Chris Kyle was an American patriot—serving four tours of duty in Iraq.
And he was a killer: From 1999 to 2009 he recorded more than 160 confirmed kills as a sniper—the most in U.S. military history. Iraqis came to refer to him as “The Devil” and put a $20,000 bounty on his life.
Chris Kyle
He was an expert on firearms: After leaving combat duty, he became the chief instructor for training the Naval Special Warfare Sniper and Counter-Sniper team. And he authored the Naval Special Warfare Sniper Doctrine, the first Navy SEAL sniper manual.
He was a successful writer—author of the 2012 bestselling American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History.
In 2013, he wrote the equally bestselling American Gun: A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms.
He created a nonprofit company, FITCO Cares, to provide at-home fitness equipment for emotionally and physically wounded veterans.
In 2014, his autobiography, American Sniper, became a major film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood. The movie portrays his work as a SEAL marksman in Iraq and his struggles to be a good husband and father during his tours of duty.
And Kyle was a mentor to veterans suffering from PTSD—Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
It was this last activity—and, more importantly, his approach to therapy—that cost him his life.
On February 2, 2015, Kyle and his friend, Chad Littlefield, died in a hail of 13 bullets fired by a semi-automatic pistol.
The murderer: Eddie Ray Routh, an Iraqi war veteran reportedly suffering from PTSD, while the three visited a shooting range in Glen Rose, Texas.
Routh, of Lancaster, Texas, a former corporal in the Marines, had been deployed to Iraq in 2007 and Haiti in 2010.
His motive: “I shot them because they wouldn’t talk to me. I was just riding in the back seat of the truck and nobody would talk to me. They were just taking me to the range so I shot them. I feel bad about it, but they wouldn’t talk to me. I am sure they have forgiven me.”
Eddie Ray Routh
On February 25, 2015, a jury convicted Routh of double murder and sentenced him to life in prison without parole.
Kyle’s believed that shooting could prove therapeutic for those suffering from mental illness. And it was that belief that ultimately killed him.
According to Travis Cox, the director of FITCO Cares: “What I know is Chris and a gentleman—great guy, I knew him well, Chad Littlefield—took a veteran out shooting who was struggling with PTSD to try to assist him, try to help him, try to, you know, give him a helping hand, and he turned the gun on both of them, killing them.”
Chris Kyle was a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association (NRA), whose stance on firearms is best described as: “The more guns, the better.”
The NRA:
- Opposes background checks for firearms owners.
- Opposes any waiting period for the purchase of a firearm.
- Opposes banning the ownership of military-style, “high-capacity” firearms.
- Opposes any limits on how many firearms a person may own.
- Supports legislation to allow virtually anyone to carry a handgun—openly or concealed—even in bars and churches.
- Has successfully pushed “stand-your-ground” laws in more than half the states. These allow the use of deadly force in self-defense, without any obligation to try to retreat first.
- Has steadfastly defended the right to own Teflon-coated ”cop killer” bullets,” whose only purpose is to penetrate bullet-resistant vests worn by law enforcement officers.
Chris Kyle was undoubtedly one of the foremost experts on firearms in the United States. Few knew better than he did the rules for safe gun-handling.
And yet he broke perhaps the most basic commonsense rule of all: Never trust an unstable person with a loaded firearm.
And it was the breaking of that rule that killed him.
Even worse, he knew that Routh was unstable. During the drive to the shooting range, he texted Littlefield: ‘This dude is straight-up nuts.”
Kyle, who was 38, was survived by his wife, Taya, and their two children.
Kyle was undoubtedly sincere in wanting to help his fellow veterans who suffered from PTSD.
But he could have offered them different—and far safer—forms of help, such as:
- Urging veterans such as Routh to get psychiatric counseling.
- Suggesting that they find purpose in a charity such as Habitat for Humanity, which is devoted to building affordable housing for the poor.
- Helping them find mental healthcare through the Veterans Administration.
Instead, he chose “gun therapy” as his preferred method of treatment.
Kyle was an expert on using firearms in self-defense. But that knowledge proved useless when he allowed his empathy to overrule his common sense.
Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the NRA, has repeatedly asserted: “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.”
But the death of Chris Kyle raises a question that the NRA has yet to answer: If a certified weapons expert can’t protect himself against a psychopathic gunman, how can the rest of us?
