9/99 Dr. Laura Discovers: Guns Save Lives!

Another anti-gunner discovers a simple truth:
Guns Save Lives!

From: Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s 09/14/99 Column in The Washington Times

Sadly, I admit change of mind

I’m right in the middle of a big change of attitude about a very important subject. And I know a lot of my readers and listeners to my radio program may be shocked. But people who have known me over time know that I’m someone who evolves in public. That is, when I start changing my mind about something or discover new information or some truth about my own life or life in general, I’m usually pretty straightforward about the process with my colleagues and my fans.

The first event that caused me to rethink my position on this topic was the shootings in Atlanta, where a man went into two office buildings and gunned down total strangers, then killed himself in his car later that day.

I thought about the difference it might have made — lives saved instead of lost — if someone in one of those offices had been armed. The murderer might well have been foiled in his reign of terror before so many innocent people died.
    

That thought caused me to remember a time several years ago when I felt completely safe in my hometown of Los AngeLes. It was after the major earthquake in 1994, and the National Guard was everywhere. There they were, it seemed, on every corner — uniformed, armed, ammunition slung across their chests, ready.

As I recall, there was absolutely no crime in Los Angeles at that time — no break-ins, no holdups, no carjackings. Nada. The bad guys obviously didn’t want to risk getting shot.

I went on the air then and said, “Gee, why can’t these guys just stay here?” and everyone freaked out. Now, I knew then and know now that that’s not what the National Guard is for, but it was nice to feel so secure for those few weeks.

In thinking about the difference an armed civilian or security guard might have made in Atlanta,
    I thought back to my trip to Israel this summer and how many people walking around, especially on the West Bank, were armed out of a genuine and persistent need to protect themselves. No one was shooting. There was no display of firepower or anything like that. It was just taken for granted.

I know it’s a unique situation, because from its inception Israel has been under constant attack by neighboring countries as well as terrorists. So they have a demonstrable need for self-defense.

We, on the other hand, are self-destructing. We don’t need an external force. We are breeding our own evil here. Child killers, killer children, private militias, home-grown and imported terrorists, to say nothing of old-fashioned, garden variety psychopaths and criminals — all armed and dangerous and now encouraged, educated in evil and joined in unholy conspiracy on the World Wide Web.

There are obviously lots and lots of reasons why our society — once so revered and respected around the world — is unraveling and degenerating….

Dr. Laura discovers the benefits of firearms!

Dr. Laura is 100 percent right about this: Guns save lives.

Please don’t support further restrictions on the Second Amendment. Gun control is not crime control. But armed citizens do defend themselves with a firearm as many as 1.5 to 3 million times a year.

Please say “NO” to the anti-gun juvenile crime bill. Please say “YES” to legislation that help’s people defend themselves.

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