One has to wonder about the intelligence quotients of the anti-gun crowd. They have not been doing well in advancing their agenda the last few years, but they still haven’t learned—and still haven’t given up.

What is worse is that they assume everyone in America is as dumb as they are. No matter how many so-called studies they generate, even with the help of researchers and professors who share their distorted understanding of human nature and history, the basic element is always fear.

They believe that fear will always trump reason, and for some people it does work that way. But most Americans of average intelligence still don’t succumb to the fear and hysteria of the anti-gunners because they are attuned to the realities of the world around them.

The 9/11 attacks provided a huge lesson for many, showing that personal defense against domestic and imported terrorists is as important—maybe even more so—as defense against predatory attacks by homegrown criminals.

But that doesn’t stop the anti-gun, anti-self and community- defense crowd from going back to the same well again and again.

As Dave Workman reports in the print edition of this issue, the anti-gun zealots in Washington state are already “dancing in the blood” of the latest violence in Seattle with little attention to all of the societal roots of that tragic incident.

Trying to solve society’s problems by focusing on ever more restrictive regulation of firearms ownership by law-abiding men, women and even teenagers is focusing on the wrong subject. Fighting the idea of people having the means to defend themselves without being punished from a righteous use of deadly force is a losing argument.

Substitution Theory
But that doesn’t stop the anti-gunners. Lately, to fight the “Castle Doctrine” or “Stand Your Ground” legislation that is under consideration in several states, they have been trying to frighten the public by calling it “Shoot First” and “License to Murder” legislation. From their own dark side, the anti-gunners have tried to paint a scary picture of mindless people everywhere shooting each other over trivial disputes, or without reasonable cause.

The Free States Alliance has even come up with a whole new website called “licensetomurder.com” in an effort to play their trump card of fear.

But they are ignoring reality. The people who are really bent on committing murder, even mass murder, will get the guns anyway they can, ignoring every gun law on federal and state books. And when the gun law actually deters a lunatic, a criminal, a mass murderer or a terrorist, other means are available.

Some years ago a disturbed man killed over 80 people in a New York night club using a gallon of gasoline and a match. The terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon used box-cutters and commercial airliners.

Now, The Charlotte (NC) Observer reports that the man charged with trying to kill students by hitting them with a car said he would have preferred using a gun but screening laws were too stringent, according to a letter read at a hearing in his case.

Mohammed Taheri-Azar drove a Jeep Cherokee into a crowd of students Mar. 3 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and hit nine people, none of whom had life-threatening injuries.

A police officer read the typed letter in court on Mar. 24.

“I would instead use a handgun to murder the citizens and residents of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, but the process of receiving a permit for a handgun in this city is highly restricted and out of my reach at present, most likely due to my foreign nationality,” the letter said.

Taheri-Azar, a 2005 graduate of the school, also had two cans of pepper spray and folding knife in the rented vehicle. He has said the act was to avenge deaths of Muslims caused by the US around the world.

“I do not wish to pursue my career as a student any further because I have no desires to amass the impermanent and temporary fame and material wealth that this world has to offer,” the letter said.

“However, I made the decision to continue my studies and to graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill so that the world will know that Allah’s servants are very intelligent.”

I have a little problem with the last part of his letter, but then the anti-gunners will say that North Carolina’s gun laws did what they were supposed to do: cause the erstwhile terrorist to use a car. Thank, Allah he didn’t decide to use an IED (improvised explosive device).

The anti-gunners’ fear campaign apparently does work in some cases, so much so that a fair number of Americans shoot into orbit at the mere sight or sound of a gun.


Groundhog Season
In this case reported by The Daily Record of Chester County, PA, construction workers heard a gunshot in North Hopewell Twp. and called the state police.

York Area Regional Police were called to a rural area of North Hopewell Township on Mar. 13 for a shooting, but all they found was a teenager with a rifle.

Nothing illegal about it, Sgt. Rod Varner said. The boy was shooting at a groundhog, among a farmer’s worst enemies during the spring planting season.

The single shot at about noon was enough to scare laborers working on a barn. They called state troopers who forwarded the call to York Area Regional Police.

Varner said the home-schooled boy took a safe—but extremely long—shot at the varmint.

“He shot several hundred yards,” he said. “There was no carcass.”

Varner said it is common for farmers to patrol their fields with scoped rifles during the spring. Groundhogs tear up fields while building burrows, which can be a hazard for livestock and equipment.

State game laws allow hunters to shoot groundhogs every day of the year except Sundays, the two weeks of rifle deer season and before noon on days that overlap with the spring turkey season, which begins Apr. 29.

If using firearms, people must be at least 150 yards away from buildings unless they are on their own properties.

Varner said police determined the boy was far enough from the construction workers.

He added that people should not be frightened if they hear shots in rural areas this time of year.

“It is a very rural area,” Varner said. “Farmers are going to be concerned with the groundhogs in their fields.”

‘Castle Doctrine’
Meanwhile, the anti-gunners who conjure up such deceiving names as gunguys.com, Americans for Gun Safety or American Hunting and Shooting Association in an effort to escape the bad vibes connected with the word “control” and having a hard time with the “Castle Doctrine” push in several states.

Indiana’s governor has signed just such a “No retreat” law, and The Louisville Journal reports that Kentucky is poised to join Indiana and several other states that have expanded people’s right to use deadly force in defending themselves in their homes and businesses, on the streets, or any place they have a legal right to be.

The Kentucky House and Senate have each passed a bill to enact the measure and are working to settle on a single version.

Backed by the National Rifle Association and grassroots organizations, similar measures became law in Florida last year and in South Dakota and Mississippi earlier this year.

While versions of the bill have failed in some states such as Wyoming, Iowa and Virginia, the idea is getting a good hearing in about a dozen other states.

Generally, such legislation protects people who are forced to use deadly force to protect themselves or their families by specifying that people have no “duty to retreat”—or attempt to flee—if they believe they are being threatened on their property or in their vehicle.

And that makes sense to most Americans even if the anti-gunners still don’t get it.