My gun is good, and so is yours

[unixronin]

[...]  Unfortunately, this was about the same time that serial killer Ted Bundy was all over the news, the “Green River Killer” investigation was in full swing, and I was obsessed with reading Seattle-based author Ann Rule’s true crime books.  Not exactly a great time for me to be heading for Washington State.  But hey, I was cop!  I got to take my gun to Seattle, carry it everywhere, and feel safe and secure.  Great for me, but it got me thinking about all those young female murder victims; many of them close to my age.  What if one of them had been armed?  Could she have saved herself and ultimately, many others?  And back in Illinois we had our own famous serial killer, John Wayne Gacy, still in the news.  He killed 33 young men and boys before he was arrested.  Hadn’t they deserved the legal right to able to try and protect themselves to the best of their ability?

Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith of the Chicago Police Department talks about how, after starting out a believer in "gun control", she reached an epiphany and realized that just because a person isn't a police officer doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to be legally armed.

I am now a firm advocate of well-trained, well-armed civilians, and this is an issue that police officers must get more involved in.  With layoffs, cutbacks, workplace violence and the raging “war on cops” in the United States, we may have to depend on our citizens to step up, jump in, and help out in an armed encounter.  After all, you don’t have to have a badge to wear a white hat and be one of the good guys.