Joe Biden, our vice-president, recently encouraged us, if faced with imminent danger of some nefarious individual breaking into our homes to walk outside and "fire two blasts"[1] from our trusty double barrel shotgun. I'm writing here for a moment to those who are ignorant enough to actually follow this advice. This is bad advice, on a number of levels. First, if you have a double barrel shotgun as your means of protection and you empty it by firing into the air, you no longer have a double barrel shotgun as your means of protection. Now you have a very heavy, odd-shaped bat as your means of protection. Reloading a shotgun is typically not a very speedy process, especially with Mr. Nefarious bearing down own you. Secondly, You have broken three of the four basic rules of gun safety. The only one you haven't broken is to always assume every gun is loaded. By breaking the other three rules, you could potentially kill some innocent bystander as far as a mile away in some instances. Thirdly, you have more than likely committed a crime in most states by firing the gun in that manner. Potentially a crime that, if convicted, could remove your rights to ever legally own a gun again. In addition to these three things, you have probably wasted two shells as well. Priced ammunition lately?
Joe went on to say in a separate interview, in regards to self defense, "just fire the shotgun through the door.”[2] Logistically and legally speaking, this is no better advice than the first nugget he shared on the subject. In fact, in almost every case, it is a felony.
So here we have Joe Fudd consistently giving people horrible and likely criminal advice when it comes to self-defense. I have two questions, why does he do this, and is he liable when someone takes his advice?
Why would anyone give such poor advice from a national pulpit? Does he want people to commit such stupid acts? Is it his intention to create a network of idiots out there breaking gun laws? It would not surprise me in the least if that were the intent. Then we would have incident after incident of otherwise law-abiding gun owners acting recklessly with their evil firearms. The more evil and dangerous they can be depicted, the easier it will be pass laws further restricting the rights of non-idiot law-abiding gun owners. This current fight for our second amendment rights is being played out on multiple stages, and the court of public opinion is a huge stage. People are just dumb enough to believe what they are told in way too many cases.
Could he be liable for such crimes? I'm no law expert by any means. I would love to see this question addressed by someone who is. From my limited research, there could be levels of guilt attached to such a crime and they would depend on the state of the person that was actually enticed into committing the gun crime. I do believe even if he is legally at fault, there are very few prosecutors in the country that would touch that. There are probably even fewer judges that wouldn't throw it out as well. Still, I would love to see someone of stature ask the question.
Joe Fudd, criminally so or not, is one of the most irresponsible people in a position of authority that I can remember. The other that comes to mind is Bill Clinton, who wasn't advocating criminal activity, but was telling everyone that they could get away with adultery and all manner of reprobate behavior if they would just lie about it. Unfortunately, his impeachment hearings did nothing to discourage such behavior either. Bill will get you into dutch with the wife, while Joe will get you prison time if you aren't careful.
Responsibility is obviously not a strong point with either of these guys. Liberty doesn't appear to rank very high on their list of important things either. We have to be prudent in guarding both. We still have the freedom to own guns in this country and it is our duty to be responsible with them. For the most part, legal gun owners are very responsible. We can be counted on to do the right thing. We are not some pack of vigilantes and we aren't much of a danger to turn the movie theater into the wild west as some would have you to believe. Educate those who may not be as responsible and let them know that Joe Fudd and his ilk are not to be trusted with advice on any aspect of gun ownership. It is our responsibility to make sure this kind of stuff has a light shined upon it.
Molon Labe, Joe Fudd!
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