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Second Amendment Protects Everyone, as 12 Examples of Defensive Gun Use Show
Amy Swearer / @AmySwearer / Isaac Bock / July 29, 2022
In the past two years, millions of Americans have bought a gun for the first time, many because they came to understand that the right to keep and bear arms offers the most meaningful defense of their inalienable rights. Here are 12 examples. (Photo illustration: NoSystem Images/Getty Images)
COMMENTARY BY
Amy Swearer is a legal fellow in the Edwin Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.
Isaac Bock is an intern with The Heritage Foundation and a member of its Young Leaders Program.
The Supreme Court last month struck down a New York law that effectively prohibited ordinary citizens from carrying handguns in public for self-defense.
As some New Yorkers joined gun control activists in decrying the decision as making them less safe, one young woman explained how, for her, the high court’s opinion meant she was one step closer to sleeping soundly for the first time in months.
Laura Adkins, a liberal journalist living in New York City, described how, after a recent breakup, her ex-partner’s increasingly obsessive and harassing behavior made her fear for her life despite the temporary order of protection she got.
For weeks, Adkins said, she slept with a sheathed hunting knife under her pillow, fully aware that it would offer little protection against a man twice her size, but knowing she had few other readily available options for defending herself given the city’s incredibly restrictive laws on handgun possession.
Despite her belief in gun control, Adkins came to understand that good policy is not just about preventing dangerous individuals from owning firearms. It also should “empower vulnerable citizens to protect themselves.”
Now, Adkins wants a gun. And she wants to carry it in public.
Adkins is not alone in this changed perspective. In the past two years, millions of Americans have bought a firearm for the first time, many for the same reasons as Adkins: They’ve come to understand that the right to keep and bear arms offers the most meaningful defense of their inalienable rights.
Almost every major study on the issue has found that Americans use their firearms in self-defense between 500,000 and 3 million times annually, according to the most recent report on the subject by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For this reason, The Daily Signal each month publishes an article highlighting some of the previous month’s many news stories on defensive gun use that you may have missed—or that might not have made it to the national spotlight in the first place. (Read other accounts here from 2019, 2020, 2021, and so far in 2022.)
The examples below represent only a small portion of the news stories on defensive gun use that we found in June. You may explore more by using The Heritage Foundation’s interactive Defensive Gun Use Database. (The Daily Signal is the multimedia news organization of The Heritage Foundation.)
- June 5, Memphis, Tennessee: A man exchanged gunfire with three apparent burglars whom he saw quickly get out of a vehicle and run toward his neighbor’s home. One was wounded in the shootout and the other two fled, and it doesn’t appear that the gun owner or his neighbor were injured. Police eventually arrested three suspects, who admitted they were breaking into cars in the neighborhood. They face charges of aggravated assault and property theft.
- June 7, Oklahoma City: A 69-year-old hotel clerk shot and wounded a man nearly half his age when the younger man became violent and confrontational, police said. The man tried to kick in a door and demanded a free room, then charged at the clerk when he was asked to leave the property, investigators said.
- June 8, Phoenix: An armed citizen helped thwart an attempted carjacking by shooting and wounding the would-be thief, police said. The gun owner was part of a larger group that intervened to stop the theft.
- June 11, Dalton, Georgia: A father fatally shot a man who tried to kidnap his two young daughters, police said. The man apparently was under the delusion that the girls had been abducted and he was on a mission from God to rescue them. When he couldn’t be dissuaded that the girls were safe and refused to leave the property, their father grabbed a handgun and told their grandmother to call 911. The father first fired a warning shot and told the man that he’d aim the next round at him, police said, but the man again refused to leave without the girls and reached for something in his vehicle. The father shot him once in the chest.
- June 14, Austin, Texas: A robber approached two people in a shopping center parking lot and demanded a backpack from one at gunpoint. The other drew a firearm and shot the robber, who dropped his gun and fled before calling 911 for medical help. Police said the 17-year-old had “an extensive criminal history” and apparently had removed a court-ordered ankle monitor. He faces robbery and weapons charges.
- June 16, Hopkinsville, Kentucky: A 71-year-old homeowner exchanged gunfirewith three intruders who forced their way inside his residence at 1 a.m. and shot at him, police said. The homeowner’s armed response sent the intruders fleeing. Police arrested one suspect that night, and two others several days later. All three face robbery charges.
