Why I wear short sleeves

I have a secret to tell you.

For the past two years, I never have slept alone.

The drool on my pillow is mine and mine alone, and I am the only warm body in the room.

But, under my bed, rests the cold steel of a 12-gauge shotgun.

Last semester, I employed proper exegesis to prove the Second Amendment does protect an individual’s right to bear arms. The current task is to stop the Brady Bunch and other gun-control groups from repealing the Second Amendment and from bribing the Supreme Court to “interpret” it away like the 10th Amendment.

I suppose the best way to explain why arms (not only firearms) should be legal is to imagine life under their prohibition.

Our government has tried, and continues to try, social engineering. The 18th Amendment, the War on Alcohol if you will, was an abysmal failure, which turned mob bosses into local heroes. After almost 14 years, our great-grandparents adopted the good sense to give up.

Our government has fought a War on Drugs for the better part of the past hundred years. The black market is still operating. Anybody who wants that garbage can get it.

If the people are disarmed, the black market will take over. Black market consumers are mostly violent criminals. Therefore, violent criminals will be armed while nearly all peaceful citizens will obey the law even though they don’t like it. This gives criminals a great advantage.

The Brady Bunch disregards this argument because it believes that guns cause evil.

Guns are only tools. Good and evil lie in the heart of the user. Banning tools does not deter the heart’s intentions. No law is capable of changing those intentions. In an imperfect world of imperfect people, the good must accept the existence of evil and be prepared to face it. Preparedness requires tools comparable to those that may be used against you.

A criminal will almost never target someone he knows is armed. Gun control protects criminals by giving them certainty that potential victims are defenseless. Arms will be relevant to our society for self-defense (if for no other reason) as long as criminals exist.

Those who do not like guns for any reason can still support gun rights because criminals won’t know who owns a gun and who doesn’t. Criminals are cowards. They won’t take the risk unless they’re stupid enough to make assumptions or smart enough to stalk participants in anti-gun protests.

Those who worry about children in the house should own a pistol. Buy a quality holster and gun belt. Keep the pistol on your body at all times. Children can never touch it without your knowledge, and it is always ready just in case.

“But if someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.”

– Dalai Lama, May 14, 2001, Portland, Oregon

Don Norvell is a member of the National Rifle Association, a physics graduate assistant and a columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at [email protected].