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Friday, February 01, 2013

False Courage from a Gun Barrel

In her testimony before Congress attorney Gayle Trotter said that the story of Sarah McKinley "proves" that women need AR-15 assault rifles. McKinley used a gun to fend off two attackers breaking into her home. Trotter lied by implication in her testimony: McKinley used a shotgun, not an assault rifle, which as one senator pointed out would continue to be completely legal under the proposed law.

Trotter then went on to say:
Young women are speaking out as to why AR-15 weapons are their weapon of choice. The guns are accurate. They have good handling. They’re light. They’re easy for women to hold.
And most importantly, their appearance. An assault weapon in the hands of a young woman defending her babies in her home becomes a defense weapon, and the peace of mind that a woman has as she’s facing three, four, five violent attackers, intruders in her home, with her children screaming in the background, the peace of mind that she has knowing that she has a scary-looking gun gives her more courage when she’s fighting hardened, violent criminals.
Liquor is often called courage in a bottle, and often as not just gets you killed. The courage that comes from a gun barrel is just as deceptive.

Trotter's moving story of a widow defending her home from crazed druggies quickly moves into outright fantasy. If a woman's home is truly under siege by a gang of five hardened, violent criminals, they've probably bought AR-15s themselves at gun shows or through straw buyers, because the NRA has made that so convenient for criminals. If they don't have the cash to buy guns, they can steal guns from houses posted "Protected by Smith & Wesson" while the owners are off at work.

Now think how hard it will be for that lone woman wielding an AR-15 with screaming kids clutching her knees to keep out five guys with AR-15s, or even 17-shot Glocks or pump-action shotguns. Like medieval armies storming a castle with siege towers, battering rams, catapults and trebuchettes, the five marauders won't all line up outside her front door and wait to be shot. They'll attack from multiple directions simultaneously, breaking down the front door and smashing in windows, while one surreptiously jimmies the lock on the back door and sneaks in behind her in all that racket.

The truth is, if you're alone and five guys really want to get into your typical house, they're going to get in. The only things that will keep them out is strong bars on the doors and windows and a call to 911.

The NRA keeps yapping about slow 911 response times and being able to defend ourselves if civil society breaks down. If the 911 response is slow, that's the problem we should fix. If there's danger of looting after a tornado, then we need to make sure that FEMA and the National Guard have enough funding to get boots on the ground yesterday. But around the country the right is cutting the state and local taxes — starving the beast — that police departments and first responders depend on, and they want to eliminate FEMA outright.

The right seems to be itching for society to collapse, pushing fantastical "what if" scenarios, building gated communities and bunkers and amassing massive gun hoards.

Instead we should strengthen our civil institutions, make sure that our first responders are well-funded, end the foolish war on drugs that creates those hardened criminals, improve education and eliminate the poverty that drives people into crime in the first place.

1 comment:

Mark Ward said...

Well, Trotter's testimony is really a great peek inside the paranoid mind of the Right. What fantasies are spun, as facts fly out the window, in favor Red Dawn/Falling Down rage dreams. This would be why they don't want increased mental health checks!