I’m no ninja, no soldier, no tactician, nor officer. I share my thoughts here from the same position I always have, as a wife, a mother, and a citizen of this great Republic.

I was absolutely horrified to see American citizens held captive in their own homes because of the actions of one evil coward. Was putting the city in lock-down the right decision? I don’t know. I certainly don’t like it, and I would like to think there were better ways to handle it. That said, it was only the police force that suffered any casualties. It certainly didn’t play out perfectly, but the coward was caught. The Boston police deserve a good pat on the back for the excellent execution of an imperfect plan. Glad it wasn’t LA.

I do know that had I been hunkered down with my family with a dangerous terrorist on the loose, I would have had my rifle with standard capacity magazines in easy reach, ready to go if needed. Any terrorist seeking shelter in my house would be in for a rude awakening. Unfortunately, most of the people of Boston don’t have that opportunity. For all it’s proud history of revolution, this city has been oppressed.

The onerous laws of Massachusetts left vulnerable the very people they claim to protect. The license requirements certainly didn’t stop the terrorists. They just ignored the rules. Like criminals do and always will. What the laws did succeed in doing is make sure the citizens were at the mercy of the men with guns on both sides of the law.

I’ve heard some chatter about whether or not these two were acting on their own, or if they had support from elsewhere. That maybe they were just one cell of a larger organization. Maybe they were, maybe they weren’t. Honestly, I don’t think it matters. What does matter is that they brought this form of warfare to our streets, and this will not be the last time we see it. Anyone that believes the next coward with terror on their mind wasn’t watching as a great American city was shut down to search for one man is naive. This is only the beginning. I’d like to be wrong, but I’m not.

Something else of note is that even with the finest law enforcement with all their tactical toys on the streets in force, it was a regular citizen stepping out for a cigarette that found the bad guy outside the perimeter that had been set up. Think he was expecting to find a terrorist that day?

Be safe. Be vigilant. Be aware of what is happening around you. If I see you on the news, I want you to be the survivor or the hero, never the victim.

As usual, Dear Reader is making emotional appeals to push legislation

“What’s more important to you: our children or an A Grade from the gun lobby?” Obama, wearing a green bracelet to honor the Sandy Hook victims, said in his speech.

Legislation that would not have saved a single life that day in Connecticut.

But what really stuck out to me was that ‘our children’ bit. We’ve heard Hillary’s quip about how it takes a village, and they are always pushing things for ‘the children.’ This whole collective idea of who is responsible rubs me the wrong way. I am far from alone. Robb’s excellent rant led me to this. I would advise you remove any heavy or stabby things from your vicinity before viewing.

Just in case you couldn’t get through that without screaming and throwing things, here’s a quick transcript:

We have never invested as much in public education as we should have because we have a private notion of children. Your kid is yours and totally your responsibility. We haven’t had a very collective notion of these are our children. So part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to whole communities. Once it’s everybody’s responsibility and not just the household’s, then we start making better investments.

My kid is mine and it is my responsibility to see him to adulthood. It is not the community’s responsibility. It is also my responsibility to protect my child, and I will do so with the best tools for the job.

And so I shall respectfully disagree with the president. Choosing gun control is not in the best interest of the children, therefore the options laid out are invalid. Legislators can rest peacefully knowing they have done what is right and protected their A grade.

And disrespectfully: You scum-sucking, bottom feeder, collectivist blight on our Republic. Your empty platitudes and patronizing jewelry don’t give you the right to decide what is best for my child. You and your ilk can shove your ideas right up there next to your heads, firmly inside your collective rectums.

Gun Control is not pro-life, and I am appalled that you would take that position. I know many Catholics that do not agree with this position and would be offended that you claim to speak for them. It drives a wedge between the church and its members. I am not Catholic, but the Catholic church is not alone in their position.

We must protect the lives of the most innocent among us even after they emerge from the womb. Children are still precious and valuable after they are born.  Their lives retain value as they grow into teenagers and then finally adults. The life of each one of God’s children is worth protecting with whatever force is necessary. Yes, including deadly force against another.

When Jesus rebuked Peter for lashing out at the soldier, He did not tell him to cast off his sword.  He told him to put it back in its place. Holster it, in other words. “He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.” is not about the sword.  It is about a life of violence. Having the sword at the ready as an answer to violence is not the same thing. Those of us that make the decision to carry a gun are not ‘living by the sword.’ That would be counter to His instructions to sell your cloak and buy a sword just prior to this event. Jesus did not want Peter to use his sword in anger or vengeance. The Bible is very specific on justifiable violence. Protection of life one’s own life or the lives of their family is justified*. Up to and including deadly force. However, vengeance is Mine sayeth the Lord. Jesus was going willfully with the soldiers. Peter’s act was out of anger, not protection, hence the rebuke.

I carry a gun because life is precious. All life, not just that of the unborn.

The title was a distant cousin’s Facebook status the other day, and it broke my heart.  I pointed out to him that more people were killed with hammers and clubs, and he responded that those wielding the hammers would have used a gun if they had one.  He just couldn’t see that it changes nothing for the victim.

You’d think he could.  You see, he lives in the Philippines where gun ownership is a fraction of what it is here in the United States and yet the gun violence is much higher.

According to www.gunpolicy.org, a site hosted by the University of Sydney’s School of Public Health in Australia, there are about 3.9 million guns — legal and illegal — held by civilians in the Philippines, or about 4.7 per 100 people.

That puts the Philippines 105th place on a list of 179 countries, tiny in comparison to the 88.8 per 100 in the United States and behind even Australia with 15 per 100.

While it is impossible to count the number of illegal guns in the Philippines, the national police estimate there are about 350,000, again paltry in comparative terms to Central and South American weapons hotspots like Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia.

Yet the Philippines suffers worryingly high gun-crime rates.

According to the latest available figures from the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, there were 8.9 homicides per 100,000 people in 2003, by far the worst in Asia and outstripping Europe. (www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/homicide.html)

Bans have only driven people to the black market and left the innocent undefended.

Blaming the tool takes the responsibility off of the shoulders of those bent on evil. It gives them an out. All the while ignoring the evil that persists. My cousin is correct, those wielding the hammers would have likely used guns for evil, but what he fails to see is that since they didn’t have guns, they picked another tool. Evil will find a way.  The only thing we can do is offer resistance.  Evil cannot be stopped with laws.  It can only be deterred or destroyed by superior force.