Guns — Good For Whatever Ails Ya!

As far as I can deduce from the news I’ve been reading, it’s open season in Atlanta, Georgia for armed muggings and carjackings against students in that city’s university district.As far as I can deduce from the news I’ve been reading, it’s open season in Atlanta, Georgia for armed muggings and carjackings against students in that city’s university district.

It would seem that Georgia’s ridiculously lax “concealed carry” law, and subsequent amendments, has not deterred the gun-wielding criminal element one iota.

If anything, it’s more likely for multiple crooks to appear out of nowhere and stick guns in a victim’s face.

For example, last weekend four students were in a car that was sitting in the wrong place at the worst possible time.

In broad daylight, a gun was thrust into the face of the driver, while two other perpetrators leveled guns at three passengers from both sides.

The first gunman reached in and took the keys out of the ignition.  Then the two riders in the back seat were ordered into the trunk.  (As crowded as Atlanta is, how no one noticed this kidnapping escapes me.)

All cellphones, money and wallets were collected from the victims, or so the robbers had thought.

The robbers’ plan was to visit ATMs to make withdrawals.  The victims were given the choice to cooperate or get shot.

One of the students put into the trunk was savvy enough to have kept a cellphone hidden.

This person dialed 911, but heard nothing coming from the other end.  So, the attempt to summon help was repeated numerous times.

As a student at Morehouse University, that school’s security police was on speed dial, and a connection was finally made.

The second person in the trunk had pulled the safety latch and raised the lid enough to see where the car was traveling; the person on the cellphone relayed this information to Morehouse security.

By the time they had gotten to a bank branch, police were close enough to immediately swarm upon the car.  Even with such good timing, one of the perps got away on foot.

Afterward, the caller commented to the media that the calls were ignored by Atlanta 911, claiming to have been put on hold at one point.

Atlanta 911 responded that it had answered all of the calls, but because the caller was whispering it could not be determined precisely what was transpiring.

Of course the victim was whispering; the students in the trunk were literally inches from their kidnappers.  One would think that a metropolitan 911 response facility might actually have some sort of audio enhancement function built into its system for just such a situation.

To the credit of Morehouse security, the officer(s) who handled the call proved to be about as professional as any constabulary.

The same weekend, some 800 miles north in a quiet Chicago university neighborhood, two young women were attacked from behind by a cretin who had been lying in wait with a baseball bat.

One of the women is a graduate student from Ireland whose work had just earned her entry into the next level of study, and a visa extension; the other had almost simultaneously been given a promotion at work.  They were walking home after an evening out celebrating their good fortune.

Both of these women are viable, educated people who obviously add something of value to society.

They were beaten mercilessly, in the most chicken-shit manner, by a scumbag with no less than 19 arrests, and multiple convictions, for a plethora of crimes that included assault.

As the attacks occurred, his “woman” sat at the wheel of their getaway van.

Their images were captured within 15 minutes using one of the victims’ stolen credit cards at a gas station.

The Irish lass, by all accounts a most brilliant individual, remains in a coma and, if she survives, most likely has suffered permanent debilitating brain damage.

Her friend has awakened, but months of pain and rehabilitation lie ahead.

It took less than two days for the Chicago Police to catch the alleged criminals, who are now being considered as perps in several other blind assaults and robberies.

Almost predictably, a paranoid gun nut blamed these assaults on the fact that the State of Illinois does not allow civilians to carry weapons.

When someone with a more reasoned perspective pointed out that since they were attacked from behind, there would have been no way for either woman to pull a gun and defend herself, the former responded that a passerby who was carrying could have shot the attacker.

I don’t think I need to spell out the utter stupidity, not to mention insanity, of this kind of thinking.  You, the reader, are certainly intelligent enough to go over the possible scenarios in your own mind… such as, there was nobody else around when the attack occurred.

Even Wyatt Earp banned the carrying of guns in town limits wherever he was tasked with keeping law and order – 130 years ago.

The boldness shown by robbers, and almost daily shootings, in Atlanta serve as proof that concealed carry does not hinder crime; when someone sticks a gun in your face or attacks from behind, there’s no opportunity for the victim to draw, aim and shoot.

Just what does the paranoid concealed carry enthusiast think is going to happen when a robber goes through a victim’s pockets and finds a hidden Glock?

Expanding the acceptability of carrying weapons on one’s person, especially concealed, is not the solution.  We cannot allow our modern 21st Century cities to turn into the Streets of Laredo, circa 1875.

The only reason handguns and assault weapons exist is to kill people, and we need to enter into a concerted effort to rid our society of these scurrilous penile extensions.

Shalom.

(Jerry Tenuto is an erstwhile Philosopher and sometime Educator.  A veteran with seven years of service in the U.S. Army, he holds a BS and MA in Communications from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.  Depending upon your taste in political stew, you can either blame or thank Jerry for his weekly “Out Of The Blue” feature in The Lone Star Iconoclast.  Visit his blog Blue State View at illinoiscentral.blogspot.com)