They Call It "Fight Or Flight" For A Reason

H/T to Delftsman and Mamamontezz for pointing me to this story....

According to The Salt Lake Tribune:

CONCEALED WEAPONS: Firearms do not make people 'nice' Living in fear Not having been present at the episode, and lacking any legal determinations, we will not presume to judge the behavior of one well-known and well-armed computer entrepreneur and that of a group of people gathered to express extreme displeasure with his motoring habits. We are, however, prepared to evaluate the philosophy the impossible-to-embarrass "Super Dell" Schanze employed to justify using a gun, or at least reference to a gun, to deter hostile people during said confrontation. Bunk. Dangerous, potentially deadly, bunk. Apparently threatened by a man with a rock - a rock aimed not at Schanze or his child, but at his luxury car - Schanze is alleged to have produced a previously, and legally, concealed Glock 10 mm in self-defense. Well, auto-defense, anyway. If that's what happened, Schanze faces both a misdemeanor charge and the loss of his concealed-weapon permit. An outspoken advocate of the right to keep and bear arms, even when exhibiting behavior that would not be acceptable in any well-regulated militia, Schanze denies committing a crime but was happy to describe the change in attitude that his little friend elicited among his antagonists. "They decided to be really nice once they knew I was armed," he said. "Their whole personality changed. It was amazing." Amazing? Amazing that people will change their behavior when the alternative may well be sudden death? Seems pretty predictable to us. Of course the whole point of the free coinage of concealed-weapons permits in Utah - there are some 62,000 of them out there - is that a heavily armed populace is a well-behaved populace. Maybe. But people who think they may be shot are not being "nice." They are afraid. Some of them ought to be afraid, as they might otherwise commit some sort of mayhem. But the majority of us do not want or deserve to live in fear, threatened by someone whose concealed-weapons permit is one traffic accident or domestic quarrel away from being among the some 200 a year that are revoked for criminal, sometimes violent, behavior. Some people, who carry large sums of money or have specific reasons to feel endangered, may be safer if they are armed. The rest of us are not.

OK, so what did we get from this editorial? First, where are the facts? This story is clearly written from the liberal/anti-gun standpoint where the author wants to depict Mr. Schanze as a gun toting, trigger happy, "right-wing nut job".

I can't say whether or not Mr. Schanze felt like his life was in danger or if the life of his child was threatened, but what I can say is it is clear that he was outnumbered and the crowd was not friendly. All it may have taken to incite a riot that he couldn't have stopped or contained would have been one word, one punch or one throw of the rock. It doesn't sound like he pointed it at anyone just showed that he had it and would defend himself and his family.

Fear, I absolutely hope the crowd felt fear. That is exactly the reaction that is needed to make someone second guess whether or not they want to attempt to harm you or your loved ones.

The Salt Lake Tribune should be embarrassed for publishing this tripe. You will notice that there is no authors name on this article. Probably for a reason!

lagleRock Out!

Posted by SlagleRock at June 3, 2005 05:08 PM