz that's a weapon that says "I'm serious, and you're in serious trouble" better than anything else in existence.

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It seems that the author here has had a revelation- or what in the Army was called a BFO or "Blinding flash of the obvious". I certainly don't want to cheer or say I told you so, but it seems that another person has realized what the Founding Fathers knew as well as you and I: That an unarmed person can be attacked without fear.

Tied in with this is a link from Rants and Raves, written by a man who "gets it". Lots of good stuff here.

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Here's hoping that the poor father of this family recovers from what is surely a devastating blow. Nobody should have to deal with this kind of pain.

And here's hoping the bad guys die a slow lingering death. The kind they inflicted on their victims.