Months before Illinois became the last state in the union to legalize “conceal carry,” a droll cartoon ran in the local papers. A masked man threatens another with a handgun, saying “Hand over all your valuables.”
“Nope, I’m armed,” says the would-be victim. “Just give me one minute to get my concealed gun out of its holster.”
The armed citizen movement, driven by gun makers and whipped up fear of “bad guys,” is predicated on the self-defense that carrying provides. Yet if being armed and looking for trouble were true protection, would law enforcement officers ever be killed?
It has been two years since Kaufman County, Texas District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia were shot to death in their home.
Mike McLelland carried a gun even when he walked his dog and his wife Cynthia also had a license to carry a concealed handgun. “There were guns hidden all over the house,” his son, J. R. McLelland, told the New York Times. “Behind doors, everywhere. He could have been standing next to a .40-caliber Glock and you would not have known it. When they said that he got shot, it was unbelievable because he was so well-armed and so well-versed in guns.”
