Frederick Su
By Frederick Su
For Northwest Asian Weekly
It’s 1:30 in the morning. My wife, asleep on the couch, saw headlights stream through the drapes. She looked out and saw someone near her car. “Fred,” she called out, “there’s somebody in our yard!” I rolled out of bed and grabbed the bag where my 9mm pistol was tucked. I saw a white truck enter our other driveway, where it is parked, headlights on. I opened the front door for a better look, putting my pistol bag atop a nearby table. The occupants of the truck made no movement. Finally, after several minutes, they left. We did not call 911, as there was no break-in. I didn’t draw my pistol and rack a round into the chamber, but I was ready. And it felt very comfortable to have that tool by my side.
I’m a gun-rights guy. I learned early in life that when it comes to self-defense, there is no one who is going to be there to protect you 24/7, except yourself. But, if you’re rich like billionaire Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City, you can hire all the gun-toting security you want. For most of us, that is not an option.
Gun-rights people have two popular sayings: (1) “When seconds count, the police are minutes away.” (2) “It’s better to have a gun and not need it and need a gun and not have it.”
If you’re an abused woman and your former boyfriend/husband has threatened to kill you, don’t treat his threats lightly. That restraining order is hardly bulletproof. Be proactive. Get training in safe and responsible gun handling, preferably from a professional. Apply for a concealed carry permit from your local police or sheriff, and carry. As Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA, said in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre, “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” Just recently, Mark Vaughan, the COO of Vaughan Foods, in Moore, Okla., was the good guy with a gun who stopped that Islamic beheader in his tracks, thus preventing many more murders. Police rarely arrive in time to save lives. They will investigate the carnage though.
The Left likes to paint the NRA as a white man’s organization, but nothing can be further from the truth. The NRA welcomes all races and ethnicities, women, and even gay people. Colin Noir is a young black man who speaks for the NRA. So does Chris Cheng, a gay Asian man who won the History Channel’s Top Shot reality show a couple of years ago. Many women are taking up arms for defense and hunting. One of the most courageous is Kimberly Weeks, a victim of sexual assault who had to plead for her life. Afterwards, she got a concealed carry permit. She has gone on the record to call out Michael Bloomberg’s hypocrisy. Bloomberg, surrounded by armed guards, is against guns for the hoi polloi.
Washington will soon vote on two gun initiatives. There are a number of issues that concern most gun owners and the NRA about I-594, the universal background check initiative.
Handgun sales and transfers will go through the Department of Licensing, which is back door gun registration. The NRA claims that transfers are not clearly defined, and that you would be breaking the law by lending your gun at the range to a stranger to shoot. In short, it’s a “Make more laws, make more criminals” type of legislation. How would you enforce such a law? A similar law passed in Colorado. During the Boulder floods, gun-owning flood victims moved their guns to friends’ houses, breaking the new law. Wisely, the county prosecutor chose not to prosecute.
I’d like to quote Jeff Cooper, Lieutenant Colonel USMC (Retired), founder of Gunsite Academy in Arizona. “Weapons are the tools of power. In the hands of the state, they can be tools of decency or tools of oppression, depending on the righteousness of that state. In the hands of criminals, they are the tools of evil. In the hands of the free and decent citizen, they should be the tools of liberty. Weapons compound man’s power to achieve whatever purpose he may have. They amplify the capabilities of both the good man and the bad, and to exactly the same degree, having no will of their own. Thus, we must regard them as servants, not masters—and good servants of good men. Without them, man is diminished and his opportunities to fulfill his destiny are lessened. An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it.”
Gun control supporters cannot discern the good person from the evil person. And that is the crux of the matter. (end)
Frederick Su is a life member of the NRA and author of the novel An American Sin, about an Asian American and Vietnam. www.bytewrite.com.
Thanks for your thoughtful article Frederick, your spot on!
If I-594 is enacted, lawful citizens will have been disarmed within two generations. The reason is simple. People aren’t perfect and all sorts of paperwork errors will occur or background checks will be overlooked. Firearms intended for inheritance will be taken by the state. Unaware owners will say, “Use mine for the weekend.” Or they’ll trade their pump for a friend’s semi-auto. Whatever. This law is onerous and oppressive. Washington libs now demand that everyone think and act like them. Forget about individuality. And what’s next. Following their playbook, the next step will be to heavily regulate and then seize firearm associations, clubs and ranges, turning them into government-run entities. Eventually, they’ll be accessible only for the connected. What playbook you ask? Think back 70 years, over there.