Right To Bear Arms March 2005

It looks like Georgia gun owners are safe from schemes to protect us from ourselves for another year. Halfway into the legislative session, no gun-control bills had been introduced in our state legislature, and none are expected. If any are introduced, they will most likely be stopped in committee.

Some have said gun-control schemes are on the back burner for a while due to the last three national elections, where gun-control supporters have lost big. That may be true on the federal level, but locally, some governments are still blaming guns for problems.

For example, the city of San Francisco is trying to make it illegal for citizens to own a handgun of any kind. Politicians there seem to think that if law-abiding citizens can’t have guns, they will be safer — maybe like the citizens of Washington D.C. which has one of the highest murder rates in the United States.

A proposed law in New York state, supported by that state’s republican governor, would make it easier to sue gun manufacturers and sellers if their guns were used in a crime. That law makes as much sense as suing Ford because a bank robber drove away in an F150 pickup, but it may pass. And if it does, it will cost you and me more every time we buy a gun or bullets.

Many people do not think anyone should be allowed to own a gun — for any reason. This was really brought home to me by a re-run of the old TV series “The District” about a make-believe police chief of Washington D.C. In this episode, the chief’s PR guy is beaten up and is threatened with another similar beating.

He goes to his boss and asks for a gun, but the make-believe police chief says something like citizens should not have guns, only police officers. Unfortunately, many real-life police chiefs believe you and I should not have guns. They want them for themselves, but you and I can’t be trusted with guns.

This is another good example of how the media pushes an anti-gun agenda. The actor playing police chief of our capitol can make a statement like “citizens should not have guns,” and it goes totally unchallenged.

The book about the rabid anti-gun nut, ”Michael Moore Is A Big Fat Stupid White Man,” should add the adjective “Hypocrite.” Moore is one of those fanatics that thinks you and I should not be allowed to own a gun. But he wants to hire armed bodyguards to be with him at all times. And he does not think they should have to obey the laws he wants you and me to follow.

One of Moore’s bodyguards was recently arrested at Kennedy International Airport for trying to carry an unlicensed pistol onto an airplane. This bodyguard reportedly told the United Airlines ticket agent that he wanted to carry his pistol onto the airplane with him. Apparently, since he worked for Michael Moore, he thought he was above the law, and that he could do things other folks like you and me are not allowed to do.

There are some examples in the media of why we might need a gun. Walter Geiger, editor and publisher of the Pike County Journal-Reporter published here in Griffin, wrote a February 2 editorial about an incident near Athens. Two thugs drove out to a country store and tried to rob the owners. When the store owner did not get the demanded money fast enough, one of the robbers shot at them.

Unfortunately for the criminals, but fortunately for the store owners and Georgia taxpayers, the store owner and his wife were both armed. One of them dialed 911 while pulling a gun. Both robbers were killed in the ensuing shootout, removing them from the gene pool as well as saving taxpayers the cost of supporting them in prison. The store owners were not injured.

The police arrived five minutes after the call to them. In those five minutes many shots were fired, and both robbers were killed. If the owners had not been armed, what are the odds the police would have found them dead and the robbers gone?

I feel safer with a gun. I will never trust a politician that does not trust me to own one.