It's Not The Size Of The Dog In The Fight, But The Size Of The Fight In The Dog

Population of Blacksburg VA is 42,620.

There is nothing about either place that screams "be afraid, be very afraid" except of course that people live there and people can be, you know, mean.

Today in Blacksburg we had another shooting.

You may all remember the shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007(gun free zone, today we got round two.

In addition, today, I heard about alert an elementary school (gun free zone)was on lock down because a teacher saw a suspicious man, in dark clothing skulking around the school with binoculars.

In addition to those events, about 5 miles from my house, on the freeway I take nearly everyday,  a shooting incident took place and that has yet to be sorted out.


Today was not a great day.

While some people might think the tragedy at VT in 2007 was more tragic than what happened today, I completely disagree.

The numbers were greater and the sheer insanity of that day may be more memorable, but the lives lost are equal.


For me, anytime a bad guy gets free rein to do what he/she pleases with people who have been forced, by the law, to remain unarmed, is tragic.

Every single person I know who owns a gun is aware that having that gun is not a guarantee of anything more than a chance. With training, awareness and a little bit of "luck", an armed citizen has a chance to fight back.

A chance to save their own life or the life of those around them.

There are times that, even with all that I know and all that I have learned, that I think about not wearing my gun.

Rarely, but there are still days that I think I look cute and am tempted to give into vanity or there are times when I worry about what someone might think if they knew I had a gun and there are still times that I think I might be giving into paranoia.

Fortunately, even when I have these thoughts, I shake my head like an etch-a-sketch, grab my holster and my gun and head out the door.

Not that I should need any reminders, but today, much like that day in March, these events make it patently clear that, I am not paranoid.

Unfortunately, I am all too aware of the evil that lurks, not only in my backyard, but in the front yard, and for me, at least once, right in front of my face.

Life requires more than a handgun or rifle to survive it. It demands that we pay attention. That we do not stick our heads in the sand and hope and pray that these things don't happen to us or to people we know.

They happen all the time, everyday, everywhere, usually when we least expect and we owe it to ourselves, to our families, to our community, to our creator, to care enough to fight back.

To fight like...

our lives depend on it.