Greetings fellow Street Survivors. Recent tragic events in both New Zealand and Brazil should serve as both a warning and a lesson to be learned. The warning is that both schools and houses of worship, no matter what the religion, are targets world-wide. The battle is between good and evil, and in both cases the evil was stopped by a good person with a gun or at least the bravery to confront the shooter.
The lesson to be learned is that no amount of gun laws will stop evil people from trying to hurt other people to gain control, power or simply terrorize. The other important fact in the Brazil school attack, is that a .38 special revolver, knife, axe, Molotov cocktails, a compound bow and a machete were all used by the murderers. So, the problem is not the tool used, but the evil of the person intent on harming others. Each of those tools could have been just as effective by an innocent person to defend themselves.
In New Zealand, ‘self-defense’ is not an appropriate reason for owning a firearm. You can’t leave one locked in your car and can’t carry one unless you are military or police, and many of the police officers are unarmed. The mosque shooting lasted for over 16 minutes before the attacker left after finally being confronted by one of the members.
Brazil has a high rate of gun crime and the current thinking is that more law-abiding citizens should be able to legally protect themselves with firearms. It took 8 minutes for a military police officer to show up to the school shooting and end the assault.
When facing pure evil and violence, the reason why they are performing these heinous acts is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if they had a rough childhood, failed to do well on their SAT’s and couldn’t get into a top ranked college, or did too many drugs and fried their brain. There will always be bullies and evil people intent on imposing their will on others, what matters is your ability to stop it quickly and effectively.
The conclusion is something we have been preaching for years in this column, that WE are the first responders to protect our families and friends. When seconds count, any external assistance from police, EMT’s or firefighters is typically minute’s away.
Don’t be a victim…be a Street Survivor !
Please send in your questions and comments to: Streetactics@gmail.com.
Rick ‘Pirate Hunter’ Grover strongly believes we’re all in this together, and the more we learn and train, the better we’ll be prepared for any eventuality. This makes all of us part of an amazing neighborhood team of American Patriots. God Bless America ! ♦
