Home again, 1/20/15

Another work day in the can.  Back at home, and in front of this old, old netbook computer.  It is literally held together with tape.  The keyboard is a bit messed up.  Letters don't always print out on a post.  If I am not careful, my prose will be affected.

There was a story that I had just recollected with respect to the subject of crime and that Ferguson business.  Yes, that.  While I was still going to school at a university, I had a job in a wallpaper store for a couple years.  The reason the job came open was that the girl who ran the store got shot and killed.  How did that happen?

She was robbed at the store.  She felt unsafe, so she got a gun after the robbery.  Trouble is, somebody took the gun away from her, the gun that she had gotten to protect herself, and shot her with it.

Moral of the story?

Well, depends upon who you are.  A liberal will say that she shouldn't have armed herself.  Since she did, the result was her death.  She might be alive this very day if she hadn't bought that gun.

A conservative would say that she should have trained with the gun.  If she had trained with the gun, she may not have become a victim like that.

Of course, I never knew her.  Maybe for her, to get a gun was a big mistake.  I worked that store for two years, and nobody tried to rob me.  Maybe she looked like an easy target and so she got robbed.  The robbery scared her, but she may have been too scared to really defend herself properly.  You can't let fear overwhelm you.  If you are going to fight, you have to prepared to go all the way.  That means that if someone reaches for your gun, he's a dead man.

The connection with Ferguson is that the girl had her gun taken away from her.  Anybody who reaches for your gun is showing the intent to commit murder, as was done to this girl.  In other words, since the black guy reached for the cop's gun, he communicated his intent to commit murder.  If you are going to be a cop and carry a gun, you cannot allow people to take your gun away from you.  You have to have the mentality that will allow you to kill if it comes to that.  Anybody who does what this guy tried to do will most likely kill you.  Just saying that the guy was fair game after he reached for the cop's gun.  I don't know what these people expect.  If you think you have the right to kill somebody, then I'm going to assert my right to get in my shots first.

Better to be judged by 12 than be carried by 6.