- June 17, Olympia, Washington: A resident of an apartment complex became agitated and disturbed others in a common area, police said. At some point, he brandished a large knife and confronted a man sitting in the lobby. The man drew a handgun and told the knife-wielding resident to back away, witnesses told police, but instead he charged. The armed man shot and killed him.
- June 19, Des Moines, Iowa: A woman fatally shot another woman who violently assaulted her without provocation in a grocery store parking lot, police said. The gun owner will not face charges because she acted in lawful self-defense, investigators said.
- June 21, Clearwater, Florida: A woman fatally shot a man who broke into her bedroom while she was sleeping and assaulted her. Police said the woman recently had moved into the home and her assailant lived next door.
- June 26, Big Pine Key, Florida: A man called 911 to report that his stepfather was assaulting his mother, then shot and wounded his stepfather while still on the phone with dispatchers. The man told police that his stepfather regularly beat his mother and threatened to kill them both. The stepfather denied any wrongdoing and said he was shot without warning, but also told officers that once he got out of the hospital, he would kill his stepson.
- June 29, Moreno Valley, California: Authorities said a 93-year-old man would not be charged after shooting at several intruders who broke into his home and attacked him. One intruder was wounded and arrested outside; the others fled and had not been caught. Family members said the armed man lives alone and his home had been targeted by burglars multiple times.
- June 30, Tulsa, Oklahoma: A woman shot and wounded her ex-boyfriend after he broke into her home while she was sleeping and assaulted her, police said. The woman said the two broke up more than a year ago. Both were treated for their injuries.
These stories underscore the reality that Adkins helps illustrate: The Second Amendment belongs to everyone, in every part of the country, facing any type of imminent threat to life, liberty, or property. And we don’t always know when our otherwise peaceful lives will be interrupted by serious danger.
The Second Amendment helps ensure that all potential victims—whether a 93-year-old widower in California defending his home, a father in rural Kentucky protecting his daughters, or a young woman in New York City afraid of her ex-partner—have not just the theoretical right but the practical ability to act in self-defense when faced with sudden threats.
To Adkins and every other New Yorker on the cusp of exercising your constitutional rights for the first time: Let us be the first to say, “Welcome.”
Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please email letters@DailySignal.com and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the url or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state.
Gun Control Humor
It was back in May when I last shared some satire about gun control, so let’s update the collection.
We’ll start with this very important public service announcement about the horrible consequences of drinking and smoking during pregnancy.
Next, we know that Texans have a gun-loving reputation, both nationally and internationally.
Now they’re taking the right to keep and bear arms to the next level.
Our third item is very clever, though won’t be well received by self-described feminists.
I sometimes joke that I’m a lesbian trapped in a man’s body.
Here’s the gun control version of changing one’s identity.
As usual, I’ve saved the best for last.
If I was still doing coronavirus-themed humor, this item would have been very appropriate.
But it also is perfect for mocking gun control.
For what it’s worth, this is both amusing and true.
If you want less crime, make sure there are plenty of law-abiding people with guns.
Gun Control Humor
There are some very serious moral, practical, and constitutionalarguments against gun control.
But I’m a big believer in also using satire to make the case for the 2nd Amendment.
And that’s the purpose of today’s column, which starts with this reminder – as Ron Swanson told us – that bad guys don’t care about laws.
Our second item involves a woman who obviously never studied logic or history.
Makes me wonder if she’s also the woman holding the Trump sign in this column?
Our third item also pokes fun at the logic (or lack thereof) of our leftist friends.
Next, the clever folks at Babylon Bee explain various home-defense strategies for a gun-free world.
Guns are on their way out. And thank goodness! We can’t wait to return to the utopian paradise we lost when guns were invented…Still, once in a great while, you might need to defend yourself against a ne’er-do-well. When those ruffians come kicking your door down, you need to be ready. Here are seven great ways to defend your home against an armed burglar when your guns have all been confiscated.
Here are a few of those options.
Option #3 surely is the best, just as demonstrated in this video.
Yet never forget that there are people who think gun-free zonesare a real answer.
Our next item is for guys, especially libertarian guys.
Reminds me of Barbie for Men.
As usual, I’ve saved the best for last. This meme is a helpful reminder that the Bill of Rights wasn’t limited to the technology of 1787.
By the way, this is an encore appearance for the man and woman in the above meme.
P.S. The full collection of gun control satire is available here.
Communism Humor
I mostly mock socialism, but its authoritarian cousin also is a good target for satire.
So here are some additions to our collection of communism humor.
