My real research begin just recently (last month) when I traveled to a gun show to see if the news stories were right.  I live in Illinois, and I was impressed with how organized and controlled the shows were.  While at the show, I stopped at a booth with handbooks on gun safety and other pamphlets including those covering the right to keep and bear arms (self defense logic).  I purchased a bunch of stuff, one being a book entitled "Dial 911 and Die".  I figured this would be a blood and guts story of real life events.  How wrong I was; it was more.  This book educated me on each state's laws and statues regarding the responsibility of the state to protect the individual.  In almost every state, the POLICE have ABSOLUTELY no responsibility to protect the individual from harm. Police are required by law to get involved in the crime scene, AFTER the crime has been committed.  WHAT? The police are not responsible for my life? 

I grew up on a farm and never locked the doors. I learned gun safety in 4H, and I was allowed to hunt alone at 14.  Gun safety was always on my mind as I crossed hundreds of fences and hunted with others always always keeping the barrel pointed in a safe direction. 

More self-study showed in Dial 911 and die, that most all states have state statute written to protect the general public, but not the individual.  I began considering my experiences during the riots in (1967) Detroit, in (1992) LA, and other places where civil disturbances cause the police to become powerless to protect the public and definitely COULD NOT protect the individual.  I remembered reading about the Korean community in the LA riots calling the 911 and the police did not respond because they were short handed and afraid.  The Korean’s took up arms they had purchase both legally/illegally, and they repealed the rioters and saved their lives and property from the fires.  The Korean’s dialed 911 and failed. Then they dialed 357 and won.

I read further into the book  Dial 911 and Die.  When you can dial 911, (if the bad guys has not picked up on another phone or cut the line) response time in the US can result in a 3 to 30 minute period of waiting for police to arrive--if they have units available.  3 to 30 minutes is a long time when someone is breaking into your house.  When you finally look the criminal directly in the eye, ask him to wait while the police arrive.  Here is the bad side of calling 911.   Hundreds of recorded instances have occurred where police did not arrive in time to prevent the 911 caller from being assaulted or killed by his attacker.

The states have carefully crafted the state law NOT to be liable should they fail or screwup your 911 call.  Even if you do survive the attack, you, nor your heirs in most states can sue and win for "failure of police to protect" the public.  "Dial 911 and Die" explained each state’s carefully crafted laws.  In the book, I began also to learn about the 2^nd amendment.  The 2^nd amendment's basic right to bears arms for an individual right to self-protection is undisputed.  Thousands of pages have been written on this 2^nd amendment right, 20,000 guns laws are chipping away at your safety.

Once I finished the book “Dial 911 and Die”, I needed more information.  Now I was more convinced that what I was hearing on the nightly news, and reading in the newspaper was not true.  Rather, it was pure demagoguery.  I had to find out and immediately hit the Internet, searching for websites.  Guns, Handguns, Crime, Police, right to keep and bear arms, 2^nd amendment, etc.  I spent hours visiting both sides reading between the lines to get the real story.

As I competed my study, here is what I found.  The media, politicians and spin misters for more gun laws were spinning ,distorting the facts surronding self defense.  The 30 second TV sound clips were outright big time lies.  The White House, gun control congress, and supporters of taking away guns were purgering themselves -- to create fear in the public.  Twenty thousand laws on the books, and a new law will make the you and I safer.  Right.  And I have ocean front property for sale in Montana.  Spin the story to create fear, gain re-election for themselves.  Now, I was mad.  Mad at myself for allowing myself to be brainwashed by the media.  "Sounds like they are taking away the rights of American citizens for self-defense," I thought, as I tracked down each fear story. 

Here is what I found.

Guns do not kill 13 children a day.  I found a site that had statistics on this subject, the FBI.  In their study, 188 children from the age of 0 to 14, had died in 1998 from accidental shootings.  My heart felt for each family only sorrow.  But simple math and logic told me that 188/365 did not equal 12 children a day. What is this difference?  What was the huge discrepancy?  It reminded of the well-worn quote:  "Figures lie, and Liars figure."  The definition in the dictionary for a child was, "from birth to puberty" (about 14). 

