Quote of the Day.

No, I'm not back. I am, as a matter of fact, still in a hotel room in Willcox, AZ. I am not without internet service. It is just agonizingly slow service. Consequently, web surfing is not the joyous thing it is at home with 3.0Mbps download speed. Plus I've been working 12 hour days since 7/5. I will get this Sunday off (at home) but I'll be doing laundry and catching up on my sleep. Monday I'm back at it.

Anyway, all that is just a prelude to this. In the hotel room, scarfing down some KFC carryout, I moseyed (and I do mean moseyed) over to Tam's to catch some of the latest snark, and found an out-of-the-park homerun: You say "selfish" like it's a bad thing... Please read it before continuing. Unlike me, Tam is brief and to the point.


Done? Good.

She's almost exactly right. Here's my single exception to Tam's righteous smack-down: she wrote;

I am not concerned one iota with your safety. After all, I don't know you from Adam's housecat, so how does your fate affect me?

Actually, I (me, personally) am concerned about other people's safety. The difference is, (and Tam groks this, too - I'm positive) I understand what Kelli and those like her refuse to accept. They refuse to accept that they are responsible for their own safety. So I care about their safety. I care that they continue to have access to the tools that can help them protect themselves. I care that they understand that when someone is intent on harming them, the only one that can protect them at that moment is themselves. And right then it doesn't matter if that attacker is armed with a firearm, an axe handle, a broken bottle, or a pair of fists - the best defense to have is a firearm. Not a cell phone, not a bright orange whistle, not a loud scream, not a good pair of running shoes. A firearm and the skill and willingness to use it.

I do care about Kelli and her ilk. I want them to understand who it is who bears primary responsibility for their own protection. Far too many people find out far too late. How does their fate affect me? If they are not able to defend themselves, the predator that preys on them remains safe and free to prey on others. Possibly me and mine. Why else do you think Kim du Toit reports on each new goblin he hears about that achieves room temperature? Somebody else who won't be preying on good citizens.

Once again, I go back to my essay "Is the Government Responsible for Your Protection?" where I concluded:

(The) majority is largely unaware that they are the ones responsible for their own safety. They depend on the police almost exclusively for their safety and protection from crime. In their fear of violence, they fear the other "herbivores" with guns, too. They do so because some gun owners are idiots, but mostly because they’re told that guns are the cause of crime, and they don’t know any better. They don’t accept that general citizens who are willing to resist crime are an asset, not a liability to society.

So what am I advocating? I am advocating educating the citizens of our society as to their rights and attendant duties. That way they can make educated decisions as to their own protection, and that of their fellow citizens. Then if they decide that, for them, actively opposing crime is not an option, they won’t be so eager to deny the means to those who decide it’s the moral thing to do.

Anyway, hiatus continues. Thanks for checking in.

UPDATE: Via Irons in the Fire, a perfect example of what I'm talking about at Seraphic Secret: My Hollywood Gun, Part I, Part II, and Part III. He received his education before it was too late, but it was a close thing.

If the Los Angeles riots taught us anything it's that you're a fool if you count on the authorities to protect you in times of civil unrest -- in fact, at any time. In the end, only I can protect me and my family.

I'm never, ever going to allow myself to be outgunned by the bad guys. All the gun laws that are on the books, and there are thousands of them, just make it that much easier for the barbarians to amass weapons, and for good and law-abiding people like you and me to be at their mercy.

If you outlaw weapons, as so many squishy liberals yearn to do, well then, only the outlaws will possess weapons.

Read 'em all. Pass 'em around.