So it’s August 2019 and over the past two weeks, there have been a string of mass murders. Some shootings and some stabbings but altogether it has brought up some questions and I wanted to weigh in.
First, as an American, I want to contribute in a positive way to the current issues that we are having with senseless death that is centered on what I can only explain as people that are just not right in the head. Now you can take some offense to that, but my take is that it’s possible that if these individuals had other ways to work through their issues, that so many families would have even just one more moment to be with their loved ones.
I don’t want to stand on a soapbox and preach here about gun safety and gun rights. I illustrate gun safety every day when I carry mine and don’t use it on good people. That is my gun right. Enough said.
What I want to respond to today is both federal legislation and Ohio legislation that is looking to limit who can purchase body armor. Many of you might be shocked to know that there are very few laws on the books about who can buy body armor, and I am actually shocked that there are any laws on the books but that is just me. The one Federal law that prohibits the sale of body armor to convicted felons is the only one that stands today, but a new proposition is trying to ban the sale of body armor to anyone with a diagnosed mental instability. They are wrapping them up with firearms in the who “Red Flag” debate now.
I can offer my opinion here, but let me start with a few facts…
To date, body armor has not been linked to a single death that I could find. Now people wearing body armor have committed crimes, but the armor itself has never caused a death. In all cases in which body armor was worn by a person committing a crime, shoes were also worn by the criminal. Neither kept the assailant (I refuse to use his name as I don’t think he deserves the publicity) in Dayton from ending up on the Medical Examiner’s slab. In fact, the firefight lasted less than 30 seconds as police are trained to deal with “Failures to Stop” in their drills. Whether the person is just Drugged up like a zombie or wearing a vest, the swift and resolute response of those brace officers would have been the same. Threat Neutralized.
Now, on the other hand, paramedics, tow truck drivers, bouncers and dozens of other workers have had their lives saved by having access to these vests. My take on this is that good, hard-working people should have access to these types of life-saving supplies. If an inner-city bodega clerk or cab driver wants to drop $300 on a vest because he or she feels it can get them home to their families, then they should be allowed to.
I think instead that we need to refocus on the root of the problem which is people doing “bad things” to other people. I am not going to group them as “bad people”, as “domestic terrorists” or as “mentally disturbed”. I am going to say something that is going to scare the hell out of most of you. It may be too hard to cast a single net around the types of people that will commit these crimes.
That’s right – maybe we will never know how to stop this.
The only other alternative is that we as individuals take self-preservation into our own hands. Be prepared to protect our selves. Be more Self-Reliant.
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