"We’re A Victim…"
February 3rd, 2008 by Syd
“we’re a victim of our society that we live in.”
– Mayor Mayor Edward Zabrocki of Tinley Park, Illinois.
Source
The tortured grammar notwithstanding, the mayor gets at something tragically true in the wake of the murder of five women in a Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. From the reports we have, an unknown black male entered the store and murdered five women. The indication is that it was a robbery gone bad. In a way that is both obscene and unnecessary, these women are victims of the society they inhabited, but not in the way hizzoner intended.
They are victims of a society that disarms the law abiding while enabling armed criminal predators with gun-free zones. They are victims of a flawed philosophy that holds that inanimate objects are somehow capable of moral evil while human criminals are only victims of their environment.
They are victims of a society that condemns resistance and self-defense as “barbaric” and “primitive” while making patronizing excuses for psychopaths. My hunch is that if the perpetrator is ever caught, he will have a rap sheet as long as your arm.
They are victims of a society that teaches them to submit passively and never resist a violent criminal. They are victims of a system of denial that holds if we just pretend that evil isn’t in the world long enough, it won’t be, and we won’t have to do anything about it.
They are victims of a society that somehow, inexplicably, prefers to be slaughtered like so much livestock rather than provide its citizens with an adequate means of self-defense. “Somebody might get hurt.”
Being a victim may get you your 15 seconds of sympathetic air time on the six o’clock news, but aside from that, it is really unpleasant.
For myself and my family, I prefer not to be a victim. If that mean packing a gun and being aware of my surroundings, it’s a price I’m willing to pay.
Tracey Jackson, 30, of nearby Matteson, described Tinley Park as a friendly place with a relatively modest crime rate and its share of “soccer moms.”
“Usually, if you drop your wallet out here, someone will hunt you down to get it,” Ms. Jackson said. “This is a place where if you left your purse in your car, nobody is going to go bust out your window or anything.
But, Ms. Jackson added, the shootings Saturday would be sure to change attitudes. “Now we’re going to be a little more on the alert,” she said. Source
That’s not a bad idea, Tracey, and maybe be a little more armed.
Yet, when we talk this way, we run dangerously close to blaming the victims, that if they had just been prepared with their own hardware, they might be alive today. That is neither fair nor humane. Concealed carry isn’t the whole answer. I have no problem with blaming a society that does not teach its young to value human life, a society that disparages self-defense, but I cannot really foresee a time when the typical patron of a Lane Bryant would be armed and a graduated of Gunsite. I can easily blame a society that precludes with its laws the possibility that one of those women could have been armed and prepared, but I don’t blame those women.
The solutions to this kind of crime have to be far more comprehensive than just telling every grandmother to pack a heater when she goes to church. But until some of those more comprehensive solutions are found, I am going to continue to encourage every man and woman I can to learn self-defense, and to work to remove laws that prohibit law-abiding adults from keeping and bearing arms.
The state of Illinois has no law giving the right to carry a gun. So since no one can legally carry a gun how is it that someone actually had a gun in their hands and killed five innocent women?
Aren’t these “gun free” zones enacted for the sole purpose of protecting the innocent? Could it be that the criminal wasn’t aware that they were in a “gun free” zone? If the criminal knew that they were breaking the law do you believe they would have not shot anyone?
Can someone explain to me how passing restrictive gun laws actually do anything besides disarming the law-abiding innocent? Please?
These four women (one did survive) were victims because they believed that they would never have to defend themselves against a brutal sociopath. And, most people do not have to defend themselves in a life or death situation excluding military combat. Most law abiding citizens can go about their daily business without the fear of being attacked. However, when the probability of attack is only 1% and that one percent probablility comes up, without a means to protect one’s life you are done. I train for that remote probablility that I may be attacked knowing that it probably will never happen. If it does happen, I hope that I will be prepared.
Therefore, I would never live in a state or country that denied me the means to protect my life. England, Scotland, Australia and other gun ban countries are places that I refuse to visit and certainly would not live there. Illinois falls into the same category. As a retired peace officer, I may be allowed to carry a gun there, but if it was not permitted, I would not be entertaining any thoughts of visiting the place.
Okay, I’ll say this calmly and succinctly….
You want my guns? You want to take away my right to defend myself?
Here ya go, feel free to take them, ONE ROUND AT A TIME THAT WILL TAKE THE TARGET DOWN (read: any damned fool who tries to take the guns away from me and my family)!
Now that I have stated my position, be warned and let your conscience be your guide.
The fool who tries to stop me from exercising every single one of my rights is someone who has committed suicide. I would not harm a soul who does not try to harm my country, my family, or me.
Anyone who does try to harm any of those entities is committing suicide, therefore I cannot be called a murderer!
Note that I did not say politicians or any one of their hired thugs.
P.S.
Just for your information and edification, I have enough firearms and ammunition to arm my whole family, not to mention what my children have on their own! By the way, they are not unloaded, they are not locked, they ARE ready at all times….so like I said, feel free and let your conscience be your guide.
When we start making people RESPONSIBLE for their actions and start “Frying a Few” or a good “LEATHAL INJECTIONS” won’t stop crime - but it will eliminate the source! Also please remember “An Armed Society - is a POLITE society”!!