I’m among the small minority of people who have never watched Game of Thrones, so I don’t know the backstory on these characters, but this meme has a very appropriate message about the nuclear-level naivete needed to believe Marx’s nonsense.
Though maybe the first frame should say “Readers of Teen Vogue.”
Next, we have a contribution from Babylon Bee.
It’s bad news that we’re suffering from a coronavirus that has killed several million people globally, but there’s another virus that has butchered 100 million people.
This next image reminds me of the joke about communism and electricity.
Per my tradition, here’s my favorite item from today’s collection.
I’m always very impressed by the people who are clever enough to create these Venn diagrams, and this one is better than most.
Though I’m tempted to ask who is worse, the soulless Marxist who rambles and can’t be reasoned with, or the people who rationalize, glorify, and justify Marxism?
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November 24, 2020
Office of Barack and Michelle Obama
P.O. Box 91000
Washington, DC 20066
Dear President Obama,
I wrote you over 700 letters while you were President and I mailed them to the White House and also published them on my blog http://www.thedailyhatch.org .I received several letters back from your staff and I wanted to thank you for those letters.
I have been reading your autobiography A PROMISED LAND and I have been enjoying it.
Let me make a few comments on it, and here is the first quote of yours I want to comment on: Looking back, it’s embarrassing to recognize the degree to which my intellectual curiosity those first two years of college paralleled the interests of various women I was attempting to get to know: Marx and Marcuse so I had something to say to the long-legged socialist who lived in my dorm,”
I noticed you mentioned Herbert Marcuse, and I have read of his influence in Francis Schaeffer’s book How should we then live?:
At Berkeley the Free Speech Movement arose simultaneously with the hippie world of drugs. … but rather a call for the freedom to express any political views on Sproul Plaza. … followed the teaching of Herbert Marcuse (1898-). Marcuse was a German professor of philosophy related to the neo-Marxist.
Bettina Aptheker and Herbert Marcuse pictured below:
Moral Support: “One Dimensional Man” author Herbert Marcuse accompanies Bettina Aptheker, center, and Angela Davis’ mother, Sallye Davis, to Angela Davis’ 1972 trial in San Jose. Associated Press
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______________Francis Schaeffer is a hero of mine and I have posted many times in the past using his material. This post below is a result of his material..Communism catches the attention of the young at heart but it has always brought repression wherever it is tried. TrueCommunism has never been tried is something I was told just a few months ago by a well meaning young person who was impressed with the ideas of Karl Marx. I responded that there are only 5 communist countries in the world today and they lack political, economic and religious freedom.WHY DOES COMMUNISM FAIL?Communism has always failed because of its materialist base. Francis Schaeffer does a great job of showing that in this clip below. Also Schaeffer shows that there were lots of similar things about the basis for both the French and Russia revolutions and he exposes the materialist and humanist basis of both revolutions.
Schaeffer compares communism with French Revolution and Napoleon.
1. Lenin took charge in Russia much as Napoleon took charge in France – when people get desperate enough, they’ll take a dictator.
Other examples: Hitler, Julius Caesar. It could happen again.
2. Communism is very repressive, stifling political and artistic freedom. Even allies have to be coerced. (Poland).
Communists say repression is temporary until utopia can be reached – yet there is no evidence of progress in that direction. Dictatorship appears to be permanent.
3. No ultimate basis for morality (right and wrong) – materialist base of communism is just as humanistic as French. Only have “arbitrary absolutes” no final basis for right and wrong.
How is Christianity different from both French Revolution and Communism?
Contrast N.T. Christianity – very positive government reform and great strides against injustice. (especially under Wesleyan revival).
Bible gives absolutes – standards of right and wrong. It shows the problems and why they exist (man’s fall and rebellion against God).
WHY DOES THE IDEA OF COMMUNISM CATCH THE ATTENTION OF SO MANY IDEALISTIC YOUNG PEOPLE? The reason is very simple.
In HOW SHOULD WE THEN LIVE? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture, the late Francis A. Schaeffer wrote:
Materialism, the philosophic base for Marxist-Leninism, gives no basis for the dignity or rights of man. Where Marxist-Leninism is not in power it attracts and converts by talking much of dignity and rights, but its materialistic base gives no basis for the dignity or rights of man. Yet is attracts by its constant talk of idealism.
