For the past few weeks I have been receiving comments on my blog under the post “The Story” from a guy who is not only anti-gun, he is pro-criminal. I have largely ignored him because I haven’t had the time or energy to engage him, but last night he gave the full court press and he made comments that essentially said my daughter and I are worthless.
I still have no desire to address him or the likes of him, but I do want to address those of you who read my blog who might read comments like his and be deceived by them. I care too much about you to not at least try to keep that from happening.
Here is his latest comment addressed directly to me….
“AGirl, when you travel the road to my home you will not carry a gun, a knife, or even a sharpened stick. There is no need, no one will threaten you.
If you are carrying weapons, unarmed police officers will invite you to leave them safely in their care.
My children play and learn in a gun-free environment, where disputes are resolved by logic, consensus and the rule of law that is enacted and upheld by the huge majority of people.
Our senior citizens sleep securely a night, travel unhindered and happy through their autumn years.
I am so sorry that you have become a victim of violence and have chosen to use lethal weapons as a response. As i have argued, it is in my view, short-sighted, counter productive and only serves in the long run to hugely worsen a bad situation of a violent and dangerous society where fear carries more weight than respect.
Remember, if you carry a gun, people don’t respect you, they fear the gun.
Interestingly most of the comments opposing my views have been themselves harsh, personally abusive, violent in nature and empty of hard evidence supporting their cause. Emotional and knee-jerk reactions to any external view or opinion.
Other examples of this response can be seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremism
I will wish you well, along with the other commentators to this blog. I won’t comment further here as i doubt it would be welcomed – one final thought: to be truly free, first free your mind.”
I am not going to address each statement, but I will say a few things. One is that I did not “become a victim”. I was victimized. A bad guy did a bad thing and because of people like the commenter I allowed my mind to be conditioned in such a way that I did not defend what is rightfully defend-able. My life and that of my child’s. In addition, I am no longer in that place. I was victimized for that brief amount of time when the bad guy was doing a bad thing and I continued to victimize myself for a while as I came to grips with what had happened, but I did not become a victim and I will not allow anyone to victimize me again. I am not ruled by or griped by fear, revenge, anger, or malice. I am ruled by peace, calm and a determination to never again lay on my back and let someone do whatever they want with me. In fact, they can’t do what ever they want with me if I am standing up either. And of all things I can promise you, I can promise you this, no one at anytime, ever, under any circumstance will be allowed to harm my child again. One will literally have to kill me and that just isn’t going to happen.
“…they don’t respect you, they fear the gun” I want to be very clear, I do not carry a gun for respect or attention or power. I could careless what anyone thinks of me personally, but I also want to be clear, a gun is nothing more than a thing. I would not waste my time being afraid of an inanimate object, however, if you come to do me or my family harm, you ought to be afraid. Not of the weapon available to me, but of me. I will do whatever it takes to stop someone from being violent towards me or those I love.
This commenter tries to deceive us into thinking that he is kind and benevolent and that he wants peace for all people. That all people are equal and therefore all deserve the same treatment regardless of their behavior. Kumbaya and all that.
Here is what I want you to understand, he does not think all people are equal and deserve to live a peaceful life. He believes that bad guys have the right to kill and good guys have the right to die. He believes your life and mine are less valuable. He believes that in allowing yourself to be killed the bad guy now has the opportunity to due process(found in a separate comment on same post). In the end his entire argument is that no one has the right to be murdered, but if there is a choice between good and evil, evil should get his day in court.
Regardless of what kind of childhood or mental illness a murderer or rapist has, that reality does not make him more valuable, more worth saving, more worth defending.
As caring and compassionate people it is sometimes easy to be fooled by the idea that if the world was gun free we would all be safe and life would be full of unicorns and cookies, but it doesn’t require much effort to find circumstances where evil prevailed time and time again in no gun zones. Lets look at his example of the 2×4(found in a separate comment on same post). A 200 lb man with a 2×4 or a kitchen knife, or a brick, or a sledgehammer or a heavy lamp or rope or his bare hands would likely be a bit of a challenge for my 119 lb frame. I am not saying he will be successful in his desire to kill me, but I am saying my chances are a bit better with a tool that helps level the fighting field.
His entire argument to me is that my life has no value. That my daughter’s life has no value. That at the end of the day I should willingly give up my life and stand by and watch my daughter be murdered because in fighting back I am infringing upon the criminal’s right to Due Process. Compare that to the “Pro-Life Gun” folks who have told me day after day after day that I am valuable. That not only is it ok for me to fight back, but they showed me how to do it.
People who didn’t know me took the time to come here for over a year and say, “You matter.” For over a year, I was encouraged and supported. That is a long time. It would have been easy for folks to pop over here leave a nice word or two and be on their way, but they stayed and they helped me. I didn’t do anything for them, nothing and yet i was continually offered not only words, but actions. In their words and actions I found the strength to forgive myself, to help my daughter heal, to help other people find their own courage and to find resources and tools that, if ever needed again, I could use to defend a life worth defending. Mine.
Anyone can visit a blog and spew hurtful words, but when people call you up to offer a shoulder. When they offer to give you a place to stay for the night. When people take time from their families to take you to the range to teach you how to use a gun effectively and responsibly. When they come and find you and say, let me help you learn how to fight and kick and scratch and think outside the box. When they repeat more times than anyone should have to, you can do this. That’s when you know they care.
I don’t know about you, but when I am looking for advice from someone in any area of my life, I do not look to the one trying to do me harm for their own benefit or worse, for no benefit at all. Anti-gun, pro-criminal people have nothing positive or helpful to offer anyone except the bad guy. In following their suggestions, nothing is gained. The bad guys don’t stop being bad. The world doesn’t get more safe. The crime rate doesn’t go down. What they offer is not only unhelpful, it is dangerous. Understand, trying to take away our guns is not the most dangerous thing about their argument. The most dangerous thing about these people is that they want to affect our minds. They want to convince us that we do not matter. That we have no value. That if we were truly decent and caring people we would care more about the man trying to shove parts of his body into you or me by force than our right not to have that happen. Think about that…
You might want to think carefully about listening to and following the advice of someone whose sole argument is, you have no value, but the bad guy does.
If you get nothing else from this blog, please get this…YOU HAVE VALUE! Your life has value. All by itself your life has value. You have the right not to be mugged, raped, beaten or murdered, anywhere at anytime, by anyone and you most certainly have the right to do your best to stop someone who is trying to do any of those things to you. There isn’t a single moral, religious or statistical argument that carries more weight than YOU are valuable. YOU have worth. Not because you are a mother or a wife. Not because you volunteer at the local shelter. Not for any reason other than your life is a gift and as such no one has the right to forcibly take it from you and if they try then you have every right to say, No, not today. Not EVER!