A portion of an article from today's Investors Business Daily.
VIEWPOINT
Unsafe Gun Laws: reducing access to guns makes people sitting prey.
By John R. Lott
It was a gruesome story. At the end of August, a naked man broke
into a Merced, Calif, home and used a pithcfork to stab to death
9-year-old Ashley Carpenter and her 7-year-old brother, John. Three
other sisters barely escaped, with two "bleeding from dozens of
puncture wounds" according to one report.
Little Ashley bravely slowed down the killer as she held on to his
leg while screaming "Stop it, don't hurt my sister." Her actions
saved her three sisters lives.
In a scenario worthy of a horror movie, the children's first
response was to call police, but the telephone lines had been cut.
Still, this tragedy could have been prevented. While the attacker
was breaking into the house, 14-year-old sister Jessica, who was
baby-sitting her younger siblings, desperately tried to get their
fathers gun.
But as a good law-abiding citizen, the father had locked the gun
away in compliance with California law.
Jessica knows how to use a gun and is a good shot. The childrens
great-uncle, the Rev. John Hilton, said. "If only Jessica had a gun
available to her, she could have stopped the whole thing. If she
had been properly armed, she could have stopped him in his tracks."
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