The FBI statistics told the true story.  The "12 children a day" includes gang violence adults up to age 20.  Now I understood.  A 15-20 year old gang member is defined by Clinton as a child.  Bill and Hillary Clinton, (the lobby) against self-defense were including all of the gang and drug shootings.  Yes, these gang thugs are unfortunately Americans, however, most logical Americans would recognize this as a social family problem--a failure of our society and government policy--and that perhaps the inability of the police to protect citizens are true.   Accidental gun Accidents have killed in our nation 35 to 115 children from birth to puberty (0-14) annual over the last 20 years.  Swimming pool accidents have taken the lives of ten times more children 98 vs. 1063 deaths in 1995.

This emotional issue, "save our children" is purely a political spin, using fear for re-election. Yes, we need to stop any violence, including gang violence. Federally registering millions of law biding citizens will not stop thugs and gangbangers.  Bad guys will get guns when they want guns. Period. Since the police, politicians and fear lobbyists cannot protect you and I from these bad guys, we need to protect ourselves or be violated.  Something smelled like rotten fish. This was politics at its worst--using "save the children" to get re-elected.  I was sick again as power-hungry elected leaders spun the story for another ride on their power/ego trip.

Guns do not shoot children (copycat) every 90 seconds.  Again this media spin is pure junk.  The numbers do not compute, and this fear is for personal political gain.  It does not surprise me anymore how news media reporters knowingly published fear stories in the newspaper and echoed on the nightly news.  In my opinion, selling prime time fear on in news media is directly behind copycat violence.  Live broadcasts of victims, live feeds running on for hours, days, and weeks breeds more copycat cases.  The most recent TV evening news history is full of copycats.  Now I understand Governor Jessie Ventura's (MN) words:  "If you want to stop the TV violence, exercise Parent Control and turn off the evening news, because the news media fails to exercise good judgment."

We need another gun law. We have 20,000 now.   At first when I heard the pitch several months ago I could go along with the effort, because I did not know 20,000 plus gun laws are already on the books.  My logic immediately said "what is one more law going to accomplish?  Why not enforce the laws we have and arrest the bad guys?!"  In 8 years, the current administration's record to aggressively pursue gun criminals is bad--very bad.  It is a known fact that out of the thousands of federally registered gun dealers, perhaps 300 gun dealers sell 70 to 80 percent of the guns used in gang killings in our cities.  Where have our current government leaders, state and federal, agencies been?  Law enforcement tells us this fact from their own statistics--and they do little. I am perplexed. They know who the bad gun dealers are, and they know the law is being violated, but they fail to suspend the license and prosecute.  Our federal law enforcement, agencies have failed to enforce the laws we have.  

Trigger locks will solve the problem?  Trigger locks will take innocent lives of homeowner’s inability to confront criminals in their homes.  Yes I agree, trigger locks will prevent some accidental deaths.  Are trigger locks another media spin?  Bad guys understand one thing, POWER.  Either they have it, or you have it, in your home.

Registration of guns will solve this problem?  NO.  We need to register all guns and gun owners, this will keep the criminals from having guns.  WRONG.  Criminals who want guns will get guns. Today, 2 million bad guys are in our prisons.  4 to 6 million bad guys have been rotated out of our prisons for over-crowding.  6 plus million bad guys in our population.  Who is going to protect you when you are face to face with one of these guys, the police? I doubt it, and don't count on it.  Remember, police are required by law to process the crime scene, not to protect the individual.  Police will respond to your 911 as priority events allow.

