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John Longenecker Safer Streets Crime, 1 Citizen, Zero.
 You don't fight crime by chasing it, you fight crime by facing it.
90 million gun owners appreciate this, and they know that among those 90 million is a healthy membership of law enforcement.
Gun ownership is not a societal problem and guns are not a societal problem. Crime is a problem and guns are blamed for political reasons: to keep crisis alive by politicallly avoiding the more effective solutions, namely where crime is really fought: at the scene of the crime.
Without a serious-minded resistance -- and often this means superior force and resolve -- the crime becomes a completed act and the score is then Crime 1, Citizen Zero.
Politically ignoring the more effective solutions is a form of governance that emanates from German philosophers of the 19th century. It is incompatible with liberty, it loots treasuries, and it has to be incrementally, undetectably slow for it to work best, at least as the philosophers articulated it.
But soon, the electorate makes the connection between this brand of social engineering and the price we pay for non-involvement in self-rule. The result is dangerous streets in the major cities, not to mention puzzling politics with ever-increasing personal costs.
Why do politicians bring us such puzzling policies and govern like 19th century German philosophers?
Because they can. Violent crime is a cornerstone of many such puzzling programs, and how it is enhanced -- which is not where it is fought best -- is going to shape other crud they bring us. With every single tolerance of their nonsense, they have reason to be more and more confident that we won't vote, object, or unseat them. [Was the 2010 election any different so far??]
When I was on the air with Gun Talk host Tom Gresham, we laughed about how politicans could do whatever they wanted, if only we had all of our second amendment rights. That was fun because it reminded me of how you catch the dickey bird: you put salt on his tail. Well, what makes it so funny is that if you're close enough to put salt on his tail, you're close enough to grab one.
And politicians know that if we reduce crime by a greater respect for our gun rights and the ubiquitous armed citizen, they won't be able to even imagine with any credibility or morality any real need for big government programs.
And that is no puzzle. It really isn't.
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[ . . .] Case in point recently was Phoebe Prince, a beautiful 15-year-old new student from Ireland who the New York Daily News described as being "driven to suicide by cyber-bullies" on Jan. 14, 2010, when she hanged herself. Her body was discovered by her 12-year-old sister. 
