Another good read from Suarez.
http://www.warriortalknews.com/2011/01/where-were-the-guns-a-discussion-about-ccw-in-tucson.html At Warrior Talk a member named "Ferrari" asked a question that I suspect many guys are quietly asking - Where were all the CCW folk that live in AZ? I will post some of the material in the original post -
You read the papers, listen to the pundits, surf the net... you'd think that you couldn't throw a dead cat without hitting somebody who's packin heat in the USA.
The media will tell you that we've got SO MANY guns that we're supplying Mexico's drug cartel's with our excess... yet last Saturday 19 people were shot at what I must assume was a well attended event and NOBODY there had the means to protect THEMSELVES or their fellows. This in Constitutional Carry, pro-gun Arizona.
Nobody could possibly contend that these victims got what they deserved... that's not what I'm saying... but the fact remains that on Saturday morning, in the United States of America... the land of the free... the home of the right to Keep and Bear Arms... a wolf was able to walk into a crowd of sheeple and kill indescriminately... without challenge... once again.
I live in the Peoples Republic of Portland Oregon... Absolutely insanely Liberal on a scale approaching Berkley... yet had this psycho shown up at one of our local Tea Party rally's, while it's nearly impossible to stop a dedicated assassin from striking... he'd have faced a fusillade of bullets once the trouble started.
The sad fact of the matter is, that life's not fair, and there are bad people in this world. The lord is way too busy helping those who help themselves to tend to people cowering behind their cell phones waiting for the police to show up and defend them.
so long as WE remain a society that, through the shameful Liberal ideology of the majority, runs up a big banner saying "Defenseless" over our schools, our offices, our gatherings and institutions... shall we continue to be visited by psycho's and martyr's... slaughtered by those who would take advantage of an unguarded flock of sheeple.I've seen this quote on many of our sites... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
Again I ask the question... in Constitutional Carry Arizona... Where were OUR guns last Saturday morning?
Well...that is certainly a valid question. Let me give some perspective.
First - The Americans of today are really not too different than the Brits, Canadians, and other people of western europe. They may like the idea that they can be armed, but few actually exercise that right. Armed or not, they are what they are. A people distracted with the cares and convenience of life and the entertainment of the day. Whether they choose to carry a gun or not is irrelevant. Most of these people would never even consider drawing it, much less using it. And it would be surprising for most people to learn how few people actually carry weapons in their day to day life...even in Arizona.
Second - There is the issue of timing. I will bet you that Cho, or Laughner, or Hassan, could have walked into the very classroom at Gunsite while Cooper was giving his famous Mind Set lecture and killed 25% of the class before someone realized what was going on and then returned fire. The idea that it is over in a handful of seconds is true. Initiative in the fight is an advantage that cannot be overstated. In these cases, the bad guy always has the initiative. Even with very practiced and highly trained personnel, some expecting trouble, men like Hinkley and Hassan were able to do what he did. How much more with a group that is simply not expecting anything bad to happen?
Third - The matter of crowd. I do not like crowds. I despise crowds. In a crowd, you do not have the right info about what is happening in a timely manner. And even if you do, by the time you get to where you need to be, the event is probably over. There was one guy there that was interviewed that was armed. But by the time he got close enough to do anything, the bad guy had been tackled. His own words in the later interview were that by the time he arrived on scene, there was no need to shoot. That there was nobody close enough to shoot the guy is proof that football and not pistolcraft is the martial art of the USA.
Fourth - Americans have a "mother-may-I" attitude to everythingthat is cultivated since birth. Self-initiated action is counter-productive to the collective thought since pre-school and continues on through the "education" phase, and later into work life. It becomes a personality trait almost to seek permission for everything.
Then people like this go to a CCW class and are brow beaten until they sh*t themselves with incessant discussions about liability and getting sued and being prosecuted if anyone ever sees the muzzle of your pistol over and over and over. Those two things create an attitude that if any gunfire takes place, they are going to act as if they are not armed and run away...and you would be astounded to know how many cops share that attitude. Nobody has given them permission to act, so they do not. Back in the day when I wore a badge, I nearly crashed into an officer that was running away from the scene of an active shooting.
Fifth - The issue of information.In a crowd, or elsewhere, unless you have all the information needed....ENOUGH INFORMATION TO KILL SOMEONE OVER, you will be slow to action. There is nothing wrong with prudence and circumspection over matters of shooting people when there is not enough data to warrant action.
Picture you are in the crowd...six, seven rows away from the action. You do not have the bird's eye view the Monday morning quarterbacks always seem to have. You hear shooting and screaming. That is all the information you have. Ok Captain America...exactly what do you know is going on?
All you know is you heard shooting and screaming. Are you going to draw and move through the crowd to the guns? You could, but what if it was the bodyguards shooting a terrorist that was beginning his draw, or about to initiate an explosive? The shots were being fired by the good guys!Now you pop through the crowd to save the day, only to be mistaken for another terrorist by the amped up security guys! Bad scene.
My point is this guys. All of the issues listed above contributed to the lack of return fire on the crazy assassin. I suspect that the media would have probably been less vociferously anti-gun had a CCW actually killed the assassin...or better yet, done so before he actually killed anyone. However, in all the events that have taken place in the last few years, only one that I am aware of was ended by a CCW person. And in that event, the woman that ended the killing had ample information about what was taking place. There is something called the fog of war. First written about by Clausewitz, it defines the confusion that leads to indecision and mistakes. That is why the gathering of information is so important. If you have it, it is priceless, and you can use it to effect change in your environment. Lacking it, you can do nothing.
So to answer Mr. Ferrari's question - they were exactly where they have always been, but without the necessary attentiveness, and willingness, and initiative, they didn't do any good.
- Gabe Suarez
