Marine Corps Sgt. James Lowery was on leave in his hometown of Gardendale, Ala., at the end of an eventful year. Lowery had started the year by marrying his sweetheart, April Leigh Fitzgerald, and soon after he spent two months in Afghanistan. Now he was home enjoying the holidays with family and had stopped at the drive-in window of the local McDonalds for a quick bite. That's when a man with a .38-cal. handgun ordered him out of his customized Chevy Suburban. Lowery complied and got out of his SW, but the man then shot the Marine in the face. Lowery reached back into his vehicle, drew a .45-cal. pistol and shot his assailant several times. The robber, Thaddeus Antone, was pronounced dead at the scene. Lowery was listed in fair condition at a local hospital. (The Birmingham News, Birmingham, AL, 12/19/02)
Two masked men, both armed with guns, burst into Robert's Super Market in Kansas City, Mo., about 7:45 p.m. and attempted to rob the store. One robber jumped over the counter, and a clerk shot him. The second masked man struggled with another store clerk until he was shot by the armed clerk as well. One robber died at the scene. The other managed to flee the store, but he later turned up at a local hospital, where he died of his wounds. (The Kansas City Star, Kansas City, MO, 12/24/02)
A Lenwood, Calif., man shot one of two men who broke into his home early Christmas morning. The 66year-old man called 9-1-1 at 12:20 a.m. to notify authorities that two men had just broken into his home. He said he had shot at the men, and one had escaped on foot. Police investigating the scene discovered a Barstow man, dead from a gunshot wound to the head, dressed in dark clothing and armed with a handgun. Further investigation revealed the deceased and an accomplice had forced their way into the home to commit burglary. (Desert Dispatch, Barstow, CA, 12/26/02)
Billy John Brown was just trying to get away from the man attempting to steal his brand-new Ford Explorer, until the man threatened to kill him. The attempted carjacking took place at 1:30 a.m. in the parking lot of the Golden Gallon convenience store. A man approached Brown as he left the store, asking for a light for his cigarette. The suspect then jumped into Brown's SW and demanded he start the vehicle. Brown later told authorities the man made the demand three times, and he refused. As Brown tried to exit the vehicle, the would-be carjacker said, "I will kill you." Brown responded by pulling a .44-cal. Taurus revolver. When the suspect raised his hand as if he had a gun, Brown opened fire, hitting the man several times. The carjacker, identified as Jerry Williams, Jr., of Nashville, died at the scene. An accomplice, who had fled during the shooting, was later arrested and charged with attempted carjacking. (The Tennessean, Nashville, TN, 12/30/02)
Ronald Dixon and his wife, Tricia, were awakened by a noise late in the night. Dixon could see the reflection of a man entering his 18month-old son's bedroom in a mirror. Dixon called out to the intruder, "What are you doing?" as his wife called 9-1-1. Not receiving a response, Dixon pulled a 9 mm handgun out of his closet and confronted the stranger in the child's room. When the interloper advanced on him, Dixon fired his gun, hitting the man twice. The intruder, later identified by police as Ivan Thompson, then fell down the stairs and ran out of the house, but collapsed outside. According to police, Thompson has a record of 19 arrests, most for burglary. He was critically wounded in the chest and groin. (New York Daily News, New York, NY, 12/lS/02)
Medgar Flowers was watching television in his living room and his wife, Marsha, was preparing dinner late one night when they heard a knock at their door. Marsha Flowers said two armed men forced their way into the home as she opened the front door, firing several shots. Medgar and one of the armed invaders fell to the floor in a scuffle as Marsha ran outside. The second intruder followed her and fired several times at her. One bullet grazed the back of her neck. Mrs. Flowers said she ran from door to door on her street, begging neighbors to open the door or call police, but no one responded. "I can't blame them for not opening their doors," she said. "They didn't know who I had behind me." Meanwhile, Medgar was in a life-and-death struggle with the other home invader in his living room. Flowers was trying to reach the 9 mm handgun he kept on his coffee table while struggling to keep his attacker from drawing a gun from his jacket. Finally, Flowers was able to retrieve his gun and fired several times at the intruder. "I didn't even know if I had hit him," he said. "There was no blood, and he never fell. It was like I hadn't shot him." The struggle ended when Flowers' tormentor stumbled out of the house and died a short time later. The second gunman was not found. (Morning Advocate, Baton Rouge, LA, 01/04/03) |
