The five senseless shootings in Salt Lake City on April 27 should teach us a number of lessons. First, a 21-year-old man violated the law by carrying a loaded gun in city limits without a concealed-carry permit. He violated the law against shooting human beings and the law against murder. We can learn therefore that criminals violate gun-control laws, so such laws don't control criminals.
Second, we can learn that the disarmed innocents that this criminal attacked could not defend themselves. Nor could any of the unarmed innocents that surrounded them defend them against the criminal's deadly aggression. Disarmed citizens are easy victims.Third, we can see that there were no police present to protect the victims from the deadly assault by the armed 21-year-old criminal. This puts the lie to the oft-repeated phrase, "The police will protect you." How can they? There is only one policeman for every 380 Utahns. He can't be 380 places at once, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Cops are not your bodyguards, you are. That's what self-defense is about, taking personal responsibility to be armed to protect yourself and your family or suffering the consequences. Police clean up afterward, make arrests and hopefully get convictions, but they are not your bodyguards.
Bliss W. Tew
Orem