Boston Strong

Below is a good answer to the conservative trolls who've infested certain liberal blogs blubbering about the Boston attacks and making the childishly stupid claim that had Bostonians all been armed with AR-15s, the bombers would have been apprehended more quickly; and, as some of the more moronic trolls have claimed, would not have left Bostonians "cowering" in their homes.

The lockdown was for Boston, Watertown, and Cambridge, but it was in Watertown and Cambridge where the real danger existed, where the terrorists tossed IEDs at police officers, and where one officer was killed and another gravely wounded.  Boston proper was not in any danger during the manhunt, and we who live there followed the drama on teevee along with the rest of the country, hoping to see the surviving brother captured.  In fact that is what happened and immediately the second-guessing on how law enforcement should have acted began.

Susan Milligan at U.S. News and World Report has this to say about Bostonians and the surrounding towns of Watertown and Cambridge being armed with AR-15s:



"The country, for the most part, is standing with Boston, and the outpouring of support and financial assistance is a reminder of what is great about this country, our ability to keep a sense of community across a vast and diverse land. But the episode also exposed a fundamental and troubling divide over the role of government and of the individual. This is a fair and reasonable discussion, but when weapons are involved, it can be a dangerous one. 

The pushback was stated most offensively and insensitively by a state representative in Arkansas, Nate Bell. Last Friday morning – while Boston and Watertown's police, state police and the FBI were risking their lives to locate and capture the second bomber, who might well have been booby-trapped, Bell sent out this missive on Twitter: 

 'I wonder how many Boston liberals spent the night cowering in their homes wishing they had an AR-15 with a hi-capacity magazine?' 

The question is ridiculous, for starters. Bostonians – 'liberal' or not – were not 'cowering,' as Bell put it. They were very sensibly following the directive of government officials and police to stay indoors while the experts did their jobs. The fact that people did it is a testament to their respect for the better judgment of the authorities – certainly, they behaved better than the idiots who go out on the oceanfront during a hurricane, daring nature and first responders to stop them.

And what would an individual do with an AR-15? Go door-to-door, ferreting out a man who might well have another bomb on him? That's one way to wind up dead, perhaps taking a lot of other people with you. A single individual with a gun is no match for a suicide bomber. Trained teams of bomb squad technicians and well-protected professional law enforcement officers are a better bet. This, actually, is what the framers of the constitution had in mind when they wrote a Second Amendment referring to 'a well-regulated militia.' 

There is a suspicion of government – any kind of government – in the country that has reached disturbingly absolutist levels. This isn't just about whether the government should collect taxes for the purposes of paving roads (as opposed to having user fees fund it), or whether government has the obligation to provide for vulnerable and needy citizens. This is about a failure to recognize a basic truth: that we cannot do everything on our own, including personal defense. 

 Even the 'citizen' investigations done on the Internet turned out to produce the wrong suspects. But when civilians turned in their cell phone photos and videos to police, the experts figured it out. It took a whole, big village of Bay Staters to find and capture the alleged killers, and that doesn't make us weak. Inter-reliance sows our strength."

Trolls like "beamish" who, for reasons known only to himself, can't stop coming to this blog and talking about Bostonians pissing their pants (does the beamish troll have a urine fetish? It appears he's obsessed by other people's pee, just like a two-year old is.) Trolls like him apparently get a thrill up their legs by taunting and mocking--typical troll behavior.  


To those of you who care, here is information on the One Fund Boston set up for the victims of the April 15 bombing:


"Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Tom Menino have announced the formation of The One Fund Boston, Inc. to help the people most affected by the tragic events that occurred in Boston on April 15, 2013."