Fact: With the passing of the New Year's Eve 2003 deadline for registering all firearms, perhaps as many as a million Canadian citizens went from being ordinary, decent, law-abiding men and women to being turned into criminals. Many in that instant-criminal class were already licensed gun owners. Fact: The provinces of Alberta and Manitoba will not prosecute individuals for failure to register their guns. But the Federal government has pledged to track down and prosecute those good citizens. Fact: Hundreds of thousands of firearm owner license holders who tried to register—under government cut-rate or free on-line offers to entice compliance—could not do so because government computers, telephone systems and bureaucrats were swamped into paralysis. If these license holders can now prove they tried to register, they have a six-month grace period to register their individual firearms, but will have to pay $25 per gun. Fact: As of the deadline for registration, S million firearms were added to the government registry—out of an estimated 16 million firearms in private hands. Under the law, those unregistered guns are contraband, subject to confiscation by police administering warrantless searches. Their peaceable owners are subject to $2,000 fines and six months in jail—per gun. Fact: Given this political nightmare, eight of the 10 Canadian provincial governments have demanded the whole program be suspended for further examination or scrapped altogether. Fact: With the support of many Liberal Party Members, Parliament has refused to ante up the $72 million demanded to run the failed program through March 31, 2003. Confronted with what may be the largest cost overrun in the history of any Western Democracy and a registration system fraught with a 90 percent error rate (according to the official audit), and a law-abiding citizenry and its provincial governments in quiet rebellion, the Liberal Federal government in Canada is, nonetheless, forging ahead. Martin Cauchon, the current Justice Minister, admitted, "Yes there were some cost overruns ..." but defiantly threatened, "As far as I'm concerned, licensing and registration are here to stay ....What we are doing here is that we are establishing in our Canadian Society a culture and values ...." When asked whether any crime has been prevented, he responded that it is "hypothetical." Though the Auditor General's Report focused on massive mismanagement and dishonesty with lawmakers, it said that the Department of Justice admitted "the Program's focus had changed from high-risk firearm owners to excessive regulation and enforcement over all owners and their firearms ... as a result, the Program had become overly complex and very costly to deliver, and that it had become difficult for owners to comply ...." Most chillingly, the report concluded, "The Canadian Justice Department said the excessive regulation had occurred because some of its Program partners believed that, the use of firearms is in itself a 'questionable activity' that required strong controls and there should be a zero tolerance attitude toward non-compliance with the Firearms Act." (Emphasis added) There it is. "[T]he use of firearms is in itself a questionable activity."' For this belief, there is now a massive class of new criminals—ordinary people, good and peaceable people. Among them is Oscar Lacombe: Korean War veteran, former Sergeant-At-Arms of the Alberta Legislature and former bodyguard to Alberta's provincial premier. Lacombe—offering himself up for arrest for possessing an inoperable, unregistered .22 rifle—is willing to fight the law all the way to the Canadian Supreme Court. John Dixon, president of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Ass'n, and advisor to the former deputy Minister of Justice, described these new criminals as people "whose first reflex was to respect the laws of the land. This group's political alienation is a far greater loss ... The creation of this new criminal class— the ultimate triumph of negative political alchemy—may be the worst, and most enduring product of the gun registry culture war." And this is a culture war. What has happened in Canada is proof positive that licensing and registration—in any guise—is an evil concept. We must never allow even a foothold in our nation. With this Congress and all the hype over "ballistic fingerprinting"—read GUN OWNER REGlSTRATION —we are looking at a future shown to us by the plight of our Canadian cousins, and our already disarmed friends in England and Australia. Our message to Congress should be: "Never in America. Freedom First." |
