Gun Advocate Views Weapons Boom Without Alarm

Mike McNulty and I had read the same Page 1 story in Tuesday’s Times. I thought it trumpeted the latest apocalyptic moment in civilization’s slide toward oblivion; he wasn’t the least bit alarmed by it.

The story documented the record-setting run on gun sales in California in the wake of the Los Angeles riots. The figures hadn’t been broken out by region, but logic compels the conclusion that Southern Californians were the chief buyers. Several gun shop owners in Orange County reported record sales.

I had talked to McNulty, a 46-year-old father of five, a few times before on gun control. Actually, he was the one who had called me. A former spokesman for the Gun Owners Action Committee in Anaheim, McNulty had in our conversations always been a steadfast yet amiable proponent of private gun ownership. While I had railed about the latest accidental or domestic shooting, McNulty, an insurance broker and graduate of Servite High School in Anaheim now living in Corona, always countered that the problem wasn’t to ban guns but to educate people in their handling and punish those who acted negligently.

The prospect of an increasingly armed private population, which is what the latest story seemed to signal, chills me. So, this time I called McNulty to have him tell me why I shouldn’t be so bothered.

“An armed society is a polite society,” McNulty said. “The crime rate in Dodge City per capita during its heyday as a cow town was much lower than it is in South-Central L.A. today.”

McNulty said a gang-banger is less likely to entertain the thought of knocking over a 7-Eleven if he thinks that an armed citizen will shoot him if he shows a gun.

Doesn’t the prospect of an armed society trouble you? I asked.

“I have no problem with an armed society,” he said. “What bothers me is a well-armed and ill-prepared society. That’s what scares me. I don’t want to be in that 7-Eleven if Joe Citizen pulls a gun out to protect himself and doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing. However, if you and others in the journalism profession do the job right, we’ll have the opportunity to point out to citizens, ‘Fine, buy a gun, go learn how to use it and do that bit of thinking about whether you’re prepared to use it.’ ”

First, McNulty said, people have an absolute right to self-protection. Second, law enforcement can’t be counted on to provide such protection. He thinks citizens should “carefully consider what their personal position is going to be. Can you take a life in defense of your own? Do you want to become a victim or a survivor? Both have consequences.”

McNulty said “most people are afraid of guns because they’ve been tied so closely to terrible tragic events,” such as mass slayings.

“What we’re talking about is a phobia . . . that’s created, enhanced and massaged by the media. The actions of a citizen in self-defense can be just as exciting and uplifting and newsworthy if the reporter takes the time to write the story in a way that is informative and uplifting and newsworthy.”

I told McNulty I didn’t think he was acknowledging people who are appalled at the idea of a heavily armed citizenry. Gun control advocates constantly cite statistics--and the daily crime log from across America seems to verify them--that guns far more often kill acquaintances or unwitting victims than they do intruders or people attacking the gun owner.

McNulty counters that our form of constitutional government insists that the average citizen be trusted, even though mistakes will be made, because not to do so invites tyranny.

A valid argument, I will concede.

But I can separate my faith in them from wishing that all of them carried guns. Actions have consequences, and the potential for mayhem when large numbers of people--even basically law-abiding citizens--have guns far outstrips the societal benefit.

I may surprise McNulty and his like-minded friends by conceding that I can’t absolutely defend my position. Even if I’ve fully burglar-proofed my house or tried to keep myself out of harm’s way, I know I can’t guarantee that I won’t be someday confronted by an armed bad guy.

And if that happens, I’ll be greatly sorry that I don’t have a gun because I have no illusions that I can talk the guy out of shooting me.

I suppose I get around that dilemma by grudgingly acknowledging that life is full of risk. By not getting a gun and wishing that others didn’t, either, I’m saying that I fear an armed society more than one at prey to the occasional thug.

My position may not make all that much sense, but something in my bones tells me a society where everyone has a gun would put us all more at peril from someone we know than from someone we don’t.

“We already have an armed society,” McNulty said. “We have a massively armed society. The question is, who has the firearms, the good guys or the bad guys? I suggest the bad guys have overwhelming firearm superiority. . . .”

I thanked McNulty for his time and asked a final question: Do you wish people didn’t feel the need to arm themselves?

“Would I like to live in a utopian society where guns were not necessary at all?” he said. “Of course, I would. You tell me how we get there from here.”

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.