“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
— Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
American Rifleman, by David Wright
A self-radicalized Somali Islamist runs amok in a Minnesota shopping mall, stabbing multiple people as they are going about their business. An armed man, packing a concealed handgun acts. He eliminates the threat. Lives are saved. Score one for the good guys.
The stabbing attack at the Crossroads Center mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota, could have been much worse, if not for the actions of an off-duty police officer.
That officer — identified as Jason Falconer — fatally shot Dahir Adan on Saturday after Adan had already stabbed nine people and threatened other shoppers. Here’s what we know about Falconer:
He’s a firearms training instructor. He owns a firing range and firearms training facility called Tactical Advantage. He’s considered an expert in firearms training and education and has helped teach classes on law enforcement skills at St. Cloud State University for nine years, his company website says. He’s a member of the United States Practical Shooters Association and has won medals in various shooting competitions.
And that, my friends, is why the right to keep and bear arms is fundamental — and it remains as relevant now as it was in the 18th Century.
I have some friends who consider the 2nd Amendment an artifact of a different time. “It was about muskets! It was written for the militia!” they proclaim.
Here’s a response I crafted in a discussion of the matter — which my friend promptly lost interest in….
The Second Amendment, like all of the others in the Bill of Rights, except the 10th, clearly enunciates individual rights. The right of the INDIVIDUAL to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Heller (Supreme Court decision) rightly affirmed that.
As for the Second Amendment being “about muskets,” bear in mind that muzzleloading longarms were the basic personal military technology of the day. The amendment reads “keep and bear arms.” It does not say “keep and bear arms permanently at the technological level of 1789.” If such were the case, the Fourth Amendment would not cover any form of personal communications other than handwritten letters. Instead, the Fourth Amendment has been — rightly — interpreted to include the contents of your vehicle, your electronic communications, etc.
The Second Amendment also reads “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State.” The “militia” is the people in arms. The extreme right is fond of arguing that the amendment was designed to allow for defense against a tyrannical government, which is partially true, but not the main point at all. It was considered important that the people themselves retain the capacity for defense and security internally as well as against external foes.
In other words, in a circumstance of civil unrest or breakdown, or other threat, the people themselves — you and me — should have the capacity to deal with it. That’s as operative now as it was in 1789.
Example: For three days during the Rodney King riots in L.A., the LAPD effectively abandoned the south-central portion of the city to hordes of looters. Dozens of businesses were looted and burned and people were beaten and killed. The businesses that DIDN’T get looted and burned out were those of Korean and Chinese grocers who got up on their roofs — many armed with semi-auto rifles — and kept the looters at bay. That is a contemporary exercise of the intent of the Second Amendment.
“Well-regulated” in this context means well-ordered; trained. As you know, I would like to see mandated training, perhaps through a licensing regimen, for certain classes of arms — which could serve to flag nut jobs and bad actors. I do not believe that “shall not be infringed” means that there cannot be ANY strictures placed on the means and manner of keeping and bearing arms. Whatever those strictures are, they must NOT infringe upon the legitimate rights and liberties of free, law-abiding citizens that are clearly enumerated in the Constitution.
“Key fact … off-duty police officer. Not some untrained hack infatuated with firearms. I have sure known plenty of those and wouldn’t trust em with a dull butter knife.”
I absolutely reject the implication that ONLY military or police are capable and qualified to act in extremis. For one thing, there are plenty of military personnel and cops who are only marginally proficient with firearms and tactics and they really can’t be trusted with a butter knife either. Clearly Falconer was many steps ahead of the average cop from the sport shooting and tactical pursuits he engaged in on his own. But the commentor is not wrong, either. A mere enthusiasm for firearms doesn’t mean jack shit.
Jack Donovan neatly highlights the wannabe syndrome in a well-argued treatise on training.
While some believe they can’t when they can, many others believe they could when they probably couldn’t. Millions of doughboys overestimate their ability to fight because they won an altercation in high school once — or worse, because they’ve watched a lot of videos of fights and think they “have a pretty good idea of what they’d do.” You can find them second-guessing professional fighters and quarterbacks in bars and in front of television sets all around the world.
I am absolutely committed to the belief that it is the right and proper role and duty of any man to develop and maintain skill at arms and the means of defending himself, his loved ones, his property. The outsourcing of that role to a tiny percentage of the population is pernicious and destructive on multiple levels. It reflects the abdication of the responsibilities of manhood and is, in my estimation, both a symptom and a cause of the social and cultural meltdown we’re currently experiencing. The major part of my commitment is dedication to continually developing and maintaining my capabilities — to my physical training, to my martial arts practice, to developing tactical shooting skills. To assert both the right and the responsibility inherent in the Second Amendment.
