On Thursday, November 5th the nation once again watched on national television as a criminal committed multiple acts of murder at Ft. Hood, Texas. As I type this (Sat. 11/7) the body count is 13 dead, 30 wounded. The murders were committed by one man with two handguns and was stopped by one brave woman, Sgt. Munley, who ran toward the sound of shots instead of away from them. Although she was herself shot four times, she successfully shot Nidal Malik Hasan (I refuse to give him the respect or honor of using his military rank) four times, bringing an end to his attack. I hope someone in Texas names a high school after Sergeant Kim Munley.
The very next day, Friday, November 6th, a disgruntled, financially troubled man in Orlando, Florida went on a shooting spree in the offices of an engineering firm where he had worked, killing one and wounding five others. The coward then ran and hid at his mommy’s house where he was later arrested.
Almost three years ago (April 2007), Seung Hui Cho went on a shooting spree at Virginia Tech – having very carefully planned his assault on Norris Hall, an engineering building on campus – he killed 30 people and wounded 25 more. Those numbers don’t include the first two murders he committed that morning in West Jefferson Hall. Cho killed himself immediately after arriving police breached the building.
Two months before that, Sulejman Talovic started shooting at the Trolley Square mall in Salt Lake City, Utah but his spree was brought to an end by one lone police officer, an off-duty cop, who ran toward the sound of shots instead of away from them. Officer Kenneth Hammond, managed to “turn the tide” so that Talovic was the prey instead of the predator until a response team could neutralize him.
Take a few minutes and think about those incidents. They are only four of the many active killer events which have happened in the United States since the late 1970s. In fact, prior to 1966 when Charles Whitman opened fire from a clock tower in Austin, Texas, there were only five active killer incidents that I could find documented. The first was in 1891. So, counting Whitman, from 1891 to 1966 there are six such attacks (at schools). Then from 1966 to 1999 (Columbine) there were twenty-five! So we went from (on average) one every fifteen years to almost one per year? We’ll come back to that. Before we get to that, I want to look at an attack that happened in 1954.
In 1954 at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill campus, a drunk but legally adult student (so not a minor or child – Putnam Davis Jr.) pulled out a gun and started randomly shooting. Two other students, William Joyner and Allen Long, pulled out their legally possessed firearms and shot Davis, immediately ending Davis’ shooting spree. Consider for a moment: in 1954 the legally armed out-numbered the bad guy two-to-one. The only other time I can document that happening is when the good-guys were TEAMS of police. Otherwise, as best I can find since 1954 (when it was armed citizens) the best response the good-guys could muster was a one-on-one response.
Now I won’t even begin to discuss the reality of 50-50 shootings. That’s when one guy shoots at another guy who is shooting back. You’d think that they both have a 50-50 chance of winning, but it doesn’t work that way realistically. After you work out all the options, the shooters each actually have about a 20% chance of being victorious. That’s not my idea of a good chance for a positive outcome.
Finally, before returning to these most recent attacks, I’d like you to consider one other item: a quote often attributed to the Japanese Fleet Admiral Yamamoto. When asked why Japan didn’t invade the United States after the successful attack at Pearl Harbor, Yamamoto reportedly replied:
It’s highly probably those weren’t his exact words and it’s equally probable that whatever he really said was in context to the challenges of invading any country of such large land mass. That recognized, there was no denying – especially in the mid-1940s – that there were far more citizens with guns in their homes and simply walking around armed than there are in 2009. Exactly why isn’t germane to our discussion here, but suffice it to say that our American society was more generally armed in the mid-1940s than it is today.
Now let’s get back to those recent shootings. Looking at the office attack in Orlando, Florida: how many of you would walk into the offices of an engineering firm today and expect to find armed people walking about? Or performing their work tasks? None. Unless it’s a paid and armed security officer, you simply don’t expect to find anyone carrying a gun in the work place.
Ft. Hood is an entirely different setting and concept. If you managed to sneak onto a military installation in the United States today and walked into a cafeteria, post exchange, etc., how many people (remembering that the population therein is largely comprised of military service members) would you expect to find armed? While it’s a question you might actually slow down and think about the answer is the same: none. Unless it’s a military police officer (or other branch equivalent) or a contracted civilian employee granted law enforcement authority on that installation, you probably would be hard pressed to find a single person with a gun in that building.
My question for you is WHY?
In almost forty states in our nation now, “shall issue” laws have been passed. That means that if an adult citizen without any disqualifying events in his / her life (felony crimes, certain violent misdemeanors and/or documented mental health issues) applies for a concealed carry permit the state is required to issue it to them. In other states (like Maryland, where I’ve lived for most of my life) when an adult as described above applies for a concealed carry permit, the citizen has to prove some pressing need to have that means of self-defense available and then the state decides whether or not that need is sufficient to warrant issuing the carry permit. In other words, in almost forty states, the right to carry a handgun for self-defense is recognized and not limited beyond what most of us would consider reasonable. My wife could get a carry permit in virtually all of those states. In some other states (using Maryland as the example) a citizen is denied the right to carry a handgun for self-defense unless a sufficient threat or need can be documented. In those states, the state bureaucracy is deciding whether or not YOU can exercise your 2nd Amendment recognized God-given right. In all fairness to Maryland, there have been cities and states that for a long time prohibited even possessing a working firearm until recent Supreme Court decisions declared such laws unconstitutional.
