A Mother's Plea
By Sharon Hes
www.sharonhes.com
Rightgrrl Contributor
October 25, 1999
I am a Jewish mother with a child in a Jewish day school in New Jersey. When I first heard about the carnage in Los Angeles at the Jewish center, I thought that it could have been my child. Along with the rest of the country, I am horrified at the attempted massacre by the neo-Nazi monster Buford Furrow. Unfortunately, this type of violence is hardly a rarity nowadays.
Much attention is paid to the notion that such horrors can be prevented, primarily by eliminating the tools of destruction. Certainly, keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous madmen is one important step. Background checks on gun sales provide that safeguard. Had Furrow tried to buy a gun through legal methods, he would have been justifiably denied.
Unfortunately, homicidal maniacs rarely concern themselves with legal niceties. They obtain their guns through illegal methods. We must accept the reality that such people live in this country, plotting episodes of destruction and mayhem against not only Jews, but Christians and athletes (Columbine), whites (Long Island Railroad), blacks (Howard Beach), Mormons (Salt Lake City) and financial workers (Atlanta). There is no telling where the next tragedy will strike.
We must protect our children, all our children. My solution may not be a popular one, but it is a real one, a practical one, dealing with the reality of the madness that more and more evil people are acting out on today.
The solution is so clear, yet, it is a politically difficult one. My premise is that most people are good, and that there are few evil people who will actually commit these heinous crimes. The children would have been protected had a responsible, trained, armed person been on site to stop the bloodshed.
This approach is not without precedent. Many adults both soldiers and civilians in Israel carry guns because terrorism has been a chronic problem. Teachers and kindergarten nurses carry weapons. Few attacks have occurred on children in Israel since this practice began because their teachers have had the tools to protect the children guns. In fact, one of the few recent attacks occurred on a group of children who were visiting Jordan, after their teachers were compelled to leave their protective weapons behind.
Closer to home, about ten years ago, there were several days of minor rioting in my suburban town after a policeman shot a teenager who had been brandishing a gun. The rioters approached my neighborhood, near friends who lived up the street. As the rioters approached her house, the husband called the police and pleaded for help. The police, understandably busy in many other sections of town, said they could do nothing unless the rioters were entering her house.
That was a moment of epiphany for the wife. She had previously been supportive of the efforts that are called gun control as a means to protect the population, but then she realized the police cannot protect everyone, only pick up the pieces after a tragedy occurs. Her husband legally owned a gun, but she had been quite uncomfortable about it. After this incident, she decided to learn how to use the gun in her house. She finally understood what her husband meant when he had said, A gun is like a credit card. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
Let me make one thing clear. I do not have a gun, nor have I ever had one. I do not personally want a gun now because I am not ready to undertake the responsibility involved in proper training for it. I am not even suggesting that most adults should own guns. However, I do think those who are willing to accept the responsibility for proper gun safety should have right to do so. I am grateful for those who do.
My attitude has evolved, since a long time ago I believed the sophistry of the radical anti-protection lobby, whose adherents who are well meaning but misguided. But as I looked deeper into the subject, I came to recognize the folly of their arguments, and the benefit of crime prevention that a well-armed responsible populace would provide. Even with the crushing restrictions on guns in many parts of the country, guns do prevent over 600,000 crimes per year, according to FBI statistics.
There is no question that states (such as Texas and Florida) that allow responsible citizens to carry protective weapons have lower rates of crime; the effect of deterrence is significant. Were more responsible people able to protect other innocent individuals, the criminals would soon learn that they put their own lives in peril when there are plenty of citizen protectors all about.
This article represents a risk for me, for I happen to be running for the New Jersey State Assembly in District 37 (in Bergen County). I have been advised that it is political suicide to take such a stand since the initial reaction of the majority is to impose more constraints on gun ownership. Yet, this recent tragedy convinces me even more about the need to make it easier for responsible people to obtain protective guns.
Now I suppose the usual epithets will be thrown at me by the anti-protection gun control lobby. I am not a member of any gun-related group. I have not sought the endorsement of any gun-related group. I have not obtained funds from any gun-related group. I am in no one's pocket. These are personal, heartfelt beliefs developed through years of study and observation of the topic.
To protect our children, many of us vaccinate them, even though there is a small risk to their health by doing so. To ensure our children's safety even more, we need to protect them with the only tool available to stop a madman the gun in the hands of a responsible, trained, loving adult.
www.sharonhes.com
Copyright 1999 by Sharon Hes. Not to be reproduced in any fashion, in whole or in part, without written consent from the author. All rights reserved.