When laws get to the point that they attempt to regulate against natural instinct, common sense is not long for this world. In typical liberal fashion Mayors Against Illegal Guns handed out some strange self-defense pointers. The Executive Director of Mayor Bloomberg’s antigun juggernaut, Mark Glaze, suggested that victims of potentially lethal attacks should use their words – not their legal firearm – to protect their life.
Speaking to Chris Mathew’s giant head, Glaze said victims should “deescalate the situation” rather than employing deadly force against their attacker:
MARK GLAZE: Very often somebody will come at you. They might want to have a fistfight. They might come at you with an axe handle.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Would you consider the guy with the axe handle armed or not?
MARK GLAZE: Not with a gun.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I would consider him armed [laughter].
MARK GLAZE: I have a word for him. I grew up in Colorado where my dad was a gun dealer, and a guy who shoots somebody who has anything other than a gun when they could have done something else like talk or fight with their fists –
CHRIS MATTHEWS: How do you talk to a guy with an axe handle?
MARK GLAZE: Well, you fight him. You run away. You deescalate the situation.
Don’t you see? According to Glaze, if a guy attacks you with a wooden axe handle you should chat with him. This self-defense advice – aside from being incredibly dangerous – seems tremendously unfair for the would-be victim. Didn’t we learn in pre-school that sticks and stones can break bones, but words can never hurt anyone? Whether the man with the axe handle has the intent to kill becomes surprisingly irrelevant when he is directing clear and aggressive force – with means, and opportunity for bodily harm – against an unarmed victim.
And while Glaze campaigns for laws that would require women to run away from their rapists instead of stopping them with force, most Americans seem to know better. Over two million times each year firearms are used to stop lethal assailants in their criminal acts. Police are equipped with guns, not talking points, to combat armed thugs. Even Glaze surrounds himself with armed security because he know that his recommendation might not be enough to combat a threat on the gun-free streets of New York, Chicago, or LA.
It seems as if liberal elites are increasingly living in a world where they confuse what they think ought to be possible with what is actually possible. In the highest echelons of Liberal elitism, there seems to be a belief that if we act like guns are the problem. . . Well, then they are. This sense of invincibility when it comes to their agenda and their ideology has plagued Washington for decades. It is this inability to recognize the realities of their actions that has plunged the US into $16.7 trillion worth of debt. It is this assumption that liberalism is infallible that encouraged Democrats to pass a healthcare law while millions of Americans struggled to find work; and they believe it is right, not because of Obamacare’s demonstrable consequences, but because of its altruistic intentions. It’s this kind of liberal elitism that keeps the Federal Reserve printing presses rolling while unemployment remains stubbornly high.
To the liberal elite that want to tell the rest of us how to live, this is not a matter of action and consequence. If we lived in a world without crime, greed, or disaster, Mark Glaze’s remarks might make sense. Elitists like Glaze insist we work backwards by living as if we have already arrived in a utopia. In a perfect world there would be no need for guns. So Liberals try to ban them. In a perfect world, no one would want to drink 32 oz. of sugary soda. So liberals try to ban them. In a perfect world there would be no need for companies to move their profits overseas. So liberals try to ban the practice.
Rather than eliminating the core problems, liberals like to regulate the symptoms. Rather than cracking down on violent criminals, they tell law abiding citizens to disarm. Rather than targeting the unfair and burdensome tax code, they target the companies that avoid punitive taxation. Rather than encouraging natural consequences, Liberals encourage Nannyism.
So, while Mark Glaze tells victims to use their words, Americans should go with their instincts. If someone comes at you with an axe handle, use your best judgment. . . And maybe that .38 snub nose.
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