Right to bear arms

The Right to bear arms...is the right to self defense. While a nation or community might need protecting, in the end, it is about protecting ones own life, or the life of another.

To deny that right, is to deny the right to self defense. Many would have you to believe that citizens don't need a firearm when we have the police to protect us. Bull Shit! I am an ex-Cop and I can tell you this - Every good Cop in the country wants to catch bad-guys and would love to catch them "in the act". But 99.9% of the time, they don't get there until there is ALREADY a victim. They would like it to be different, but it isn't.

I would like to propose to you, and for you to consider, the following stories:

Story #1 ~
It's 2 am, and you are suddenly wakened by the crash of your back door. As you are startled awake, you become aware that someone is now in your house. You grab for the phone to call 9-1-1. The phone line has been cut, so you can't call. Your cell phone is being recharged on the kitchen counter.
You grab the 9 iron you have near your bed, and wait with your wife in the corner of your bedroom.
The intruders (that's more than one) who have entered your "home", aren't interested in ONLY the TV, and have now come into your bedroom to get your jewelry, and maybe some time with your wife.
In the darkened bedroom, you stand next to your screaming wife, hoping a neighbor will hear the plea for help and call the police. As the two bad-guys come in the bedroom, you swing that 9 iron. Now the bad-guys are really pissed, take it away from you, and beat you senseless. You lay there semi-conscience, as they take your wife in front of you. So far, less than 2 minutes has passed, and the police haven't even been called yet.
The echoes in the neighborhood are hard to discern where they come from. Finally, someone calls the police. Now, 4 very long minutes have passed. As the distant sirens wale, the intruders hustle out with what valuables they could grab. When they leave, all thoughts of ever feeling safe again, leave with them.
A "short time" later, the police arrive "in the neighborhood", but it still takes them a bit longer to discern your house as the one with the cries for help. How much time it has been, is lost on you and it seems like "forever" has gone by. In truth, it's only been about 8 minutes. 8 very long minutes, and the police response has been good by most 9-1-1 standards.
At the instant the bad-guys broke into your home, you were a victim. The further victimization and bodily damage to you and yours, came after that. The injuries, should you survive at all, may heal, but the security you once felt will forever be gone. No court will fix that, assuming the bad-guys get caught someday.

Story #2 ~
Two weeks later, in a different neighborhood, the same two bad-guys pry open a sliding patio door, popping the lock, and waking up Herb. Herb is 77, and his wife Edna is a young 72. Herb is a veteran and saw his fair share of what one man can do to another. Herb owns a gun. As Herb sits up in bed, he can hear the two intruders, who are now inside his kitchen. Herb grabs for his .45 in the bed-stand, as Edna picks up the phone. The phone is dead. With no phone to call for help, Herb and Edna take a defensive position behind their bed and wait it out.
As the first intruder opens the bedroom door, Herb take aim. In a flash, the .45 lights up the room, as well as his target. The second shot, aimed at where his target was first illuminated by that first shot, hits home and the intruder goes down. At that time, Herb and Edna hear someone else shout, "Oh shit!", and they could hear the second bad-guy running through the house and out the back.
Less than 2 minutes have gone by. The next-door neighbor heard the shots and called the police. The police were now running reds-lights-n-siren to Herb and Edna's house. A couple minutes later, the first police car arrives.
Herb and Edna stay put and call out for the police, letting them know they are armed and in their bedroom. One intruder got away, for now. His accomplice is dead on the hallway floor, but is well known to the police, as are his known associates.
For Herb and Edna, they still don't feel as safe as they once had, but are thankful they were left unharmed. While they were still victimized, they would not have to suffer those healing wounds of the other folks a couple weeks earlier. They were alive.

As for Frank and Bubba, they had long rap sheets. With their history, and knowing the added risks of carrying a gun as felons, they instead went for over-powering their victims and the use of blunt instruments as weapons. Blunt instruments, such as a heavy flashlight, wouldn't get them the added time like a firearm would, and they knew it. Two strong and mean men, usually against one man and a scared woman, maybe in added fear for their children, added up to easy prey. Once the man is over-powered, the rest is easy.

By the way, if you haven't seen it, watch Jodi Foster's movie, " The Brave One". While I know it is "just a movie", often, movies emulate life. Add to that, a recent article I recently read in the Dallas news, where burglars are growing more brazen in their break-ins. They are hitting day and night. They have cut phone lines, to disable phones and alarms. They have confronted terrified residents inside the homes. Most of the time, it's flat-screens and other quick to pawn valuables they're after. Most of the time. But how do you know if that's all they want? You don't. Not until its too late will you know. You are then at THEIR mercy.

