Saturday, December 15, 2012

The Myth of Prepardness


OK, here’s the scenario… You are driving by the local school and you notice a young man pull an assault weapon and a handgun from the trunk of his car and move quickly towards the school. A woman and child are coming out of the front door and he shoots them both.  You just happen to have your assault weapon in the car.  You pull up, jump out and head toward the entrance. As you enter the school, you see the gunman calmly walking down the hallway shooting children. You raise your weapon and order the gunman to stop. He turns, raises his weapon towards you and you shoot him down. 
 
You’ve saved countless lives. Your face is on the cover of People, Newsweek and Guns and Ammo Magazines. You are interviewed on FOX, MSNBC and The View. President Obama has a state dinner in your honor.  Sounds great!
 
Except many of the people with children in that Connecticut school, had guns. Some were highly trained. But when they received word that their child had been killed by a gunman’s bullet, they were at work, or in the mall, or at home baking cookies. They believed they were safe as long as they had their gun with them if they visited a Colorado movie theater, or a Virginia college, or maybe a Colorado High School. 
 
We arm ourselves to be ready for that scenario that never seems to happen. We believe we are ready for that scenario, but the scenario we are most often confronted with is loss of loved ones, loss of security and loss of innocence. We want someone to do something about the bad man’s guns, but fear the loss of our own, because we want to be ready the next time… In the aftermath, many will simply add another location, where they will keep their guns with them….now... an elementary school.