“Are we really serious about public safety? Here are sixteen things we can actually do.”

So asks a Seattle CityCouncilwoman after another shooting in Pugetopia.  There have been more than a few in the last year or so and the people are getting restless; they want something done.  Typically her list contains all the normal Rights destroying big government solutions which have been tried and clearly have failed everywhere they have tried.

One of the things I always notice when government types start talking about their “solutions to gun violence” is that the solutions always show a complete lack of personal responsibly on the side of the normal citizen.  It’s all going to be taken care of for us, by more government, more cops, etc..  As predicted long ago we have surrendered God-given Rights and Responsibilities over ourselves in a poor exchange for man’s so called security.  So, how’s that working out for us?

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Einstein

I personally think in her list of sixteen solutions she missed a few so here’s my list of “Things we can actually do.”  And mine aren’t focused on new laws, more government spending or even violating the Rights of any law-abiding person in Pugetopia.

1.  Educate the people of their personal Right and responsibility to Protect Themselves.

            a. Constitution of the united States and the Bill of Rights.

            b. Washington State Constitution.

            c. Pertinent court findings supporting the Right to protect themselves.

2. Assist those same people through the process of getting the tools to actually do the job of competently providing for their own protection.

            a. Low or no cost firearms training provided by local 2A groups.

            b. Sponsorships by retailers and manufacturers of firearms, holsters and ammunition to help folks arm themselves.

            c. Low or no cost basic situational awareness training including firearms retention by local PD or 2A groups.

            d. Offset the costs of getting a CPL through community sponsorships.

            e. Discounted or free range time at publically owned (PD, State Patrol, etc.) ranges.

3. Support the efforts of private people and groups who would be willing to help and lighten the load on the police by providing for their own personal protection as well as helping to protect their local communities.

            a. Look at changing the premise behind the block watch programs to one of a more active and involved group in their own neighborhood.

            b. Work to bring those who are sworn to protect and serve together with those who wish to help by providing for their own protection.

            c. Help local prosecutors use better policy when it comes to self defense charges.

            d. Actually support local unorganized militia groups who wish to function under local government authority (Sheriff) and give them a valuable and useful function.

4. Provide resources online for folks to report crazy or wicked people and their activities so these folks can be addressed.

            a. There is already Crime Stoppers where people can report criminal tips but they are not set up to deal with the unbalanced or crazy folks out there.

            b. Getting the clearly crazy off the streets would be a good start and would require government spending.  Dixie did us no favors when she turned them out onto the streets.  As a side note, I don’t see a huge amount of crazy people buying handguns and attacking people.  It’s more the slightly unbalanced or wicked among us doing these horrible deeds.

            c. This will be a more difficult proposition as any mechanism for reporting any pre-crime activity is already suspect in my mind and prone to abuse by people both in and out of government.

There will be a visible side effect from educating and enabling folks in the effort to help them protect themselves.  There is a good chance that these additional firearms in the community will actually be used to save lives.  This will mean that sometimes people will be shot and even killed as these responsible folks defend themselves from the crazy or wicked among us.  After a period of time, the effect of these firearms will be perceived by even the unbalanced out there and they will either find other things to do with their urges, be dead or in jail. 

In short, we have tried the more laws and more police efforts from coast to coast and there has been little positive news to report.  Helping people train and then arm themselves for their own protection will be a completely different approach to the issue of rampant violence in our communities but from a logical and detached viewpoint it looks like a good approach.