CCW  Concealed Carry Weapons: Further study at various websites provided me with statistics that changed my mind totally for CCW.  CCW stands for Concealed Carry Weapon.  In my state, Illinois, it is presently not possible to CCW legally, unless you are a cop.  Our big city major, Mayor Daley, is trying to follow the Washington D.C. model--the one that has the highest murder and assault rate in the nation.  In Vermont, the state that has the lowest violent crime statistics, citizens my carry a concealed weapon at any time without a "permit." Where individuals have the right to exercise resistance to criminals, they do so, and crime is the lowest in the nation.

CCW cardholders are not crazy people, they are lawful, peaceable citizens with extremely low experiences with crime.  In fact, in 1987, 12 states had CCW, today in 2000, 32 states have CCW laws on the books, and in almost every state where CCW permits exist, violent crime is on the decline--per FBI statistics.  This is totally opposite of the spin of both the media and the politicians who are beating the drums of "take away the rights of self-defense and rely on the police."  How do I get a CCW?  If you live in one of the 32 states, go apply.  (A great web site to quickly find out if your state currently legally allows concealed carry is http://www.Packing.org.)  Second, lobby your local, state, and federal to support CCW nation wide.  Why? So you can help the rest of the states (us) pass laws for CCW, and so lawful citizens who've passed state requirements can carry freely and protect themselves throughout this nation.  Six million bad guys love victims who cannot protect themselves.  Encouraging your congressmen to vote for House bill HR 407 allowing for CCW in the remaining 18 states would appear to make good sense for all of us.

We need to teach our children about gun safety.  If they find a gun, what do they do?  Who do they tell?  This is at minimum.  If you take the next step and educate your children when it is appropriate for their age how to safely handle guns, then they can protect their children properly.  This includes gun safety training, adult target practice sessions, loading and unloading, safety when among friends, and more.  You teach them NEVER to point a gun, any gun at any person as it might be loaded.  You teach them SAFETY that 99.99999% of all gun owners in America practice faithfully, every day.

Days of Internet study produced the following statements of logic:

o        The constitution is framed in muskets.  Taxation by government, bill of rights, freedoms of speech, religion.

o        I fully support keeping guns away from violent offenders, but don’t kill me in the process, by denial of self-protection.

o        "Let the people know the facts and the country will be  saved." ~Abraham Lincoln

o        The new wave of CCW concealed handgun permit laws, from 12 to 32 states to date is stopping crime.

o        The only citizens responsible to protect their lives and property in civil unrest are the citizens.

o        Criminals fear armed citizens more than the police.  Police are regulated, homeowners with guns strike fear in criminals.

o        Criminologists (people who process crime stats) are turning away from "take away guns"  to "right to keep and bear arms".

o        Background checks do not disarm the violent criminal population.

o        Since the day the burglar laid his hand on my wife while we sleep, I now own a gun.

o        Dial 911 and Die.  I would rather dial 357 or 9MM.

o        The man or woman to protect you from violent crime, rape, assault, murder, is you, not the police.

o        Since 1987 Florida enactment of CCW, violent crime rates have dropped significantly for seven years.

o        World’s Smallest Self-defense Quiz, is eye opening.

o        The 2^nd amendment clearly states the right of the individual to bear arms.

o        The first national stupid American the police will protect you self test.

o        Defenseless in Britain, violent crime up 35 to 45 %.

o        Canada lies to the north violent crime up significantly amidst much stricter gun laws.

o        Reasonable gun control: an oxymoron.

o        How long does any average violent crime criminal stay in prison for murder, rape robbery and aggravated assault. 1.8 years.  When he gets out of prison who is going to protect you? The police? Wrong.

o        Police protect society not individuals or property of individuals. Who is going to protect you while you dial 911.

o        Why is the government afraid of me?  Legislators don’t trust citizens and they like power and control.

o        The media has a private agenda.  Horror and fear sells prime time and makes big time profits.

o        Kids and guns don’t mix. Wrong we the parents must teach gun safety and provide home protection for our children as well as teach them how to protect themselves and their future families.  

o        Do battered Women have a right to protect themselves and bear arms?  

o        Write your local, state, and national politicians.

o        Support HR 407 a bill for CCW in all fifty states.

o        So you want to see me naked.

o        99.98 percent of the handguns are safe and in sane hands.

o        A shotgun in the closet. This is the rule of law  and survival until the police arrive.

o        Keypad gun safes that provide absolute safety for guns anywhere in the home.

o        A new industry has sprung up thanks to Clinton, the compact pistols for self-protection and CCW in 32 states.

o        Visit websites for women who bear arms for self-protection.  