’Cause it ain’t about muskets.
Pat_H says
“I absolutely reject the implication that ONLY military or police are capable and qualified to act in extremis. For one thing, there are plenty of military personnel and cops who are only marginally proficient with firearms and tactics and they really can’t be trusted with a butter knife either.”
On this point, I raised the same item in a blog post I did awhile back on concealed carry: http://lexanteinternet.blogspot.com/2016/07/packing-heat.html
Truth be known, and as unfortunately amply demonstrated with plenty of examples, urban policemen are not exactly marksmen by and large. Nor, I suppose, should we expect them to be as their jobs actually don’t entail that much of the concept that their likely to be engaged in armed combat. We think of them that way due to crime dramas, but their much more likely to be responding to all sorts of other distress and most never fire their weapons in anger. Lots of them are not all that proficient in their arms either.
Again, I address it in the linked in item, but quite frankly an individual who is self armed by choice is just as likely to actually know how to use their arm, and for that matter those who go to the trouble of getting a carry permit are probably quite a bit more likely, on average, to be proficient.
JimC says
I think that’s true. And there’s always more to learn and rough edges to sand off — and the practicer itself is a worthy endeavor always.
Matthew says
About the wannabe syndrome there’s a line in Sleepless in Seattle:
“You don’t want to be in love; you want to be in love in a movie.”
A lot of people don’t want to be prepare for a situation like this; they want to be prepare from a scene from an action movie or video game.
Now I don’t have a problem with either of those things, but you need to be able to separate fantasy from reality.
JimC says
Yep. And training should be humbling enough that you know the difference well.
Saddle Tramp says
Jim, well said and articulated in the context you intend. I know you are a considerably thoughtful individual. A dilemma for sure in a civilized and regulated society. If it comes to every man, woman or child for themselves society is a different scenario for sure. Which came first the chicken or the egg. Hell if I know. ICBM’s and tanks in every back yard? Who controls the controller? Is that not the current quicksand we are walking through now. Let nature work it out? Give up on the Republic? Seems like the way the wind is blowing lately. Are we taking the trail to it’s most absurd end? Gawd help us. Insanity is incapable of recognizing itself. Hell, Caltrans back in the days of nuclear ignorance was going to blast out a pass through the Tehachapi’s with an A Bomb. What era of madness are we encroaching uoon now. There was a reason they checked the guns at the bar in Dodge City. Where’s Wyatt Earp now when we need him. As always one calculates the benefit / risk ratio. I have had guns pointed at me with fingers on the trigger more than a few times including waking into a sawed off shotgun and .38 during a Safeway robbery with the manager not giving up the dough at first. A tense moment for sure. The two robbers made off like Jesse James but did get caught about later. I was still in high school at the time. Sticks with you. It was a Friday morning and they got off with over 20 grand of money intended for people cashing checks
(including me). Cannot say what would have happened if I would have been packing.
Maybe I would not be posting this. Every situation holds it’s own required fate. Escalate or not? No easy answer.
— ST
Waiting for SNOWDEN to start.
Previews for NEVER FIRED A BULLET included.
JimC says
The most important martial arts “technique” is to exercise sound judgement. Weigh the benefits vs. risks. Prepare for contingencies.
Saddle Tramp says
Oh and Jim…
Regarding the Safeway incident. This took place back in 1972 in Kansas City, MO.
Two friends dropped me off to go in and cash my check and waited in the parking lot.
I went back out after the robbery and they were gone. Suspecting foul play I went back in to report it to the police. They went in pursuit of them but my friends returned saying they saw two guys leaving real fast like Jesse James with grocery bags and followed them until they lost track ( actually close to where they were caught a few days later ). The funny thing is a few months or so later I read in the Kansas City Star that one of them escaped from the Downtown Kansas City jail by tying sheets together and escaping from a a window several stories up. Never heard if they caught him again. The manager of the Safeway was a real tough guy and I was in the middle of the argument for the money. The manager finally relented from inside his stronghold money cage and handed it over…
This one was over someone elses money whereas my other close encounters were more personal. Fortunately luck was on my side in those as well. Hard to say how it could have been without relying on it. The other option always a last resort. There are some that might bat an eye at most without a thought. Cold blooded they call ’em. Known a few. You can’t straddle the fence and one direction or the other is fraught with consequences. Like you said Jim: Sound judgement.
Split second sound judgement in the heat of the battle is not easily aquired
— ST
P.S.