Where am I going with all this? Here’s where…
If the average citizen in almost forty states can carry a handgun for self-defense, why can’t trained soldiers on a military installation do the same? I know there is an age difference since many soldiers are under 21 and most states set that as the minimum age to carry a handgun, but we’re talking about men and women who have made a commitment to give their life protecting and defending our country if need be and we deny them their right of self-defense on military bases within the United States? What the heck are we thinking?
At Ft. Hood, instead of one courageous civilian contracted police officer facing down Hasan, why wasn’t every soldier in the room he attacked armed and able to shoot him? How many lives would have been saved out of the 13 dead? How many wounded would have had no injury out of the 30 wounded? How many bullet holes would Hasan had in him how fast?
On September 11, 2001 our country learned a lesson about how some fanatical religious zealots around the world (and sadly, within our own borders) feel about the United States. Those terrorists committed heinous attacks against innocent American citizens for no other reason than because they could. They were disappointed at the body count, hoping for something closer to 300,000 rather than 3,000. Around the world, people of equal zealous hatred cheered as American citizens died horrifying deaths.
Understand this and make no mistake about it: those who attacked us; those who supported or support them; those who cheered as Americans died…
THEY ARE OUR ENEMIES.
We should not be apologizing to them. We should not be trying to negotiate with them. We should not be hoping we can prevent further attacks by them as we worry about world image. In response to those attacks the United States of America returned the favor and actually fought a war for about sixty days. You see, war has no rules. In WAR, you attack and kill your enemy and accept that there will be dead civilians and destroyed infrastructure along the way (collateral damage). It’s inevitable because WAR has no rules. When our victory in that war was clear and certain our political leadership, true to form, changed the mission to one of rebuilding and peacekeeping.
America needs to wake up and realize this one truth for sure and certain: soldiers don’t exist to keep the peace. Soldiers exist to fight wars. It’s what we train them for. It’s what we equip them for. It’s what they volunteered to do.
In Iraq we invaded for the purpose of removing a documented threat, not only to his own people but to other countries around the world, in Saddam Hussein. We’ve done that. Rebuilding is NOT our problem or concern. Sure, I understand the humane thinking and the helping hand mentality. But we did what we went there to do. We destroyed the Hussein regime and hunted him down. His own people hung him. It’s time for us to go now. The country will eventually stabilize itself and hopefully there will be a new leadership that follows a different path forward to become productive and friendly in the world with other nations. If not… well, then we can go back and commit WAR.
Which brings me to the point of this entire article (and thanks for hanging with me this far): America’s commitment to NOT being victimized and NOT being bullied has waned greatly since the 1940s. It was obvious in Vietnam when we wasted lives by trying to abide by rules of WAR. It is obvious now as we execute military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan but we keep the dogs of war on a tight leash. Listen to me you spineless politicians who are only interested in getting re-elected and increasing your bank accounts / power base: TAKE THE DAMNED LEASH OFF. Unleash the dogs of war and let them do what they are there for. DECLARE WAR. President Obama: Give the generals and admirals THIS order:
Think it will ever happen? For sure and certain not with this administration, but it should. When foreign armies see American forces coming they should tremble in fear and wet their pants. They should know, in clear and certain terms, they have limited choices: surrender immediately or die. Except for the rare occasion when our forces can capture a high value intelligence source, we should be taking no prisoners. In WAR you kill the enemy before he kills you. That’s WAR. That’s what our enemies do to us. THEY are at WAR. We are spending lives and dollars in peacekeeping missions trying to be nice and improve our world image. You know what? If the whole world is afraid of us – if the respect they have for us is fear based – then who really cares if they approve of us? Most likely they never will because the virtues, liberties and freedoms we Americans enjoy are such a foreign concept to them that their very societal up-bringing prevents them from being able to comprehend it. They aren’t CAPABLE of thinking like free men and women. Americans are and we should NEVER let go of that.
Here at home there have been a number of attempts to change how we think. Our “big brother” government has gradually eroded the basic freedoms of our citizenship across about five decades now. They’d never get away with it all at once, but piecemeal it becomes not so obvious. Somewhere between 1944 and 2009 it became politically incorrect to want to walk about carrying a handgun with which to defend yourself and your family. I won’t even talk about defending your property because that’s a whole nother bag of worms I don’t want to open here.
Somewhere in that 65 year span, huge numbers of American citizens somehow became convinced that guns are inherently evil; fighting back against unlawful attacks was immoral; and the government had all of society under control. Of course, if you have half a brain and read a newspaper (or look at the news on television or internet), you can clearly see that the government DOESN’T have it all under control. You need a couple examples?
13 dead and 30 wounded at Ft. Hood
1 dead and 5 wounded in Orlando
11 bodies and counting in a serial killer / rapist’s home in Ohio
Billions of dollars and over 4,000 lives spent “peace keeping” by our WARriors.