Now that I understand better what’s at stake in this politically-charged issue.  Power, re-election, using fear for power.  I will now begin to educate my wife and daughter on this risk, and begin training in the safe handling of firearms and how to protect themselves if by chance someday they may have to defend their lives from assault--even in the town where we live.

Final note:  In 1988 an individual attempted to break into our home by force at 6 pm one evening.  The neighbor, hearing the commotion of smashing windows, came outside to investigate.  His presence scared them away while at the same time my wife was dialing 911.  They left before the police arrived.  I now realize that dialing 911 would not have saved my family from harm should the individual have successfully entered our home.  How scary a thought today.  How stupid I have been to think the police will with certainty protect my family.  Now that In re-evaluating this situation, I see that our nation has six million felons who do not follow the law.  Recent university studies report that a "show or flash of a gun" is defusing approximately 2.4 million bad encounters annually--in the United States. That is 6,575 times a day gun owners are de-escalating threatening situations--assisting police officers, neighbors, and themselves in keeping criminals at bay.  I am in full agreement for proper licensing of CCW individuals.  And I am strongly opposed to more gun laws "to protect yourself" within your own abode. The reverse logic is false.

I strongly encourage you to study this issue.  Freedom. Self defense.  I encourage you to put together a plan to protect yourself should a bad guy want to violate you in your home or while traveling.  Question?  What level of training are you providing your family for safety?  None, Some or Full training? Will it include a firearm.  Remember, when you are not by their side, who will protect them?  Will they if you are not there? The police? Prepare your 3-30 minute prayer now.

Just so you know where I stand.  I believe we need to protect our children.  More gun laws are not the answer.   More guns laws will take away self-defense ability for millions of lawful, peaceable citizens--deterring their abilities to protect themselves and their loved ones from assault by criminals.  I believe in the 2^nd amendment, and the 4^th amendment.  I now know what these two amendments mean.  I believe in self-defense, not dial 911 and wait 3-30 minutes for the police. I now understand that the police cannot protect my family, daughter, and my property.  It is up to me or my family members to protect us.  I now understand that 6 million bad guys live either in our prisons, or in our communities--and that based on past FBI statistics, they will commit crime again.  These rotated criminals are searching for easy victims.  I believe in CCW, for personal safety. I also believe that CCW makes our street safer.  The 32 states that have passed CCW clearly are receiving benefits of less assault and lower crime. I believe only responsible citizens should be allowed CCW. Florida now has 400,000 plus CCW permits.   As I get older, I look more and more like an easy target. Therefore, this is my reason and attitude on CCW and self-protection both at home and traveling. Being an easy target is not on my agenda.

If you believe in mankind itself, and you if read history (last 100 years), you will find  20 cultures of people who gave up their right of self protection (or had it forcefully taken away) died at the hands of the people in power.  The total is 169 million people in the last 100 years.  Bad guys will always have guns.  Bad guys don’t follow the rules, nor laws, nor respect human rights. That is why they are bad guys.  If you disagree with any one of my beliefs, you are still my friend.  Remember it is the fear of the homeowner with a gun that strikes fear in the criminal mind that discourages him from entering your home. 

Still my friend  Should you happen not to choose the path I have chosen, and my selected self-defense practices some umbrella of protection (fear in the mind of the criminal) for your home, I am happy to provide this little bit of safety.  This is what friends do for friends.

Paul Williams
Naperville IL 60540

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