One needs to look no further than last month's rioting in London to see that violence and chaos does not end when the populace has been disarmed. At least 100 homes burned to the ground and shopkeepers watched helplessly as their businesses were pillaged and their livelihoods destroyed. London's Metropolitan Police issued a 13-point list of 'crime prevention' tips that boiled down to a few basic recommendations: Remove valuable items from view, fire up closed-circuit surveillance cameras and call the police emergency number when the rioters arrive. Not that placing one of the 20,800 calls received in a night would have done much good. By the time the police restored order, damage estimates exceeded $300 million.
When chaos hit the streets of Los Angeles in 1992, police beat a hasty retreat. Shop owners in Asian neighborhoods, by contrast, took matters into their own hands. They organized themselves and stood watch from rooftops with their personal rifles, shotguns and pistols. They opened fire on local gangs and approaching looters, enabling the good guys to end the day with their places of business unmolested and their lives spared.
Leftists prefer everyone to become victims. Allowing good people to defend themselves requires the intolerant admission that there's a difference between good and evil. It's safer for them to put all of their reliance upon government and blame society when the state isn't up to the task.
Peter Gunn
