Mayor: In Wake Of Shooting, Arm Yourselves

DeBARY, FLORIDA — A mayor in Florida is urging his citizens to arm up and take personal responsibility for their own safety. It’s not an exit strategy from developing a more robust law enforcement strategy to combat highly-publicized shootings like the Orlando Pulse nightclub incident, but it is an honest push to get people to consider self-defense on a new level.

DeBary Mayor Clint Johnson published a rather lengthy admonition to DeBary residents to consider arming up and pursuing concealed carry permits. But, as we all know, a permit in of itself guarantees nothing. We need to get armed, train up, and carry everyday.

via The West Volusia Beacon

“Whether we chose to be a part of it or not, we are all engaged in a war against an enemy that could be anywhere at anytime,” he wrote. “Our lives and the lives of those around us depend on our ability to defend ourselves against those who wish to bring us harm.”

While we’ll go more into the logic of whether or not a concealed carrier would have been effective in a mass shooting environment like what happened at the Pulse nightclub, the core essentials were addressed by the mayor in his talking points.

“The more you arm good law abiding citizens to defend themselves against radical evil, the safer our society will be,” he added.

This evil he speaks of needs to be divorced from the concept of purely ideological reasons. We honestly don’t know who will perpetrate the next mass shooting event. There is no guaranteed profile of a mass shooter that will substantiate a great defense for everyday citizens.

The best policy is to pursue a concealed carry permit, train on the use of that gun, and carry every single place you are legally allowed to.

A big reason why concealed carry is coming back into national attention is because there is so much confusion about the practice. At its core, this is the legal ability to carry a hidden handgun.

This gives the concealed carrier the element of surprise and also the opportunity to seek cover and not immediately be considered a target of opportunity by an attacker.

Mass shooters, from the numerous articles we’ve covered, do not appear to be desirous of some rolling gun battle. If confronted, they tend to retreat, withdraw, or even commit suicide. This isn’t something we can depend on in a fight for our very lives but it is an encouragement to fight back.

We cannot depend upon the mercy of those who perpetrate mass shooting events. The idea that simply hiding or throwing up one’s hands in surrender will suffice and save the day is fool-hardy.

Hiding and evading an attacker is brilliant. Being armed and having the ability to return deadly force if necessary is just one step closer to securing the life of yourself, your family, and those around you. Good job to the mayor of DeBary, Florida, for encouraging his citizens to take that next step in self-defense.