"Yes" to Guns

I know -- two posts in one day. What can I say; I'm a rebel. I read an article in The Tennessean on Sunday that disturbed me and I just have to get my thoughts out or it may begin to disrupt my sleep.

A woman named Nell Levin shares that she was watching a local legislative show to see what our elected officials were talking about. She writes that what she saw was "a bunch of mostly white guys yammering on about whether they can carry an unloaded rifle in their truck along with a box of bullets." She mentions hearing their hunting anecdotes is a waste of tax-payer money. She goes on to say, "At a time of great stress, when people are getting laid off from their jobs, marriages are crumbling, and domestic violence is rising, do we really need armed men in our restaurants and state parks?" I wasn't following her jump from unloaded rifles in trucks and hunting anecdotes to the implication of mass murder by those suffering dire straits, but I kept reading.

She references some recent killings, including the church shooting in Illinois, and ends her article by saying, "In other parts of the country, passing gun-lobby laws like the right to carry a concealed weapon in churches, on campuses, and in state parks are no longer slam dunks. This is not the case in Tennessee -- yet another reminder of how behind the times our state is."

A Sunday does not go by, since that pastor was murdered in front of his congregation, that I don't sit in my church thinking about that horrible murder. But, the thing that makes me feel safe is the fact that I know that there are a number of men sitting among us with concealed weapons solely for the purpose of protecting us and our pastors. So "yes" we definitely need armed men in our parks and restaurants because if we don't have them, who will protect us from the psychos who could care less about breaking a concealed weapons law -- I can't imagine them saying, "oh, I'd really like to go kill a few people at the local Taco Bell, but there's that darn concealed weapon law."