When you look at all he achieved in his life, it's easy to forget just how little privilege or advantage Joe Foss had to start with. He was a junior in high school when his father was electrocuted by a downed high-tension line, so he went home to work on the farm to carry his family through the Depression. Somehow he managed to scrape together $65 to pursue a dream that Lindbergh had inspired in him—flying lessons. And from that humble start, in some canvas-covered puddle jumper over the plains of South Dakota, he soared off into American history. Within four days of being hurled off the deck of the US.S. Long Island and landing his Navy F-4F Wildcat on a shell-cratered mound of volcanic cinders in the Pacific known as Guadalcanal, Foss scored his first victory on a Japanese Zero. In just over a week, he was an ace. And despite a six-week struggle with malaria, despite being shot down once and often being outnumbered three-to-one by superior enemy aircraft, by the time Foss came home he had tied Eddie Rickenbacker's World War I record— 26 enemy aircraft downed—to become one of the most successful American flying aces in history. But he didn't do it to break records or build a monument. He did it for his wingmen and for his country because he could—and because he could do it better than most. Joe Foss received the Medal of Honor "for outstanding heroism and courage above and beyond the call of duty as executive officer of Marine Fighting Squadron 121, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, at Guadalcanal," according to the citation accompanying the award. From October 9 to November 19 he engaged in almost daily combat with the enemy. And then, on January 1 S, 1943, "Capt. Foss led his 8 F-4F Marine planes and 4 Army P-38s into action and, undaunted by tremendously superior numbers, intercepted and struck with such force that four Japanese fighters were shot down and the bombers were turned back without releasing a single bomb. His remarkable flying skill, inspiring leadership, and indomitable fighting spirit were distinctive factors in the defense of strategic American positions on Guadalcanal." Former President Bush recently recalled his own time as young naval aviator in the Pacific. "Joe Foss was not only my hero, but the hero of every Marine and Navy pilot who served in the war. He served his country with honor in both war and peace, and the whole Bush family thought the world of him." At a memorial service held for Gen. Foss at the Old Post Chapel, Fort Myer, next to Arlington National Cemetery, Vice President Richard B. Cheney warmly remembered his friend. "Joe loved America and devoted most of his energy and time to serving his fellow citizens. 'There's nothing I wouldn't do for this country,' Joe once said—and like everything Joe said, he meant it." If, as Tom Brokaw argued, the generation that fought World War 11 was the "greatest generation," then Joe Foss was, inarguably, one of its greatest. He was a common man who achieved what he did solely on the strength of his character and conduct. He could have cashed-in on his fame and face as an absentee figurehead on any number of corporate boards. But he didn't. He could have set himself up as a spokesman hawking this or that, or traded his notoriety for personal gain in myriad ways. But he didn't. Instead, he used his gifts to serve his faith and the causes closest to his heart—among them our Second Amendment Right to Keep and Bear Arms—as an unabashedly fierce patriot. He tried to leave the world a better place than he found it, l believe. And I know that he succeeded, always with a broad smile, a slap on the back, a good joke and a jocular demeanor of humility. We're a better people and a freer country for having had him among us. Godspeed, Joe. |
An American hero has been taken from us. General Joe Foss wasn't just one of America's most successful flying aces. He stood as an inspiration to generations. He risked his neck for his country and served with valor in two wars. He was awarded the Medal of Honor. He served as the first commissioner of the American Football League. He fulfilled two terms as the youngest governor of South Dakota. He built South Dakota's Air National Guard and was promoted within that force to the rank of brigadier general. He led this Association with distinction during difficult times. And through it all, he stayed true to his own unassuming character and class.