Breakfast at Tiffany's – Because I Do Not Know

You Don't Get To Pick Your Amendments

There's no slippery slope here. When anti-Second Amendment forces launch a Web site called "licensetomurder" to describe self-defense, it's pretty clear what the agenda is. (Hat tip: Instapundit)

Ronald Dixon, now 31, is a Jamaican immigrant and father of two who served in the U.S. Navy from 1994 to 1997 in "weapons ordnance" and now holds down two computer-related jobs. On Dec. 14, 2002, Dixon caught an intruder rifling through drawers in his son's room in his home in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Mr. Dixon fired two shots from his 9 mm pistol, wounding the suspected burglar in the chest and groin, The New York Post reported.

The burglar turned out to be a career criminal with a 14-page rap sheet. He'd been arrested 19 times and been convicted of criminal trespass, burglary and attempted assault. Still, authorities charged Mr. Dixon with illegal possession of a firearm when they discovered his legally purchased gun was not registered in New York. (He had tried to register it, without success.) He served time in the same jail as his attacker.

But the last straw for American defenders of the God-given right to self-defense may have been the case of Melvin Spaulding, 71, arrested for attempted murder and held without bail in 2003 after he ran to the defense of a 63-year-old friend and neighbor being beaten by thugs in front of his home in St. Petersburg, Fla. -- shooting one of the assailants.

When not calling self-defense a license to murder, Second Amendment opponents like to refer to recently enacted self-defense laws as "shoot-first." In reality, however, it strips from many state laws the requirement that a citizen who is under attack or home invasion must first seek to escape before defending himself/herself.

Once an invader comes into a private citizen's home, there's no need for questioning intent or threat level. You can talk to and reason with him all you want; meanwhile, I'll be trying to hire a cleaner to get his blood out of my new berber carpet.

No "wild, wild West" here. Just self-defense.

3 comments Jake McCafferty last posted at 7:09 PM
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3 Comments:

Citizens have the right to defend themselves with lethal force. It is amazing that anyone could be naive enough to believe otherwise. The website is a good example of how gun control activists are completely out of touch with the realities of life.

By RightDemocrat, at 4:45 PM

Jake,
Your mention of the Florida case of Melvin Spaulding:

"he ran to the defense of a 63-year-old friend and neighbor being beaten by thugs in front of his home in St. Petersburg, Fla."

illustrates an often overlooked aspect of the RKBA specifically and self defense in general. Namely, possesion of firearms for defense is not just about each of us as individuals, defending our own lives. By wielding this level of force, what may be considered an overwhelming level of force, we may preserve others from harm. By preventing the harm of a physical assault or our death, we may spare those who love us the pain and loss, the disruption of life, that follows such events. At a very basic level, the ability of an individual citizen to prevent a crime when law enforcement is unavailable contributes to the stability and and prosperity of society as a whole. Those who oppose the empowerment of the people are essentially allies of criminals whose attacks on individuals are truly attacks on all of us.

By Anonymous, at 10:55 PM

i like tazers

:)

By kinkyrhombus, at 12:05 PM