Protection

What word just jumped into your head when you saw the title of this post? Contraceptives? Seatbelts? A locked door? Rubber gloves? A gun?

The reason I ask is this:
Most common forms of protection are a combination of safety tools and mental attitude. Federal and State government agencies encourage people to have first aid kits, a three days supply of food and water and various other safety items at home or in their cars so that in the event of a disaster they can save themselves. Most people think it a good idea to wear a seat belt while riding in automobiles, to wear condoms if having casual sex and to lock their homes and vehicles. Why is it that these preventative measures and safety devices are so widely accepted yet other personal protection items such as hand guns and weapons are deemed wrong? This makes no sense! For some reason, however, a lot of people feel that a weapon is never a safety device and is instead only a tool of aggression.

The funny thing is, most people are ok with law enforcement personnel and soldiers carrying guns for protection. Our society willingly spends trillions of dollars arming and training law enforcement and military personnel, as if they are somehow different than us mere civilians and have a greater right to protect themselves. It is ok for them to shoot a bad guy before the bad guy hurts them, but many feel it is wrong for ordinary people to defend their own lives in this same manner.

Why is it that when an individual decides to add a weapon to their collection of safety equipment, many other people get uncomfortable? Why is it that we prosecute a person if they refuse to protect themselves with a seatbelt or helmet and we also prosecute them if they carry a firearm to protect themselves? In both cases, the motive is protection and the items in question are safety equipment.

PLEASE don’t answer that the other types of safety equipment can’t be used to harm people. With a little imagination, a person could bludgeon someone with a steering wheel locking device, restrain them with seat belt webbing, gag them with bandages, torture them with lit road flares and jumper cables and then finish them off with a fire axe or some other common safety device. Absolutely ANYTHING can be used for both good and bad purposes, depending on the intent of the user. Nevertheless, many people have an irrational belief that some safety devices will only be used for good and others will only be used for bad. Cars, knives and other everyday items have been used in massacres, just as guns have been used to prevent countless crimes.

Defense is a sacred right and handguns and other weapons are safety tools designed to uphold that right. The second amendment to the US constitution affirms that right, and over eighty million of your fellow citizens exercise that right. Why not be one of us and help make the world a safer place?