Muscle Up

See Evil
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"Law Enforcement Muscles Up," featured in August's Guns & Ammo, is the story of the AR-15 military rifle's take-down of the "venerable police shotgun." It leads with the the following:

"If everything works out, sometime this year the Lebanon County, Pennsylvania's Sheriff's Department will receive up to 20 AR-15s. And it will be none too soon, says Sheriff Michael DeLeo."

This is the same Amish county which saw the murder of five schoolgirls last year at the hands of a deranged local workman. The AR-15 looks bad, but it would have been no better than the old school rifle at saving their lives.

"With the AR system, you don't have to reload as much," [Gadsden, AL Police Sgt. Lamar] Jaggears said. "With a 30-round magazine in the rifle and another 30-rounder in your belt, you'd be able to fight a lot longer without backup than with a shotgun."

"Even at close ranges, adds [ret'd Scottsdale Officer Rick] Furr, the shotgun's pattern can be a problem. "If I need to make a precise shot, can I make that with a shotgun and not hit someone else, like a hostage?"

The article goes on to discuss the disguised Remington 7615P pump .223 rifle, which has PR value because it looks like a shotgun, thereby placating (deceiving?) a public which might complain over their police toting assault rifles.

Why not just shoot the hostage, then blame the resultant loss of life on the scumbag hostage-taker? This approach works for the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq, so why not transfer it to our newly militarized police force? "Kill 'em All, and let God Sort 'em Out." Looks good on a T-shirt, and should work well in a tough situation.

The top photo is an ad in the same issue for a digital night vision sight, sporting the caption, "See Evil." Surely this is a double entendre, for many Americans tend to "see evil" under every bush. [There is only one Bush we need look under to find evil, but that is a separate matter.] The second, more benign interpretation, is that the bearer of this accoutrement will be better able to identify evil.

The ad was actually a grim triple entendre for me, for perhaps if GWB had owned a pair of these babies, he would have been better able to see that he should not have commuted the recent sentence of Scooter Libby.

It is great that this sight will enable the bearer to see evil, but isn't that something that can't be killed with a rifle?

The "evil that lurks in the hearts of men" will not be taken out with an AR-15, or even an M16AR1. It is a misplaced sense of safety that James "Tiger" McKee of the Shootrite Firearms Academy espouses in the article when he says, "Over 80% of people shot with pistol rounds survive the incident," whereas "less than 20 percent of those shot with rifle rounds survive."

Director George Romero explored the idea of the relentless nature of evil in his "Dead" series of zombie flicks. The Evil Dead may be dead and buried, but their progeny persists. Metaphorically and perhaps actually one day, you may find you have the money for a helicopter to airlift you out of a tight, but at some point, you will have to land. And the line between good and evil is not always so easily demarcated.

You won't be able to shoot everyone who wishes to do harm, and you yourself may be less good than you originally thought.

I did a double take at the ad's visual. I sure hope that's not a malicious Palestinian under that mask. We are all starting to look the same.

Sleep well tonight knowing that your militarized police are vigilantly protecting you.