To understand this phenomenon we must understand that Marx reached over to that for which Christianity does give a base–the dignity of man–and took the words as words of his own. The only understanding of idealistic sounding Marxist-Leninism is that it is (in this sense) a Christian heresy. Not having the Christian base, until it comes to power it uses the words for which Christianity does give a base. But wherever Marxist-Leninism has had power, it has at no place in history shown where it has not brought forth oppression. As soon as they have had the power, the desire of the majority has become a concept without meaning.
Let me share with you the story of Paul Robeson and it demonstrates that he had to lie about how cruel communism was and the killing of his friend Itzik Feffer.
Paul Leroy Robeson (/ˈroʊbsən/ROHB-sən;[2][3] April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass baritone concert artist and stage and film actor who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his political activism
Robeson traveled to Moscow in June, and tried to find Itzik Feffer. He let Soviet authorities know that he wanted to see him.[207] Reluctant to lose Robeson as a propagandist for the Soviet Union,[208] the Soviets brought Feffer from prison to him. Feffer told him that Mikhoels had been murdered, and he would be summarily executed.[209] To protect the Soviet Union’s reputation,[210] and to keep the right wing of the United States from gaining the moral high ground, Robeson denied that any persecution existed in the Soviet Union,[211] and kept the meeting secret for the rest of his life, except from his son.[210]
Itzik Feffer (10 September 1900 – 12 August 1952), also Fefer (Yiddish איציק פֿעפֿער, Russian Ицик Фефер, Исаàк Соломòнович Фèфер) was a SovietYiddish poet executed on the Night of the Murdered Poets during Joseph Stalin‘s purges.
The American concert singer and actor Paul Robeson met Feffer on 8 July 1943, in New York during a Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee event chaired by Albert Einstein, one of the largest pro-Soviet rallies ever held in the United States. After the rally, Paul Robeson and his wife Eslanda Robeson, befriended Feffer and Mikhoels.
Itzik Feffer (left), Albert Einstein and Solomon Mikhoels in the United States in 1943.
https://spectator.org/espn-paul-robeson-stalinist-monday-night-football/
DANIEL J. FLYNN tells a few details in this sad story:
Why Did ESPN Showcase a Stalinist on Monday NightFootball?Stalin Peace Prize laureate Paul Robeson lauded on America’s No. 1 sports network.
In 1949, Robeson again traveled to the Soviet Union, where he had sent his namesake to school during the 1930s. Robeson had met poet Itzik Feffer and actor Solomon Mikhoels at a Polo Grounds rally of 50,000 people — the largest pro-Soviet event in the history of the United States — that welcomed their Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in 1943. But by 1949 Stalin wished to kill Jews rather than use them for propaganda purposes. He murdered Mikhoels and later Feffer — but not before Robeson could visit his old friend the poet one last time.
David Horowitz describes this meeting in Radical Son:
In America, the question “What happened to Itzik Feffer?” entered the currency of political debate. There was talk in intellectual circles that Jews were being killed in a new Soviet purge and that Feffer was one of them. It was to quell such rumors that Robeson asked to see his old friend, but he was told by Soviet officials that he would have to wait. Eventually, he was informed that the poet was vacationing in the Crimea and would see him as soon as he returned. The reality was that Feffer had already been in prison for three years, and his Soviet captors did not want to bring him to Robeson immediately because he had become emaciated from lack of food. While Robeson waited in Moscow, Stalin’s police brought Feffer out of prison, put him the care of doctors, and began fattening him up for the interview. When he looked sufficiently healthy, he was brought to Moscow. The two men met in a room that was under secret surveillance. Feffer knew he could not speak freely. When Robeson asked how he was, he drew his finger nervously across his throat and motioned with his eyes and lips to his American comrade. “They’re going to kill us,” he said. “When you return to America you must speak out and save us.”
Instead, Robeson, who later confessed what happened to his son, spoke out in praise of his friends’ murderer.
“Yes, through his deep humanity, by his wise understanding, he leaves us a rich and monumental heritage,” Robeson recalled of Stalin. “Most importantly — he has charted the direction of our present and future struggles. He has pointed the way to peace — to friendly co-existence — to the exchange of mutual scientific and cultural contributions — to the end of war and destruction. How consistently, how patiently, he labored for peace and ever increasing abundance, with what deep kindliness and wisdom. He leaves tens of millions all over the earth bowed in heart-aching grief.”
Sincerely,
Everette Hatcher III, 13900 Cottontail Lane, Alexander, AR 72002, ph 501-920-5733 everettehatcher@gmail.com
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The Daily Hatch 