Yet another series of shootings has taken place in Las Vegas, the target, high school kids. My thoughts and prayers go out to those injured and the families of the dead and injured…

Sadly, I can just see the gun grabbers salivating over the incidents of the past two weeks, mark my words, there will be a BIG push for more gun laws as soon as the new year hits; not enforcement of existing, but more laws…

What I find interesting is what is not being reported:

The mall in Omaha was a gun free zone, posted against everyone including concealed carry permits. Did anyone see THAT on the news? I didn’t think so…

How many lives could have been saved if someone had been carrying that day????

The church shootings in Colorado were stopped by an armed female church member who volunteered to assist in standing security watches at the church. It so happens she is a former Minneapolis PD officer and has a concealed carry permit.

How many lives did this lady save??? Who knows, since this was at the end of Sunday services… 50? 100? This punk had already killed five people (two in the church parking lot) and had multiple weapons and plenty of ammunition.

A number of other bloggers Captain America, Wyatt, Better and Better to name a few, who in the public service (read fire/LEO) have chimed in on this, the media coverage and the real issues that are NOT being covered…

To me and my little pea brain, these happenings point out the fact that we are responsible for our own protection- We cannot and should not expect LEO’s to be on the scene immediately, the odds are they will be 5-7 minutes in transit at best. As exhibited by the VT shootings, even with arrival within 3 minutes, the need to set up and control the area prevents any fast response (and 33 deaths and 28 wounded in that case).

To me, if nothing else, these shootings point out that if someone wants to get a gun they will… Mental health cases and criminals do not care about laws; to them they mean nothing. When people like this plan something like this (and yes, I DO believe all these instances are planned) part of that plan is to get a weapon, either steal it, borrow it, or buy it as a last resort. And there are plenty illegal ones available.

In NONE of these cases will more gun laws help. What will help is to actually report mental health cases, stop trying to hide little Johnny’s rage issues and behaviour behind a privacy label. Then enforce the laws already on the books…

The hard parts are- you need more police and that is a major budget issue; overcrowding in the jails, another major budget issue; and plea bargains that get felons off with a slap on the wrist for armed robbery among other things…

Another thing that should be re-instituted is victim’s and protector’s rights. Right now it seems the only rights accrue to the criminal thanks to the American Criminal Liberties Union.

Until the city, county, state leaders step up and pony up the $$, nothing will happen. I really don’t expect to see real enforcement in my lifetime, simply because really doing it right costs too much. We were talking at work today about this, and an interesting point was made- One person believed his Grandchildren will grow up in private enclaves in places like Vermont, Georgia, Texas or Arizona. These places will be armed enclaves because he believes anarchy will happen here in the next 20-30 years… That is a pretty sad indictment on the US and it’s current state of affairs…

As an aside, in the last year or so, there has been a big debate in Virginia over open carry, the Washington Compost ran a couple of articles and man-in-the street type reports- One of those interviewed was a criminal in DC who said something to the effect that he was scared to try to rob somebody in Virginia cause he might get shot!!!

Well, Duh!!! That guy got the point- It’s not so easy if you are not sure you are the only one with a gun… Mr. or Mrs. Soft Target might just turn around and blow your head off.

Another is the cases in both England and Australia, guns banned and/or confiscated nationwide! er… except for the criminals, who are now free to rape/rob/murder without fear of their lives… Brits who defend themselves from criminals with knives are now being prosecuted and criminals go free, because they were able to ditch the gun before being apprehended.

FBI crime statistics revealed drops in major crimes against persons when concealed carry was instituted- Va and Texas both dropped over 30% if I remember correctly. Florida also dropped a considerable amount.

What can we do??? I think it comes down to three choices- learn to protect yourself and your loved ones, get a CCP (and carry religiously), alter your habits to maintain an awareness of surroundings, refuse to do business with places that do not permit concealed carry; or continue to be blissfully ignorant of what is happening in the world around you and be a target for the criminals, or live in fear that ‘something’ is going to happen, or move next door to the police department and hope they can protect you.

Sigh…