Reporting back on my earlier bleg

On November 5th I asked readers who knew and/or trusted me personally to help with funds to provide a firearm for a disabled person who really needed it.  I figured it was time to report back and let you know what's happened.

The person in need recently separated from her spouse due to a domestic violence situation, and is seeking a divorce.  Threats were made along the lines of "If I can't have you, no-one else will", and that sort of thing - and given the history of violence and instability in the person making the threats, they were taken seriously.  A protective court order is, of course, worth only as much as the paper it's printed on, as many tragic events have illustrated all too clearly.  The only effective answer to a threat of violence is the explicit promise of as much counter-violence as needed to negate the threat.  To make such a promise, one needs the means to carry it out.  That's where defensive firearms come in.

(For the benefit of those who haven't thought much about the subject [and I daresay there are at least a few of them among my readers], the late, great Jeff Cooper encapsulated the purpose of armed self-defense in a few very quotable maxims:

• "One cannot legislate the maniacs off the street... these maniacs can only be shut down by an armed citizenry.  Indeed bad things can happen in nations where the citizenry is armed, but not as bad as those which seem to be threatening our disarmed citizenry in this country at this time."
• "The media insist that crime is the major concern of the American public today.  In this connection they generally push the point that a disarmed society would be a crime-free society.  They will not accept the truth that if you take all the guns off the street you still will have a crime problem, whereas if you take the criminals off the street you cannot have a gun problem."
• "Remember the first rule of gunfighting - have a gun."
• "One bleeding-heart type asked me in a recent interview if I did not agree that 'violence begets violence'.  I told him that it is my earnest endeavor to see that it does.  I would like very much to ensure — and in some cases I have — that any man who offers violence to his fellow citizen begets a whole lot more in return than he can enjoy."

And from Clint Smith, one of Jeff Cooper's long-time associates and Director of Thunder Ranch:

• "You have the rest of your life to solve your problems.  How long you live depends on how well you do it."
• "You cannot save the planet.  You may be able to save yourself and your family."
• "You can say 'stop' or 'alto' or use any other word you think will work, but I’ve found that a large bore muzzle pointed at someone’s head is pretty much the universal language.")

I appealed for your financial help to buy her something suitable, because my own discretionary funds were pretty much tapped out at the time. You came through magnificently, and I'm very grateful to all of you who helped out.  You'll be pleased to hear that your money paid for a Ruger SR9C pistol for the lady in question, similar to this one.

It also paid for a couple of extra magazines, enough training ammunition for her to become familiar with the gun's operation, a box of high-quality defensive hollowpoints, several hours' shooting at a local range, a holster and her concealed carry permit class.  She's in a much better situation today, self-defense-wise, than she was at the beginning of the month.

There were some funds left over from your contributions, so I've used them to buy an older-model revolver.  It was cosmetically 'challenged', helping to keep the price down, but in good mechanical order, which is really all that's important.  It'll be made available to the next person I encounter who urgently needs a defensive firearm.  The price of the revolver, a low-cost holster and a couple of boxes of .38 Special ammo used up the surplus funds nicely, and fitted the reason they were donated in the first place - to help someone in need of protection.  They'll now help more than one person (and before too long, I'm sure . . . sadly, the need for such protection is always with us).

Thanks again to everyone who helped.  You rock!

Peter