Blades Of Grass

Image courtesy of Oleg Volk

Although the origins of the apocryphal Yamamoto quote are questionable, the sentiment behind it is not. The idea that common ownership of arms by the private citizen…the “well-regulated militia”…is critical to the defense of the nation from without and from within has been part of the fabric of our history since before the founding.

Indeed, the settlers of the New World did not need to be told to arm themselves, did not need a piece of paper to give them permission, and did not need to be a card-carrying member of some government organization which would hold onto their rifle for them until they needed it. They knew intuitively that the defense of their lives, families, homes, and communities were their responsibility. There was no one to call. No one was coming to their rescue.

And although today’s society bears the trappings of modernity, with all the comforts of technology, we have yet to find foolproof way to remove danger from our lives. Even with electronic communicators to summon police at the touch of a button, they can never get to your emergency faster than you can, and even when they arrive, there’s no guarantee they’ll be able (or even willing) to rescue you.

If this is your rescuer…

Thank God that Elishjsha Dicken was behind a blade of grass at the Greenwood Mall last Sunday. Thank God that the shoppers in that food court didn’t have to wait for help that was at best some minutes away. Although three innocent lives were taken before Dicken was able to stop the killer, it is simply not possible that calling and waiting for a police response could have resulted in a better outcome. Although reports vary a bit, it appears that Eli Dicken successfully engaged the shooter with his concealed carry handgun, hitting the attacker with eight of ten rounds fired from about 40 yards away…and ended the killing in about 15 seconds.

We need more Eli Dicken’s behind more blades of grass in the world today. Politicians need to abolish gun-free zones, and rather than standing in the way of responsible armed citizens, they should celebrate and encourage the next Eli Dickens. So that the next time one of these deranged would-be killers walks into a school, or a mall, or a place of business, they’ll have to be afraid that someone they didn’t see is going to put a bullet in their head before they can act out their sick fantasy of becoming a famous mass murderer. Let them become a footnote in history, because there is indeed “a rifle behind every blade of grass.”