submitted for a friend by Douglas Sharafanowich
dsharaf@aol.com

A friend in the country writes:

The seven unfortunate victims of the recent mass shooting in Massachusetts were not victims of too little gun control. They were victims of too much. 

Their assailant did not care about the stringent Massachusetts gun laws any more than he cared about the laws against shooting and killing people. His victims obliged the laws that forbade them from carrying weapons for self defense; even pepper spray can't be purchased and carried in Massachusetts without a permit. They certainly did not have the option to meet their assailant on equal terms as he walked through the office and killed his victims with absolute ease. 

These people died not because of an abundance of uncontrolled guns in our society, they died because a deranged psychopath decided that laws were for other people. They died because that person decided to disregard the social contract that requires us to never initiate violence against another human being for whatever reason. They died because of a bureaucratic system that decided to enforce failed and unjust policies that prohibit the law-abiding from defending themselves while simultaneously leaving them alone when faced with sudden and lethal danger. 

The 911 system in Wakefield worked just as designed: the calls were received, and the police went out to react. The 911 system did not fail, but it illustrated the main fallacy of gun control proponents when they advocate to put lethal response solely into the hands of the police. They did not come out in time to react and prevent bad things from happening. All they could do was to limit the damage done and to mop up the mess. The police were there within ten minutes. The attacker only needed those ten minutes to kill seven people he had targeted for doing him a real or perceived wrong. He would have been able to kill many more people if he wanted. 

Like the gun grabbers, I am furious. 

Unlike the gun grabbers, I am not furious about the perceived ease with which a weapon can be purchased in this country. I am furious about those of my fellow citizens who continue to support and elect officials who enact and enforce nonsensical, illogical and pointless laws that have no hope of reducing crime or making the world a safer, gentler place. 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is one of the most progressive states when it comes to disarming the peasantry. It follows the nonsense-logic that only duly franchised badge carriers should have the capability to defend themselves and others with lethal force, if necessary. 

In Massachusetts, the possession of a single round of unauthorized ammunition will net an offender a mandatory year in jail. So, the victims in Wakefield would have been almost worse off if they had defied that ridiculous and unconstitutional edict and defended themselves with force of arms. 

Massachusetts was willing to trade those seven lives for the illusory notion of a safer society. 

What killed those people was not an abundance of guns, but a lack of guns in the right hands at the right time. They were shot by someone who could not have been stopped by any amount of gun control, someone who had already defied the laws against possession of guns in Massachusetts, and the murdering of fellow human beings anywhere. To pretend that just a few more "common-sense" gun control laws could have prevented this cowardly and cold-blooded murderer is to dismiss logic and embrace ignorance.

Sure enough, we will have the advocates of victim disarmament coming out of the shadows to use this murder as another arrow in the quiver of gun control. As far as I am concerned, they are just as guilty of murder as the person who pulled the trigger on the guns used. Their battle cry seems to be "If it only saves one life", and I would like to ask them to think their logic through to the end. What if it takes more lives than it would save? What if you help those who would visit violence on others for their gain by disarming those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes? 

Gun control just scored another victory. Gun control just cost seven lives in Massachusetts, while failing to prevent any crime. Gun control does not work. It blames the object for the actions of the person, and because it makes no difference between good guys and bad guys. Gun control kills...and yet we will never see its proponents take responsibility for the havoc their policies have wreaked. They will claim that those restrictions were just not severe enough. If you are inclined to agree with them, picture yourself under a desk with a madman coming your way with a rifle in his hands and murder in his heart. 

Be honest with yourself, for just one moment. Would you wish you had a cell phone? Or, would you rather have a tool that lets you control your own fate, instead of leaving it to an overworked and understaffed police force that spends most of its time fighting an unwinnable War On Some Drugs?