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BUMS WITH GUNS
In History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on August 2, 2018 at 12:04 amBrian Ellison is running for the position of United States Senator from Michigan. And unlike other political candidates, he has taken a unique position on homelessness.
Some politicians want to outlaw homeless encampments. Others want to spend billions on low-cost housing for this population.
Ellison, instead, wants to arm bums with guns. Specifically, with pump-action shotguns.
“Get us a group of 20 homeless people that we could train, help them understand how the shotgun works, how to maintain it, how to fire it,” Ellison told Newsweek. “And equip them with a shotgun, a sling and some shells so they can protect themselves.”
Brian Ellison
Actually, the shotgun was not Ellison’s first choice of weaponry for his intended beneficiaries.
“Frankly I think the ideal weapon would be a pistol,” he told The Guardian, “but due to the licensing requirements in the state we’re going to have a hard enough time getting homeless people shotguns as it is.
“Getting them pistols is probably next to impossible. The pistols need to be registered, people have to have addresses.”
But “open-carrying a long gun is completely legal. So we thought that pump-action shotguns were a suitable alternative to a pistol.”
Ellison is a Libertarian. He’s also a former Army soldier who served in Iraq.
Apparently that experience didn’t teach him that when too many people have guns, no one is safe.
Ellison’s opponent is Democratic incumbent Debbie Stabenow.
Besides providing shotguns to thousands of rootless people, Ellison wants to abolish the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Transportation Security Administration, and localize the Department of Education.
“I’m basically entirely opposed to any government program,” said Ellison.
Unless it’s a government program to arm bums with guns.
This population can be roughly divided into four categories:
The homeless are “constantly victims of violent crime,” says Ellison, who believes that giving them firearms would provide a deterrent.
It would also provide a real incentive for tax-paying citizens to hand over their money the moment a shotgun-carrying DDMB confronts them on the street.
Of course, Ellison has an answer for this: He would try to “pre-qualify” DDMBs as suitable candidates to own firearms:
“The first thing that we’re gonna do is ask them if they think this is something that would benefit them. We’re certainly not trying to force anything on anybody.”
Except, of course, on those citizens being hit on daily—sometimes hourly—by DDMBs for money.
Naturally, ammunition would be provided—at state expense—for the shotguns. This would come in five- or six-shell magazines.
Ellison said that more shells would be provided if the owners legitimately used their guns to defend themselves.
But if they used their ammo for “shooting cans in somebody’s private property” then they would not be given more shells.
A potential beneficiary of Ellison’s “guns for bums” program
Ellison isn’t worried that is intended beneficiaries might use the guns for murder or robbery: “Well, are you worried about the police being armed with military weapons? I am.
“The world we live in is a scary world, where the police who used to dress in short-sleeved shirts and carry a revolver now have long rifles with scopes and bulletproof vests and armoured vehicles.
“And quite frankly that scares me much more than a homeless person trying to defend themselves with a shotgun.”
This, of course, ignores the fact that police are pre-qualified with firearms—and every shooting by officers in a big-city police department is thoroughly investigated.
Their firearms are turned in for investigation. And the officers who used them can be disciplined and even prosecuted if a police chief and/or prosecutor believes the shooting was improper or illegal.
And who would make such lethal weaponry available to street people?
“There are a lot of charities out there that help to provide the homeless with food, housing, job training, all kinds of stuff,” said Ellison. “There’s not a charity out there that helps them learn how to protect themselves. What’s going to drive this is popular support.”
Just how many DDMBs could receive Ellison’s special gift? In Michigan, there are more than 56,000 of them.
Ellison remarked that the population is “constantly victims of violent crime” in his state.
His website page opens with: “LIBERTARIANISM MEANS ALL OF YOUR FREEDOMS ALL OF THE TIME.” And it outlines his core beliefs:
“We as a people must admit that the many laws, regulations, and policies established over the years in an effort to ‘promote social welfare’ have failed in their stated purpose. These laws and regulations now represent the greatest threat to our natural rights, and must be repealed.
“Abroad, we must change how we engage the rest of the world, leading by example, not force of arms….Imperialism was not the intent of our founders nor is it the desire of the majority of Americans.”
“In order to move forward in these beliefs,” says his website, “we must remember that while our ideology is our core, we must also be practical and reasonable in their implementation.”
Yet many voters may well decide that arming bums with guns isn’t “practical and reasonable.”
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