Free Republic

In my first post, I mentioned that I grew up in a staunchly liberal family in the northeast reading comic books. I thought of the police as comic book superheroes that kept me safe and secure under the rule of law. Since we had these superheroes enforcing the rule of law, we were safe and secure with no need to have a gun. As an adult, my dad was getting older and he was living alone. Like many retired adults today, he was living on a fixed income and he was having trouble making ends meet; so, I moved in...

My last post talked about my epiphany that the police were not primarily responsible by law for protecting me or my family from criminals. The law says that I am primarily responsible for protecting myself and my family. I also began reading a pro-gun website called Keep And Bear Arms.com that featured firearms-related news. Among those news items were always stories about police officers that were accused of breaking the law. I found those stories offensive at first because I did not understand why they were included. Then, I read about “The Only Ones” Movement. That movement is a liberal...

Confessions of an Ex-Liberal Gun Owner – Part V – Lessons LearnedThus far, I have explained my journey from being raised an anti-gun liberal to becoming a gun owner. This change took time as I learned some important lessons following a violent incident near my home. Here are some of those lessons: 1. I am responsible to protect myself and for the security of my family and my property. 2. The police are not legally responsible for protecting an individual or their personal property. 3. The police have a legal duty to keep the peace in a general sense, not...

I grew up in a liberal family in the northeast reading comic books. My family did not own a gun and we would have been appalled at the thought of owning one. After all, we lived in a nation of law and order with police to protect us. Guns were an unnecessary risk unless you were a police officer. Children were accidentally killed playing with guns belonging to negligent parents. Hunters were quaint throwbacks to an age before supermarkets trying to relive an age gone by. The police were like comic book superheroes. They were ever-watchful and everywhere swooping down...