{"id":758,"date":"2009-01-01T22:10:02","date_gmt":"2009-01-02T02:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/monachuslex.com\/?p=758"},"modified":"2009-01-01T22:10:02","modified_gmt":"2009-01-02T02:10:02","slug":"out-of-the-mouths-of-babes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/?p=758","title":{"rendered":"Out of the mouths of babes"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is an article I wrote for the VCDL<\/a> Defender Newsletter back in 2003.<\/p>\n

\"\"“I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”\u00a0<\/em>– <\/em><\/strong>J.R.R.Tolkien<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

On Monday, June 9th<\/sup>, in San Jose California, a 9-year-old girl was kidnapped and sexually assaulted.\u00a0 During the kidnapping, her mother and brother were severely beaten in an unsuccessful effort to protect her.\u00a0 Thankfully, she was eventually released and is now back with her family.<\/p>\n

Even though CNN has been running the story non-stop for the last few days, by the time this is printed, the incident will, at best, be only a dim memory to most of you.\u00a0 However, you can rest assured that those affected by this horror will never forget it.<\/p>\n

I bring this up because it was this incident that was the catalyst for this article.\u00a0 My wife and I had been watching CNN\u2019s coverage without considering the young eyes and ears that were in the same room when suddenly we realized that our daughter was listening intently.\u00a0 At 7, my daughter doesn\u2019t really understand what sexual assault means, but she does know what kidnapping means and she could tell that something really bad had happened to the little girl by my wife\u2019s reaction.<\/p>\n

When they showed the mother with a massively bruised and swollen face describing her attempt to stop the kidnapping, my daughter turned to me and asked \u201cDaddy \u2026 why didn\u2019t she just use her gun to stop the bad man?<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Coming from a child who has, literally, never seen her parents without guns on, this is a perfectly understandable question.<\/p>\n

She knows, of course, that not all the people she meets openly carry firearms, but I guess she had just assumed that they still had them close at hand.\u00a0 When I told her that some parents didn\u2019t carry guns at all and that the mother had tried with all her strength to stop the attacker but couldn\u2019t, she became absolutely terrified.<\/p>\n

She had never considered the idea that a child could be with their parents and still be helpless.\u00a0 She was suddenly faced with the horrible thought that, even in her own home and surrounded by those she trusts to protect her, she might not be safe.\u00a0 It truly broke my heart to see her standing there with doubt and fear on her face and her small arms wrapped around herself protectively as a little bit of the innocence of childhood was stripped away.<\/p>\n

The rest of that day, she questioned me and my wife over-and-over again about whether or not such a thing could ever happen to her.\u00a0 We explained to her that protecting her and our son was one of the most important reasons that we chose to carry self-defense firearms and that we would strive to always be able to defend and protect them.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, in the way of children everywhere, her fears were largely forgotten by the next day.\u00a0 But I found myself thinking about what she had asked.\u00a0 What if<\/em> the mother in this case had been armed?\u00a0 While a firearm is no absolute guarantee of safety, it would have given a tremendous advantage to a mother whose courage and willingness to fight for her children cannot be questioned.\u00a0 I cannot help but believe that if she had been properly armed, she would have prevailed instead of being forced to watch bleeding and helpless as her child was dragged away by a predator.<\/p>\n

The more that I thought about this, the angrier I became.\u00a0 I cannot speak for this mother specifically, but I do know that there are literally thousands of families that have chosen not to have self-defense firearms in their homes because of the lies and deceptions of the gun control movement.\u00a0 This incident should serve as a grim reminder that you can count on no one but yourself to defend your family.\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The oft-repeated motto of the police is \u201cTo Protect and Serve\u201d, but this is misleading.\u00a0 I have immense respect for law enforcement and have no doubt that, if they could, they would stand between us and any danger.\u00a0 But, they cannot.\u00a0 They are not omniscient.\u00a0 They do not know where or when the predators will attack.\u00a0 They can only find and hopefully punish them after the fact.<\/p>\n

Now, I don\u2019t know about you, but I personally refuse to face one of my children who has been forced to endure such an ordeal and offer them this hollow consolation.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s ok honey.\u00a0 The police have caught the bad man.\u00a0 Now, we just have to go to court and see him again and then tell exactly what he did to you in great detail while the defense attorney twists your words and mocks your tears.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

The anti-self-defense crowd are<\/em> right about one thing though.\u00a0 Children\u2019s lives are special and it is a parent\u2019s responsibility to protect their children.\u00a0 Children depend upon their parents to be their guardians and protectors in an uncertain and often harsh world.\u00a0 After all, is this not the very essence of what it means to be a parent?<\/p>\n

Sadly, those who oppose us have forgotten one simple fact.\u00a0 Those who are defenseless themselves can never hope to be the protector of their children.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is an article I wrote for the VCDL Defender Newsletter back in 2003. “I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachuslex.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}