One of the things that prevents some people from taking the RKBA movement seriously is our tendency to get the cart ahead of the horse.
What we
know from the writeups thus far (and all of my usual caveats apply to this) is this:
1. Singleton was gunned down in an armed robbery.
2. Singleton had a CCW, and was included on the
Plain Dealer's idiotic list.
3. The robbers showed somewhat unusual aggression in that they fired first, seemingly without preamble or provocation.
Note that #3 is dicey as far as "knowing" goes.
The list of things we don't know is somewhat large. We are perfectly willing to assume that the BGs knew that Singleton was armed, and we conclude that they knew it because of the Plain Dealer's list. Thats fine...but there are several scenarios (Occam's Razor notwithstanding) that would not require knowledge on the Perps' part that Singleton was armed...and even if they did, there are many ways to know it besides reading the newspaper.
Consider this, too. There are two main reasons why someone gets a CCW permit:
1. They believe in preparedness and our RKBA, regardless of their own personal level of risk.
2. They could care less about RKBA in the general sense, but engage in seriously risky endevours (running a cash business in a crappy neighborhood, for instance), and want to have some protection on hand.
The #2 group is at a pretty high risk for serious physical harm from armed attack. Members of this group are at risk
regardless of the
Plain Dealer's decision to print the list (though, that act can certainly raise this risk). So...we have a list of people, many of whom are at an elevated risk of robbery or assault. Now when someone from this list of at-risk people is assaulted/robbed, it is because the list was published?
We're seeing what we want to see.
That said, this
certainly could be a direct result of the newspaper printing the list. Absolutely it could. I just need to see something more than an OH CCWer being assaulted as 'proof.'
Goalie said it best:
I agree that it is unwise to jump to conclusions, however, I can say with 100% certainty that the publishing of this man's name in the paper contributed nothing to society while possibly contributing to his death.
Exactly. If they hadn't published that list, we would not be having this discussion...and maybe Singleton would still be alive.
Mike