A Good Man

The National Review had an article by David French today entitled Anti-Gun Hysteria is Hazardous to your Health, in which he makes the point that:

Simply put, if you’re standing at a bus stop, and you know the person to your left is an armed concealed-carry permit holder, and the person to your right does not have a carry permit, the person to your right is statistically a far, far greater threat to your life than the permit holder. That’s just a fact. Indeed, that person’s hands and feet are more dangerous to you than the permit holder’s gun. Applying the New York Times’s own preferred data set, more people were murdered by fists and kicks in 2015 alone than were murdered by firearm-wielding concealed-carry permit holders in the last ten years.

Those are the statistics, and I urge readers to click on the link and read David French's article. French has written a post that presents his beliefs more personally at the Corner, National Reviews combination blog and meeting room where writers share their thoughts on varous topics related to their areas of specialty. In the Corner, French writes:

Unless my reading comprehension is failing, she’s either implying I’m “evil” or implying its rather hard to discern my goodness simply because I’m trying to defend my family against threats. This is truly absurd. I live in rural Tennessee. If I call my friends at the sheriff’s office, they’ll come as fast as they can, but the laws of physics dictate that they won’t reach my house for several minutes. What am I supposed to do while I wait? Should we just go ahead and die so that people like Ms. Crampton will still think I’m one of the good guys? ”How sad,” she’d say, “that thugs murdered such a good family.” Does she have any idea how unbelievably callous this statement sounds to a person under actual threat?

Caroline Crampton can’t un-invent the firearm, take firearms out of the hands of criminals, or alter human nature — including the reality that evil men seek to harm the innocent. I have a natural right of self-defense. Government can choose to recognize and protect that right — or it can choose the path of tyranny — but don’t for one minute pretend that tyranny is virtue or that involuntary vulnerability is in any way “good.” A good man protects his family if he can. A good man will shoot an intruder to save his wife and children. A good man gives his family the tools and teaching they need to protect themselves. I aspire to be a good man. Crampton’s politics have blinded her to reality. That doesn’t make her evil, but it does make her wrong.

The emphasis is mine.

And there it is, for most of us.  All of the evil motives for having and carrying a gun that are projected on us by the Left are hogwash.  We just want to be able to protect our selves and our families in a dangerous world, or at least have a fighting chance to do so.  That I will probably never need to use my gun is something I thank God for daily, but "probably" does not mean I absolutely will never need it.  I also aspire to be a "good" man.