There are also those who suggest to just let them have what ever they come in for, and take it up with the insurance company later. And if it's that one time when they want MORE than the flat-screen? Then what? Even to give up what is yours, what you've WORKED for, what you should be able to FREE-ly own, goes against your constitutional rights to own property and be secure in your home. So why should anyone expect you to not want to protect even your property?

Not everyone can, or should, have a gun in their home. At least get a dog! If nothing else, they could be a deterrent and an early warning system. But, dogs can be defeated to. Some dogs, in that time of need, may end up in your bed in fear too!

Many of the anti-gun people will try to tell you that a home-owners gun will most always be taken away and turned against the home-owner. I don't know where that statistic came from, but I don't buy it. But, let's say that in even one case, that is true. If you have stayed in your bedroom and waited out the intruders, and they come into your bedroom, and you just can't pull the trigger, and they take it away form you....then you're in deep poop anyway. They came into your bedroom....that's not the family-room big screen they were after!

I've for every home to have the option of a gun for protection. In fact, a shotgun may even be better! But, in any case, know how to use it, practice with it, and have it safe-but-ready for use. If EVERY HOME was to have a gun, and a person knowing how to use it, the bad-guys would be faced with a real delima. At the least, they would try to do a better job of casing your house and knowing when you weren't home, and avoid getting dead!

Lastly, I want to ask this question - Why is it that the poor people in D.C. housing projects, are less entitled to self-protection than most the rest of the citizens? Personally, I think that is racist, or at least is a form of prejudice for a community to say they one group of citizens, otherwise entitled to equal laws, that they can't have the 2nd amendment working for them.

Fatherhood

I absolutely love being a father! I am Blessed to have great kids. And in all fairness to my ex-wife, it took both of us to help make that happen. "Dad", is a word that is like music to my ears when it comes from the mouths of my kids.

Okay - but to my topic of today - Fatherhood. Calling all fathers....calling all fathers..... Our kids need YOU. Our communities need YOU. Our nation needs YOU.

Even if you are divorced and live in a separate home than your kids, they need YOU in their lives. And they need the very best from you for guidance and example.

Not long ago, there was a news story of some VERY misbehaving boys, and the mother who left them alone in protest of their actions. Now I don't know all the story, but I did see one of the 4 boys yelling obscenities at the news crew. In essence, the story is about a single mom having very difficult challenges with her teen sons. Throughout the story, something was missing.... a DAD! Either the dad was dead, gone, or just plain derelict in his responsibilities in helping raise those boys. In any case, it was obvious those boys needed a strong male role model in their lives. Where was the dad?

Throughout my career in law enforcement,working on the streets and now in a jail, I have seen countless kids, mostly boys, who either did not have an active dad in the picture, or a very bad one serving as an example for behavior. In either case, a REAL "father" was missing and the kids, and the community, was paying the price. I see kids all the time, where I think to myself, "I'll be seeing that one in my jail soon!" Our children learn more by example, or the lack of one, than by anything else. A "father" can be the strongest example a kid, specially a young boy, can have. (Even daughters need a good "dad", so they can gauge what a man should be like when she chooses a husband.) Boys will more likely (not in every case, some kids have other issues that can impair the parenting process), emulate the characteristics of the father, good or bad.

I once heard (or read?) somewhere - "Everyone can serve as an example, even if by being a bad one!" It's that way with fathers too. If a father treats his wife bad, the likelihood is that his male children will do the same. If a father is a drunk or does drugs, then it is far more likely that his children will too. Who could truly love their children, and want that for them?

MEN - If you don't want to be an active and participating "father", then don't father children! In MY opinion, ANY male (I won't use "man" for such lame a--holes) who fathers children and doesn't participate in raising them, should be castrated! (Actually, I'd also go for any women who help create fatherless children with multiple men, for pleasure, should be sterilized!) Yep... CASTRATE the bastards! No more creation of children by men who don't take responsibility. They are NOT real men, they are just sperm dispensers on legs.

To any male who should read this, who falls into that category of creating children and then NOT participating in raising them....... SHAME ON YOU. You are a spineless scrotebag simpleton with a penis for a brain! And if any such person should father multiple children with multiple women, and take care of none of them, I'm just fine with dumping their worthless body in a swamp!

As a nation, we tolerate far too much. And part of that, is tolerating such people and having the rest of us, saying nothing of the children who have to grow the best they can, pay for it all. The gators could eat well with all those who commit such acts. Hard? Damn right! Needed? Damn right!

I love my kids. I can't imagine this world without them. And I can't relate to those men who don't love their kids and want to be part of their lives, and to do well by them. To all those real dads out their, I salute you! Fatherhood is the greatest job out there.

To my children - I love you. I have made mistakes and I hope you see them for what they are and do better than I did. I hope too that you take all my best parts, and take them with you through your lives. You are already better than I am, and I am so pleased, and Blessed. Thank you God for my children. They are gifts beyond my deserving.

Dan