Husbandview01
Husband's View of this Self-defense Issue
Two hundred years of freedoms is at risk.
My family's ability to defend self is at risk.
The businessman who lives in Urban America
By Paul Williams - Suburbs of Chicago
Businessmen,
town committee member, family--wife and daughter
Sometime
in the first half of 1999 I began to realize that my belief
of safety from criminals was false. I had for a long time
believed that we were safe--living in the United States--and
crime happened on the other side of the track. My family
lives in a nice neighborhood, with little crime. I also
began to notice that my friends (including my sister) had
security systems. Then the media began blasting the need
more gun laws for honest people as the solution to crime. At
first I tolerated their views. But the facts and figures
given in the nightly news by spin politicians, or in the paper
did not ring true to my vast education and world experience.
I
had traveled in nearly every state in the union, plus ½ of
the world in my business. In my 3 piece business suit, I
had provided consulting to corporations in industrial parts of
town where a prisoner was hijacked from a sheriff's vehicle
stopped at a stoplight, and 29 bullet shootout between the good
guys and the bad guys in the street behind the business. I
have traveled in some very tough neighborhoods and survived.
I know now because of my street smarts, and luck I was not a
victim of assault or worse. I also thought I was safe,
because I was a man and I could recognize bad places and could
avoid trouble.
I
remember the night we left a Chicago Bulls game, and my 7
year old daughter insisted we stay after the game to see Michael
Jordan. 50 minutes later Michael appeared, and a few
minutes later, we left to our surprise late at night to a very
empty parking lot and, security had already gone home. Half
way across the lot I noticed a group walking towards us
attempting to engage me in conversation. I was scared but
managed to unlock the car, and pretended to reach into the car,
and then immediately warned them to stay back. They stopped
just long enough for me to get my daughter in the car and leave.
I had nothing in my hand except fear. My daughter asked
what was happening. I said, "they were selling
something, and I didn’t want what they were selling."
At the time I just passed it off as another close call. The
Bulls may win many championships, but my daughter's life is more
important than that, and so is mine.
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 2nd amendment. The 2nd
amendment's basic right to bears arms for an individual right to
self-protection is undisputed. Thousands of pages have been
written on this 2nd 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, 2nd 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 2nd 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 2nd amendment, and
the 4th 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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