The Liberty Papers

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 /U.S. Newswire/ — James and Sarah Brady made comments today related to Vice President Cheney’s reportedly accidental shooting yesterday in Texas.

“Now I understand why Dick Cheney keeps asking me to go hunting with him,” said Jim Brady. “I had a friend once who accidentally shot pellets into his dog – and I thought he was an idiot.”

“I’ve thought Cheney was scary for a long time,” Sarah Brady said. “Now I know I was right to be nervous.”

Wow. The Brady’s think VP Dick Cheney is “scary”. Forgive me if I wait to hear a statement from Harry Whittington himself.

But meantime, let’s take a look at the lady in question:

Sarah Brady, of course is the wife of former White House Press Secretary, Jim Brady who was shot by John Hinckley Jr. in the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan March 30, 1981.

While it’s easy enough to understand the frustration, hurt, and anger one would feel at having a spouse shot in the head, logically it seems to me it would be better to direct those feelings towards the individual who was behind the gun, rather than at the gun itself. Logic not being the Brady’s strong suit, however, they pressed for and achieved passage of the so-called “Brady Bill” which required a 5 day waiting period before a purchased gun could be taken home.

Incidentally, in March 2002, Mrs. Brady bought a gun for her son (outside her home state, and without waiting 5 days). An archived copy of the article from the NY Daily News can be found on the All Safe Defense Systems website here.

There are a number of cases easily found on the web where the lack of a handgun caused a person or persons to die, one of the most famous being the case of Bonnie Elmasri, and there are also a number of cases where access to a handgun saved the life or lives of a number of persons. Many of these are highlighted in an article by Erich Pratt Let’s Not Forget about the “Brady Victims”.

But I have another question not often heard and impossible to quantify – How many lives are indirectly saved by the use of a gun against a thug? In other words, everytime a murderer, robber, rapist, etc. is stopped cold by a gun, there is a possibility – dare I say, even a probability – that other lives have been saved.

Do accidents happen with guns? Yes. Do accidents happen with knives in the kitchen? Yes. Do accidents happen on the job at saw mills, in auto service garages, in skydiving accidents, etc. Yes. Is the answer to remove all knives, close saw mills, get rid of automobiles (oh, hey that’d save gas – but I think bicycle and horse riding accidents would probably increase) . . . okay, you get the picture. An accident, is an accident. And accidents don’t happen in a vacuum – there are usually extenuating circumstances. Let’s not castigate or call names ’til all the facts are in.

Cross Posted at Left Brain Female.