Letter to the Editor U.C. Daily Messenger: published Wed. July 29, 2009

by Jamie Spaulding on Saturday, August 8, 2009 at 2:51pm

     The Tennessee constitution plainly says “the legislature has the power to regulate the wearing of arms with a view toward preventing crime”. Last Tuesday night I witnessed (thanks to WOBT-TV) a city council regulating the wearing of arms. There is no question that it is contrary to the constitution. I believe the courts will settle this rather quickly.

     What I found most intriguing is that there are at least two councilmen, based on their arguments in favor of banning legally carried handguns in city parks, who are members of the “cultural elite“. Those well-meaning, “enlightened”, if somewhat arrogant, individuals whom, because of divine providence or their superior intellect, have attained a station of power, regardless how miniscule that station. Their life’s mission is to protect you and me, the ignorant masses, from ourselves. Our nations’ capitol is full of their kind. They honestly believe that we are incapable of knowing what is best for us. I teach that if you are too ignorant to be trusted with your own defense, how can you be trusted to govern yourself? Their answer is simple. You can’t. Those in the “cultural elite” forget that we are the boss. We loan power to the government to do its job. If it ceases to do its job, we have the right, and the obligation to take that power back.

     Fifteen years ago the people of Tennessee, like others across the country, reclaimed the right to go armed for our defense because the government was failing miserably in this regard. Studies showed that in counties where the law-abiding were permitted to go armed, violent crime was significantly lower than in counties that severely restricted the rights of armed citizens. Justice Dept. studies showed that armed citizens killed three times as many criminals per year as the police did. This study also showed that, in shooting incidents involving armed citizens, innocent parties were harmed two percent of the time. “Not good” you say? The same study showed that, in shooting incidents involving police, innocent parties were harmed eleven percent of the time. Ask any cop and he’ll tell you it’s true. If I am being beaten, robbed, stabbed, or shot at; there is no question in my mind who is the perpetrator. The police don’t have that luxury, unless they, too, are the victim. No one can protect you or your family better than you. It’s that simple. Over two and a half million times a year, private citizens use a gun to stop a crime. That’s once every thirteen seconds.

     Lastly, Mr. Cranford and Mr. Harrison, I don’t carry a handgun because I expect trouble. I carry a handgun because I realize trouble can come when I least expect it. If I thought I needed a gun to go to your park, I wouldn’t go. Can you both promise me I won’t need it? I sincerely hope so, because that’s exactly what you are doing. Patrick Henry asked, “Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety and equal justice to us, than in our own hands?…..” Thomas Jefferson said, “… let your firearm be the constant companion of your walks…” Sorry Mr. Jefferson, not if you live in Union City. I invite the Union City city council to take one of my classes. You may find, as I have, that the people who obtain carry permits are the best informed, and the most responsible of all our citizens. They are the greatest resource this country has. All the ingenuity, wealth, charity, and goodness of which our country can boast is because of these uncommonly, common folk. They are the true sons and daughters of Liberty. They continue to confound the “Cultural Elite”.