SNOWDEN employed a lot of exaggerated devices for dramatic affect, but nonetheless the point gets made.
My take:
” Even [G]od is not watching us this close. ”
For any Led Zeppelin fans I am listening to THE COMPLETE BBC SESSIONS and I personally highly recommend it. Maybe I’m just in the mood for it!!
JimC says
Stone wouldn’t know subtlety is it ran over him in a tank.
Pat_h says
On muskets, I’m always some what amused when people claim “well that was written contemplating muskets. . .”
Muskets were the assault rifles of their day. Charged with buck and ball, used in mass, and quick to reload, they were a nasty weapon in a fight.
Rifles were the arm that was slow to reload, but most real fighting at the time, except on the frontier, was done with muskets.
JimC says
True.
Buck and ball was used on the frontier as well. See:
deuce says
Along with Pat, I like this:
“The outsourcing of that role to a tiny percentage of the population is pernicious and destructive on multiple levels. It reflects the abdication of the responsibilities of manhood and is, in my estimation, both a symptom and a cause of the social and cultural meltdown we’re currently experiencing.”
@Saddle Tramp: Didn’t know you grew up in KCMO. Just 2hrs from where I did. I was going to buy the BBC SESSIONS, then I had to spend $100 on my truck. What I’ve heard sounds great. “Sunshine Woman”!
Saddle Tramp says
Deuce…
Not raised in KCMO. Long story. We moved to KC in the second half of my Junior year of High School. Vivid in my first memories is how it seemed that most pickups had gun racks on the back window with rifles or shotguns on them. I lived in KC for close to 20 years until work transfers took me to Wisconsin and then on down to West Texas for 8 years before I abandoned the corporate world and hit the golden road on 18 wheels. All my brothers and sisters still live in the Kansas City area and my Dad has just recently moved back there from California. Missouri holds strong memories for me. I could go on and on about the great state of Missouri…
lane batot says
Anti-gun folks tend to be mostly urbanites who look at guns as only WEAPONS against humans. Even with this opinion, I’d STILL like to be able to protect myself against white-eyes with guns, with my own guns! I HAVE been shot at(NOT fun…) and I HAVE repelled at least one weirdo intruder shooting over his weirdo head once upon a time, and glad to have been able to do it! But more to keeping a gun on hand than human intruders in a rural environment. I mean,you COULD go ahead and club a rabid animal to death, I suppose, but I personally would rather dispatch such from a distance! And if you have one of yer own beloved critters dying in AGONY, waiting to call a vet to euthanize it is beyond cruel sometimes. Hard as it is, sometimes it is YOUR responsibility to do it and do it NOW, as the kindest option available. Regarding some of the botched euthanasias I’ve been unfortunate enough to witness, a quick bullet is FAR kinder,alas. Not to mention filling the larder in hard times. But cityfolk don’t havta deal with such, sothey don’t look at guns as TOOLS. Maybe all schoolchildren of urbanites should be REQUIRED to watch “Old Yeller” as part of their modern eddicashun…….
JimC says
Second the motion on Old Yeller.
Saddle Tramp says
Almost to a fault the alarm being sounded today is in (possibly with armed response) the urban jungle and not the rural and more practical use of firearms. I was both raised around and participated in hunting and fishing. It was firsthand knowledge to me. I worked extensively in big city urban environments for a long time as well. Crime around my ears on a daily basis. Not an easy environment to work in. Bottom line I am very familiar with both the urban and rural scene. My issue today is with the “takeover hysteria” that is so prevalent. They scare me more than what they place their fears on. This is serious as we seem to be rapidly devolving our legitimate concerns into the hands of the real problem. If we have come to the point where every citizen must be armed to the teeth for fear of each other it is a net zero sum game in my opinion. This does not even take into account the absudist view of militarily taking on the police or government. I went up to Alaska back in the early 70’s with the illusion of living on the land. Turns out that was not for me. I was witness to many a teenager ( or younger ) packing 44’s for Woods Protection ( Grizzly ). It didn’t bother me as it was ingrained into the culture. The same thing in an urban setting has an entirely different context. What we really need is commitment and sacrafice in leading our way out of this instead of into it. We don’t need another arms race, even though it may feel inevitable. Pacifist have never held popularity. Unrealistic and unprofitable. That said I never rush to lethal means but when kindness fails I fully understand the reflex response. I just hope more efforts get made for the opposite. Glory goes to the brave but reluctant in my book. As you said so well Jim with the caveat ” humbling enough to know the difference “. Enough said!!
— ST
Heading to Joshua Tree NP in the morning on the first day of Fall. Armed with only a camera.