I read with (unfortunately routine) horror, the story of the 42 year old woman in Milford, New Hampshire, being killed, and her 11 year old daughter seriously injured in an attack on their home. The police have four teen suspects in custody whom they say selected the house at random.
As I read the story, I found myself thinking:
...gee, too bad they didn't pick a house where someone was armed with an Uzi...
Really.
Critics may assure me I am wrong, explaining the false comfort of the "more guns is better" philosophy.
The NRA crowd may congratulate me on arriving at the correct conclusion and send me a discount coupon for a local gun shop.
But either way, in this particular case, wouldn't it have been a good thing for that woman to be packing?
Damn right!
ReplyDeleteThe Brady Institute doesn't like to admit it, but they did, when the FBI released their statistics that demonstrated that in localities where concealed carry is permitted, crime dropped significantly, if not exponentially immediately afterwards.
ReplyDeleteSince adopting a concealed carry law in 1987, Florida's overall violent crime rate dropped 32%, and homicide dropped 58%. Since 1996, when Texas enacted their concealed carry law, their rate dropped 20 and 31% respectively, as well. Florida has issued 1.36 million carry permits (more than any other state) and revoked only 165 (0.01%) due to gun crimes by permit-holders.
FBI data is available here:
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm
John Lott, Jr. and David Mustard of the University of Chicago reported in 1996 "that allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons deters violent crimes and it appears to produce no increase in accidental deaths." They also stated that "If those states which did not have right-to-carry concealed gun provisions had adopted them in 1992, approximately 1,570 murders; 4,177 rapes; and over 60,000 aggravate assaults would have been avoided yearly."
Representatives Rich Boucher (D-Va.), and Cliff Stearns (R-FL) introduced H.R. 197, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act that "proposes a federal law that would entitle any person with a valid state-issued concealed carry permit to carry in any other state, as follows: In a state that issues carry permits, its laws would apply. In states that don’t issue carry permits, the Federal law providing a "bright-line" standard would permit carrying in places other than police stations; courthouses; public polling places; meetings of state, county, or municipal governing bodies; schools; passenger areas of airports; etc."
As for the "packing" thing... buy a 12 gauge pump shotgun, loaded with double aught (00) buckshot.
No special aiming needed.
Just point the barrel where you want to spread the shot.
It is, without a doubt, the MOST fearsome offensive/defensive weapon for anyone... bar none.
Bullets, on the other hand, can go anywhere, and ricochet, and often miss their target(s).
Being hit with 00 buckshot is like being shot nine or ten times (or more) with a .32 caliber bullet. A high velocity 00 shotgun load is 1450fps (feet per second) versus 950 or 1050fps for a .32 cal bullet.
Oh yeah... get a short barrel - minimum allowed by law (without a special permit) is 18 inches.
Any simple Internet-based search using the terms "shotgun 00 buckshot weapon" or "home defense shotgun" will return many useful and equally reliable sites.
Here's one: http://www.firearmstactical.com/briefs10.htm