If I were the Commandant of the Marine Corps, or the Commanding General of the Army or Air Force, or the highest ranking Admiral in the Navy (not leaving the Coast Guard out but they weren’t designed for WAR), I’d be pissed that our current crop of elected politicians were wasting lives and defense budget on keeping the peace in a foreign land. Keeping the peace isn’t what our warriors do.
Mr. President and all you folks in Congress:
DEFINE THE MISSION;
DECLARE WAR;
ACCEPT VICTORY;
BRING OUR PEOPLE HOME.
Anything short of that is making us – as a country – look like wimps to the rest of the world. This is not an accurate representation of the United States.
Here at home: stop bickering about whether or not the Constitution of the United States says what it says. Any 8th grader can read and understand it. I understand that lawyers need to make money so they argue what the meaning of “is” is. Arguing is what they get paid for until they get well known and well respected enough to become judges and then they get to decide who is right in the arguments. I can solve this and I don’t regret costing you lawyers your future incomes:
The Constitution of the United States is right in all of its simplest terms. ANY amendment that was written in such a way that it takes a lawyer to understand it needs to be immediately repealed. If it can’t be written in ten sentences or less in a language my 11-yr old son can understand, then it’s too friggin’ complicated.
Accept as a matter of existence these few truths and move on:
The right to keep and bear arms means quite simply that any legal adult can obtain and carry a firearm. WHY doesn’t matter. That right shall not be infringed. If the government would quit dicking around with that right, our violent crime rates would drop like a rock as has been proven in every state where Shall Issue laws have been passed.
Defending yourself from an attack is not illegal or unlawful. In fact, failing to defend yourself is immoral. You were given one life by someone – whether you think that someone is a deity or your mom – someone gave you a life. It’s damned unappreciative to waste that life or suffer in it simply because you somehow think that violence in the defense of self is wrong. Get past it. What’s wrong is accepting abuse in any form from another person with attempting to defend yourself. Avoid the situation if you can; if you can’t avoid it, then win. Remember this too: there are just as many rules in a fight for your life and well-being as there are in war: none.
The country of America isn’t inherently strong. The PEOPLE of America are. The strength of our country emanates neither from the hallowed halls of Congress nor from the oval office of the White House. The strength of the United States of America flows from each and every citizen of America. We The People make this country strong just as We The People made this country great. We The People should refuse to accept anything that denigrates that.
It’s time to re-harden America. It’s past time to bring back the reality that no country will want to mess with us if the average every day citizen goes about his daily business armed, ready and willing to fight against any and all threats from foreign or domestic sources. It’s past time to bring back the reality that America’s military forces are the best trained, best equipped and highest motivated troops on the planet and ANYONE messes with them at great personal and state risk. You wanna be wiped out? Piss us off. It’s past time to stop pussy-footing around and take pride in the fact that America was founded by men and women not afraid to fight for what they believe in and maintained by men and women proud to carry on that tradition.
Anything less is simply, well… un-American.
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Dear Frank,
A well written, and straight to the point article; however, the “why” behind these incidents hasn’t been addressed. Let’s look at the case of Nidal Malik Hasan. My knowledge of him is limited to what I have read, but I see a man who was easier to ignore than help (or stop, for that manner).
I see very few instances of any “higher authority” having the balls to step in and be pro-active at heading off people like Hasan. God forbid that his superiors direct him to seek a medical or psychiatric evaluation based on his reported “agitated state” supposedly from the news he was about to be deployed . That might appear discriminatory, and the officer making such a request, be branded “prejudice”. A career ender if I ever heard one.
Take a moment to step back and think of the possibility that Hasan saw no alternative, and no escape prior to his attack. Maybe he felt trapped, and no one (including his superiors) seemed to give a crap. So he took action . . . wrong, cowardly action, but he took it anyway.
Sgt. Munley, took action too, standing her ground and stopping Hasan’s senseless spree. She has my highest respect and admiration because, when challenged, she ran toward the fight and by putting herself in harm’s way, ended the battle.
Our “leaders” have to lead, with honesty, strength, and the belief that their actions make the world better for all. Leadership is NOT about covering you ass. Leadership is about being out front, leading from the front, and doing what’s RIGHT; not what is politically correct.
Sgt. Munley assessed the situation and did the right thing. I’d follow her anywhere.
When will Obama’s lies be exposed? When the media stops giving him a free pass by letting him make idiotic references to the spending problems or the financial crisis as belonging solely to George W. Bush. Of course Bush participated in the creation of the disasters we face. And the Democrats have been willing conspirators in this mismanagement in almost every step of the way by instigating laws that favor their political constituency through creeping entitlements, pork and most recently flaunting their single party control of the federal government by trying to jam their deeply flawed health plan down the throats of an unwilling nation. The campaign ploy of whitewashing Obama with the moronic explanation that all of our problems were due to the last eight years needs to be thrashed by the media. What are they waiting for? They are too busy bowing five times a day to their “chosen one.” The number of times you repeat a lie doesn’t transform it into the truth. Wake up the media. They need to catch up with the wisdom of the “ploughmen” — as Thomas Jefferson labelled us “folks” — because we happen to be the ones TJ thought would show the best judgment on tough decisions facing the nation.