Pen Meets Paper Feb.7'10

Opinion by Helge Nome
We hear and see news reports of gangs fighting it out in the street with citizens trying to hide from stray bullets as best they can. We also hear of home invasions where thugs force their way into private homes and turn the owners into the objects of their hate and stupidity. That is not news. It has always happened since the beginnings of human history. What is new is that if a homeowner confronts these thugs in any way, with a firearm in particular, then he/she ends up being charged with assault, rather than the thugs! Now that is news!
Something has been turned upside down and inside out and it is called “justice”. Somehow, in the public mind, and encapsulated in legislation, firearms have been turned into “instruments of evil” by paranoid lawmakers. What is forgotten is that a firearm in the hands of a competent user is the greatest pacifier a citizen has at his or her disposal. Imagine a couple of thugs entering the home of a little old/young lady who is known to possess a .45 handgun and likes to use it. Those guys might be stupid, but they wouldn’t be dumb enough to enter that home if they knew about what might be in store for them. They would much rather pick an easy target: Someone who is scared of guns.
Let us look at a gun for what it is: A tool. Not unlike an ax, spade or whatever. Legal or illegal acts can be carried out with all of these by the user of the tool. The key to a potential problem involving these tools lies with the user, not the tool itself.
Basing gun laws on mass killing incidents like those carried out by deranged individuals is a form of escapism. Avoiding facing the real issue which is the state of mind of the perpretrators: In most cases the deviant behavior of these people was publicly known before the incidents. Instead, law abiding citizens are becoming the victims of officially sanctioned paranoia.
It is time to get back to the real world again and learn how to use guns rather than letting the criminals take over.