The Maine thing

I received a news alert on my smart phone Wednesday evening about a spree killing taking place in the southern portion of Maine. A 40-year old firearms instructor with a history of mental illness is the prime suspect in a spree which, as of Thursday morning, has left 18 people dead. 

"Lewiston is a special place. It's a close-knit community with a long history of hard work, of persistence, of faith," (Gov. Janet) Mills said. "This city did not deserve this terrible assault on the citizens, on its peace of mind, on its sense of security. No city does, no state, no people, no words can truly or fully measure the grief of Maine people today. Our small state of just 1.3 million people has long been known as one of the safest states in the nation. This attack strikes at the very heart of who we are and the values we hold dear."

For better or worse, I've learned to tune out the gun grabbing ghouls who exploit these awful incidents in an effort to chalk up points for their agenda. Firearms attorney Kostas Moras reacted to prominent anti-gun group Giffords' attempts to politicize this tragedy.

What I resent most about the big gun control groups is that they take away our chance to gather our feelings and mourn in tragedies like this. Instead, we are forced to jump right to defensive posture to stop their ghoulish attacks on a civil right. They don't wait til the bodies are even cold, so neither can we.

Maine is a progun state, true enough. I'm sure they will capitalize on that fact in their upcoming big push to pass gun control in response to the shooting.

But the ideas they will push did not stop recent mass shootings in several of their favored states, including California this year and New York last year. Their platform is snake oil.

They like to accuse us of believing mass shootings are just "acceptable losses" for the right to bear arms.

No. Our rights are not negotiable, but regular mass shootings are unacceptable. Both are true. Do not misinterpret our rejection of gun control authoritarianism as tolerance for this status quo.

If anyone has at all paid attention to what happened in Israel less than three weeks ago, talks of banning any gun sales in the U.S. should be met with righteous mockery and ridicule. This is especially in light of the anti-gun Israeli government taking the steps to arm citizens against imminent terror attacks. 

I will say that I find this incident quite concerning in a state like Maine, which is one of half the states in the country which has Constitutional Carry. While Maine citizens still need to pass a background check to obtain a firearm, the arduous process of acquiring a permit is lifted. While I admit I don't have all the facts, I find it difficult to believe that the gunman would have been able to kill and injure dozens of people had just a few folks in the areas where the shootings occurred been exercising their Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Now, please don't misconstrue this as "victim blaming." No, I'm intending this as a cautionary tale of how an incident like this can happen even in a seemingly peaceful community. That and the average amount of time it takes first responders to arrive on scene gives a shooter ample time to commit mass casualties. But said casualties could be reduced significantly (if not nullified) if a citizen is carrying. 

I've been pretty transparent on this site about my journey to becoming a staunch defender of the 2nd Amendment. As such, I am able to legitimately mourn those senselessly gunned down by a deranged individual while remaining vigilant over my right to defend myself. If anything, awful incidents such as this only fortify my beliefs. 

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