Blue states are well known for being against guns, but now and then, reality intrudes itself and the truth about guns becomes unavoidable. When this happens, gun rights tend to take a step forward and liberty gets protected.
This is what’s happening now in New York. It all goes back to 1984 and the case of a man called Bernhard Goetz. Here’s what happened:
What Happened to Bernhard Goetz?
Bernhard Goetz was riding the subway in New York during the mid-1980s and decided to take his gun with him. While he was riding the subway, he claims four black guys tried to rob him and he was forced to shoot them in self-defense.
There was a reason Goetz was packing heat; he’d been assaulted on the subway several years before and didn’t want it to happen again. After he shot the four guys, the media went wild, with the left accusing him of being a raging psychopath and liar, and the right noting he’d shown how guns can be used to stop crime.
Goetz was never convicted for killing the guys, but did face a charge because his handgun was unlicensed. This put him behind bars for about eight months and that was more or less the end of the story.
Yet now, the exact same issues are coming up in our Supreme Court regarding gun rights and self-defense.
In a colloquy with New York’s solicitor general, Justice Alito expresses empathy for working class New Yorkers forced to brave the city’s allegedly crime-infested subways on the way home from work, asking: Don’t they need to carry concealed guns to protect themselves? pic.twitter.com/n485J1Qy2m
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) November 3, 2021
New York State Rifle and Pistol Association vs. Bruen
A case that brings up similar situations to that of Goetz’s is the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association vs. Bruen. This case, in short, gets at the heart of whether New Yorkers are legally permitted to conceal carry.
At this point, you need a legal justification for why you feel you should carry your weapon out secretly with you. However, this is now being challenged at the Supreme Court, with people like Justice Samuel Alito noting that subways and similar places have become dens of violence and assault. They are correct.
As we saw in the Heller case, Americans do have a right to conceal carry for self-defense. It’s literally enshrined in our Constitution. The left wants to act like Goetz just shot four people for fun or like New Yorkers enjoy toting around guns to show off.
The truth is the opposite. Guns are tools and they should never be drawn or used in a human-to-human context, except in defense of life or defeating a deadly enemy.
#meta Make. Everything. Trump. again.
— Bernhard Goetz (@deadmauz) November 1, 2021
The Bottom Line
Slowly but surely, reality is beginning to reassert itself, even in blue states. Biden’s polls are in the dumps and they deserve to be. Gun rights are slowly being protected, and they deserve to be.
Sooner or later, America is going to return to its greatness and become a safe and great place to live once again.