With all that took place on Friday in Paris, it made me stop in my tracks and shudder to think that same scenario could possibly have taken place on the streets of an American city.

While this writer and the majority of others across the world mourn the loss of innocent lives in this latest round of terrorist activity, at the same time I stop and think of my constitutional right to bear arms.

Yes, I know there are those – average citizens as well as within our government – who think the 2nd Amendment is outdated. They believe that particular Amendment was written at a time when the “terrorists” were the Red Coats from England, and at a time where American men wore white wigs and used their weapons to kill game in an effort to feed their families.

While we, as Americans, are now close allies with England, the threat of other terrorists is as real today as it was back in 1776. And, yes, there are gun-toting Americans who still use a weapon to hunt (minus the white wigs).

I, for one, will use a weapon – gun, knife, baseball bat, etc. – to protect myself, my family, and my property. It doesn’t matter if the threat comes from an ISIS operative or the guy down the road.

All of the recent terrorist activity, as well as those (to include several of my friends) backing the anti-gun movement, reminds me of a recent email I received regarding the right to bear arms. It goes like this:

My old Grandpa said to me, son, there comes a time in every man’s life when he stops bustin’ knuckles and starts bustin’ caps and usually it’s when he becomes too old to take a whoopin’.

I don’t carry a gun to kill people; I carry a gun to keep from being killed.

I don’t carry a gun because I’m evil; I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the world.

I don’t carry a gun because I hate the government; I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government.

I don’t carry a gun because I’m angry; I carry a gun so that I don’t have to spend the rest of my life hating myself for failing to be prepared.

I don’t carry a gun because I want to shoot someone; I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed and not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon.

I don’t carry a gun to make me feel like a man; I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves and the ones they love.

I don’t carry a gun because I feel inadequate; I carry a gun because unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I am inadequate.

I don’t carry a gun because I love it; I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful to me.

Police protection is an oxymoron. Free citizens must protect themselves because police do not protect you from crime; they just investigate the crime after it happens, and then call someone in to clean up the mess.

Personally, I carry a gun because I’m too young to die and too old to take a whoopin’!

Over the weekend, I heard a news snippet that claimed one of the terrorists involved in the Paris attacks had slipped into France under the guise of being a refugee from Syria. And now I learn that our government wants to accept Syrian refugees here in our country. Perhaps the majority of those individuals are escaping their country due to all the civil unrest there, but what if a few are terrorists, hell bent on killing Americans?

I’ll close with this….guns in the hands of honest American citizens can save lives and property. Gun-control laws adversely affect only the law-abiding citizens. With guns, we are citizens; without them, we are subjects.

 

Cal Bryant is Editor of Roanoke-Chowan Publications. He can be contacted at cal.bryant@r-cnews.com or 252-332-7207.