Gun nuts say the darnedest things

An American cop writes of a death-defying visit he and his wife recently paid to a public park in Canada.

I recently visited Calgary from Michigan. As a police officer for 20 years, it feels strange not to carry my off-duty hand-gun. Many would say I have no need to carry one in Canada.

Yet the police cannot protect everyone all the time. A man should be al-owed to protect himself if the need arises. The need arose in a theater in Aurora, Colo., as well as a college campus in Canada.

Recently, while out for a walk in Nose Hill Park, in broad daylight on a paved trail, two young men approached my wife and me. The men stepped in front of us, then said in a very aggressive tone: "Been to the Stampede yet?"

We ignored them. The two moved closer, repeating: "Hey, you been to the Stampede yet?"

I quickly moved between these two and my wife, replying, "Gentle-men, I have no need to talk with you, goodbye." They looked bewildered, and we then walked past them.

An American writer in Canada weighs in:

And so, Americans, unaware of just how sick their handgun mentality is, continue to fight like crazy to prevent any kind of handgun-control legislation from being implemented. A 9 mm handgun, purchased legally, was the weapon of choice in Oak Creek, Wis., on Sunday when six people were killed and three more wounded by a white supremacist at a Sikh temple. One might argue that if the worshipers had carried guns, they could have killed the guy first. But sitting in a temple armed to the teeth while listening to a sermon about brotherhood and peace is ridiculous.

“Many would say I have no need to carry (a handgun) in Canada,” Wawra wrote. “Yet I have a unique perspective based on years of police experience. The perspective (is that) the police cannot protect everyone all the time. A man should be allowed to protect himself if the need arises... My perspective proved true a few days ago for my wife and I.”

It doesn’t seem to have occurred to Wawra that the need didn’t arise in Calgary, and that if he’d been carrying a handgun, two people might now be dead because they asked him if he’d been to the Stampede.

As an American who is also a Canadian citizen, all I can say is, thank goodness I live in Canada.