Hello readers! Thank you for joining me once again for Kuehner Thoughts (pronounced KEE-ner, as in keen). Today I would like to share with you my thoughts on gun control.
Before I begin, I must let you know that I am not a great study of law nor am I particularly well versed on the ins and outs of gun ownership - that is more my husbands purview. My thoughts on this matter come, rather, from listening to more knowledgable persons and from simple common sense, which I trust most of you posess as well.
In order to arrive at the conclusions I will later present, I would like to begin with a seemingly unrelated story, with which I am sure your are familiar.
Once upon a time, there were three little pigs who set out to build houses for themselves.
The first pig built his house with straw.
The second pig built his house with sticks.
The third pig built his house with bricks.
There was, in the area, a wolf who very much wanted to eat the little pigs.
The first little pig retreated to the perceived safety of his straw house and refused to let the wolf in. So the wolf huffed and puffed and blew the house in.
The pig ran to his brother’s house and they baricaded themselves within the relative safety of the stick house. The wolf pursued and, when they refused to let him in, he huffed and puffed and blew the house in.
And so the two pigs ran to their brother’s house and locked themselves inside the brick house. Upon being refused entry, the wolf huffed and puffed but was unable to blow the brick house down.
So he went home.
Wait…
What?
That’s not how the story goes.
As you can see, children’s stories have been heavily redacted and altered in recent years. Humpty dumpty gets put back together. The fox helps the gingerbread man across the river and doesn’t eat him. And the big, bad wolf is really just wimpy bag of hot air.
It’s no wonder our society as a whole is so taken aback when evil people do evil things. We’ve taken all the bad guys out of children’s stories. Or made them wimps. Or twisted them around so that the bad guy is really the good guy.
So then, when terrible things happen, such as the recent mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas and Highland Park, Illinois, no one knows how to respond.
“It’s the guns!” they cry. “Just take away the guns and we’ll all be safe.”
This is the message that continues to be pushed by the left - that tightening gun laws and restricting our 2nd amendment rights will somehow stop evil people from doing evil things.
But that doesn’t make any sense. That’s not how the story goes.
The big, bad wolf doesn’t just give up and go home. He’s the bad guy! He is bound and determined to do those little pigs harm. When he can’t blow the brick house down, he tries to climb down the chimney - at which point the pigs, having done their best to retreat to safety and with no further defensive recourse, must act offensively to stop the wolf. They light his butt on fire!
This is the kind of big, bad wolf we are up against. These criminals, these terrorists, don’t care about laws. They have allowed evil into their hearts and fully intend to do evil no matter how difficult it is or what laws they have to get around. The bad guys won’t let gun laws stop them from getting guns.
One study in California found that as many as 100,000 convicted felons in the United States own firearms. These people aren’t legally allowed to own guns, yet they have them anyway.
Even countries that have completely banned firearms have trouble keeping criminals from getting their hands on guns. Japanese leader Shinzo Abe was recently assassinated using a homemade gun.
The assassin couldn’t get his hands on gun so he found a way to make one. And when guns aren’t available at all, criminals find other means to cause mass death and terror - a bomb, a car, a plane. We’ve seen it all.
Stricter gun laws won’t stop evil people from doing evil things.
But they will take guns away from those who would be our defenders.
This past Sunday, a man walked into Greenwood Park Mall in Indiana with three guns and 100 rounds of ammunition. His intent to kill, harm, and cause terror was revealed when he opened fire in the food court, killing three people and wounding 2 others.
He might have continued killing if not for Elisjsha Dicken - a legally armed citizen, proficient in the use of his firearm, who chose to engage the shooter, in full knowledge of the risk to his own life. He acted quickly, returning fire, killing the terrorist, and preventing the deaths of countless others.
Elisjsha Dicken is a true hero. He put the lives of others before his own. Knowing that mall security likely didn’t carry firearms, knowing that it would be some time before police could arrive, knowing that he could have run away - he chose to stay and fight back against evil.
We need more men like Elisjsha Dicken. We need men trained and practiced in the use of firearms, men who can step up when everyone else is running away, men who can be there when the police are still miles away and may or may not be as useless as the Uvalde police force.
Cases of an armed bystander attacking an active shooter are rare, according to data from the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training at Texas State University.
There were at least 434 active shooter attacks in the US from 2000 to 2021, according to ALERRT data. Active shooter attacks were defined as those in which one or more shooters killed or attempted to kill multiple unrelated people in a populated place.
Of those 434 active shooter cases, an armed bystander shot the attacker in 22 of the incidents. In 10 of those, the "good guy" was a security guard or an off-duty police officer, ALERRT data showed.
Imagine if an armed bystander had been present at the rest of those active shooter cases. Imagine if someone had been there to put a stop to the killing before the police could arrive. Imagine how many lives could have been saved.
We can’t rely on the police or even off-duty police officers to protect us from this kind of evil. The police can’t be everywhere at once. But if there is even one man present who is armed and brave, evil can be stopped and lives can be saved.
This is Elisjsha Dicken. This is what a hero looks like.
You know, when I was discussing my idea for this substack with my husband, he pointed out that the three little pigs were fortunate that the wolf tried to go down the chimney rather than busting through a window or breaking down the door.
He suggested that the pigs would have been better off keeping a shotgun above the mantle, just in case.
That’s all I have for today.
God bless.