Criminals Never Rest
Not Even at Rest Areas.
News sources are reporting that a 52-year-old Florida man was robbed at gunpoint while returning to his car from a rest area restroom in Vermilion, Ohio. The armed robbery took place around 5:30 PM on August 16 and the attacker is still at large at the time of this writing.
While an Ohio Concealed Handgun License allows law-abiding citizens to carry a firearm in order to protect themselves from violent attack in most places, state legislators have specifically prohibited that innate right in certain locations. A rest area building is one of those locations.
Ohioans For Concealed Carry has always advocated that criminals may in fact target areas that are known to be free of licensed citizens properly equipped to defend themselves. Whether or not you believe this to be true, this recent incident certainly proves that violent crime can occur anywhere. A law-abiding person that merely wants to safeguard the welfare of his or her family should not be stripped of the most basic human right, that of self defense, for any reason. This includes the presence of four walls that happen to be maintained by tax dollars. The armed robbers, rapists, and murderers make no distinction as to where crime can occur, so why do those that are supposed to serve our community?
Criminals never rest. Why should our ability to defend our loved ones?
Originally published here. Also published as Letters to the Editor for the good people in Cincinnati and Toledo.
This article is permanently linked here.
5 comments
5 Comments:
Do you honestly think that everyone tooling around with handguns would solve more problems than it would create?
I'll try to keep this comment shorter than my typical novel, so please let me know anything you'd like more info on as I'll touch on a few different things.
I do think that arming trained and responsible people with handguns will solve more problems. And I'm not alone. Would you feel more comfortable hearing it from one of the top ranking law enforcement officials in Ohio? He said it on Aug 13:
"Those with the concealed carry licenses have been good, law-abiding citizens," said Robert Cornwell, executive director of the Buckeye State Sheriffs' Association. "The worst-case scenarios that were put out there about the gunfight at the OK Corral didn't come to fruition."
Would you feel more comfortable knowing that percentage-wise, licensed citizens have a much lower crime conviction rate than police officers?
Would you feel more comfortable hearing it from the criminals that believe it? Professors James D. Wright and Peter H. Rossi interviewed convicted felons. Those felons overwhelmingly said that they fear an armed citizen more than they do the police, and it factors into how they choose their victims. Over 70% agree or strongly agree that they would be (or have been) deterred from attacking a citizen if they thought they might be armed.
Even if you ignore the statistics published by John R. Lott that arming responsible citizens decreases violent crime as a whole, it does affect one person at a time every day.
Would you like to hear it from these people that were being stabbed by a lunatic until someone used a legally owned gun to stop the attack while never firing a shot?
How about this girl that I wrote about recently? She was working as a cashier, had a guy come in and say, "Give me money before I shoot you." He then reached into his back pocket as if going for a gun and attempted to jump the counter. That's when a man with a legal license stopped him and held him for police without ever firing a shot.
So... tooling around? No. In order to legally (let alone morally) use a handgun in self defense, you have to believe that you're about to be killed or given "serious bodily harm." You've already exhausted every other option and you can't run away. That's the only time anyone will ever see it.
So, knowing that's the only time a handgun can be used... Would you personally either:
A) Value your life enough that you want to protect it by stopping someone from killing you.
or
B) Let someone kill you.
There's really no middle ground there. Would you choose to let someone kill you or do you want to live? If that was your daughter working as a cashier in a KFC in Indianapolis, would you be glad that a responsible citizen stepped in and saved her life? Or would you want her to die?
Sorry, I'm a moron and the link to the guy that stopped that knife attack against seven people should be THIS.
I believe there are responsible individuals who should be allowed to carry. But there are certainly those who are licensed that shouldn't be licensed.
Simply put, almost everyone of age is licensed to drive a car, yet I would bet that 1/4 shouldn't be allowed to drive. They are just lousy drivers. So how do we know that licensing to carry is any different? Convince me I'm wrong.
As I've moved this to the front page, I did want to comment on one other thing.
While I love talking about the "big enchilada" of whether CHLs are a good thing, the point of this post was this:
The State of Ohio "permits" me to protect my life in Wal-Mart, restaurants, and anywhere on the street. What do they think is so special about a rest area restroom (or other govt building) that would cause me to go on a wild shooting spree? They can "trust" me some places, but not others? My life is worth just as much no matter where I am.
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