The mass shootings of the Virginia Tech, the Navy Yard, Fort Hood (again!), and last week, Federal Express in Kennesaw, GA brought to my mind an encounter I had with the day manager of a Home Depot store near my home. I had recently moved to Virginia and was intrigued by the open carry laws. In legal theory, Virginians have the right to carry a handgun on their person, in plain sight, without any permits required. I tried it a few times and was never troubled by our law enforcement. There was one instance where the manager I mentioned above asked me to leave his store. Below is a letter I wrote him following that experience. I remain very frustrated on these stupid "gun free" zones which turn into killing zones. Each of those cited shootings happened after I wrote this letter.
July 14, 2003
Dear Sir:
Last week I was shopping in
your store when you approached me and asked me two questions in quick
succession. “Why do you have a gun
strapped to the back of your belt?” “Are
you a law enforcement officer?” I
realized that the first question was rhetorical, meant as an opening for the
second; the question you really wanted answered. So when I replied “No” you directed me to
leave the store immediately. This I did,
without making an issue. Now, with your
patience I would like to answer that first question for you.
We would think a man a fool
if after being given a late model, expensive luxury car which dearly cost his
benefactor, he simply parked it in the street and never used it. He is content in the knowledge that the car
is his. As the years go by the motor
rusts, the tires sag, the battery dies, the paint fades and the interior
cracks. Only when the city tries to tow
the obviously unused, old, and unwanted car away does he defend his right to
keep the car with fervor and righteous anger.
Such is the situation with our American right to keep and bear arms. Our citizens have become so complacent and
apathetic concerning this precious right that in spite of our vigorous defense
in the state and national legislatures to preserve it on paper, in reality, it
has faded away. And like our poor fool,
when we need the right, in a moment of severe crisis, it no longer works for
us. We learn the hard way that rights
are perishable. What our forebears paid
for in blood and suffering, we forfeit through disuse.
Your second question
illustrates this point very well. Our
people no longer understand the principle under which this country was founded,
that we are the masters and the government the servants. The founding fathers knew that abuses were
inevitable if the situation were ever allowed to reverse. However, today, we are happy to allow the
authorities a total monopoly on all the firearms in the public arena. In our minds we all fall into three possible
categories when it comes to weapons; a law enforcement officer with a gun, an
honest citizen without a gun and finally, a thug or madman with a gun. Missing from our consciousness is the honest,
responsible, armed citizen; the kind of person who refuses to allow criminals
and petty thugs to control his world; the kind of citizen a republic needs to
maintain order and peace while preserving liberty. The only other two possibilities are chaos
and a police state. Today, we are
quickly achieving both. In more and more
locations metal detectors are springing up for the sole purpose of disarming
our people, not to catch criminals. If
this were not the case, why the draconian punishments when a weapon is found on
a man with a clean record?
As the on duty manager what
is your established procedure should a madman begin to indiscriminately shoot
people in your store? I can guess. You will call 911 and run like hell leaving
everyone else to fend for themselves. I
seriously doubt that you or your employees will come to our aid with any means
to do so since I am sure that The Home Depot’s policies also prevent you from
carrying arms. In a flash everyone in
the building become victims or potential victims. And the sickest part of it all is each person
who remains alive will be hiding and praying that the other guy gets it while
they do nothing. Equally reprehensible
is our expectation that the police risk their lives to save us while we do
nothing to help ourselves. The police
are not our personal body guards. They
will help if they can, but do not expect them to take a bullet for you. Only the Secret Service does that and only
for one man. In fact, as Reginald Denny
learned the hard way during the Los Angeles riots, the police could watch the
crime on television with the intent to capture the criminal, not to save the
victims. Their job is solely to capture
the bad guy and gather evidence. And remember
this, if it takes five minutes for them to arrive and subdue, that is five more
dead customers if the murderer paused a full minute between shots. This demonstrates rank cowardice on our part
to allow this to happen in our midst.
Each person has an inalienable
right to defend his life at all times.
In addition to that, we also have the solemn duty to defend those around
us from loss of life. Death is
permanent. Most of us keep a weapon in
our bedroom for just that reason.
However, through naïve apathy we go out into the world armed with only a
cell phone. Thugs are universally
uncooperative with our polite request to return home for our weapon or to use
the phone to call for help. They also
have shown adeptness at playing the lag time between calling 911 and the
arrival of the police. In other words,
when you need your weapon, you need it here, now! The Los Angeles police have determined
through the gruesome evidence that Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson were
murdered by one man with a knife on a public sidewalk in front of Nicole’s
home. Whether Nicole had a gun in her
bedroom or not, we do not know. We do
know that she was unable to use one.
They failed to convict anyone for this crime. In another crime, in New Hampshire, two
college professors, Half and his wife Suzanne Zantop, were murdered by two
teenagers with knives, in their home.
They too were unable to utilize a weapon in self defense. How much more vulnerable are we when we are
miles away from our weapons. They are no
use in our homes and cars when we are not near them. Shandra Levy was murdered in broad daylight
on a jogging trail in Washington, D.C.
The police do not know how she was killed since it took them the better
part of a year to come to her aid. We
are confident that there was no firearm involved since Shandra was prevented by
D.C. law to carry one and her attacker did not need one. The really perverse thing in this situation
is that we are all certain that many more young women will be brutally murdered
in the near future while we continue to proscribe their ability to carry a
handgun in self defense.
It is my sincere, profound
and reverent prayer that I will never be faced with a deadly situation
requiring the use of my handgun and that the trouble I go through in carrying
one will be for naught. However, it is
also my profound prayer that if I am threatened, that I will be decisive and
efficient in the defense of my life and those around me. I hope this sufficiently answers your first
question. Now that I am thinking about
it, I would like to change my answer to your second question. Yes, I am in law enforcement.
Sincerely:
William
C. Howe
cc: Home Depot Headquarters, Atlanta, GA.
Robert C. Scott, Congressman
3rd District U.S. House of Representatives
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