[Gary L. Griffiths]

I just e-mailed this to the Atlanta Journal & Constitution. I don't figure it'll ever get published, but I would appreciate my fellow TFL members' critiques:

The AK-47 has long been demonized by urban politicians and the news media as an “assault weapon” with “no place on the streets of America.” Well, maybe it’s time to give the Devil his due, so-to-speak.

It seems that on January 9, 2009, Jonathon Redding, a murderous 17-year-old thug who just two days prior had robbed an Atlanta bar, senselessly killing popular bartender John Henderson and terrorizing waitress Ashley Elder, planned a repeat performance at the apartment of 34-year-old Eddie Pugh. There was just one thing he didn’t count on: When he entered the apartment, gun blazing, Pugh grabbed his AK-47 and returned fire, hitting him in the arm and shoulder.

Redding was seriously injured, and was arrested by police while hospitalized for his injuries. Police have now announced that forensic evidence from his blood at the scene, and from the gun Pugh literally shot out of his hand (the Lone Ranger would have been proud), linked him to Henderson’s murder and to another armed robbery during which he fired shots at the victim.

Why couldn’t Pugh have done just as well with a handgun? (Remember now, handguns are demonized by gun prohibitionists almost as much as “assault weapons.”) Any experienced gunfighter will tell you that a handgun is the gun you use to fight your way to your rifle when unexpectedly attacked.

In this instance, Pugh was able to return fire much more accurately than he would have with a pistol, stopping the aggression more quickly and endangering bystanders less. And what if Redding had been accompanied by the three homicidal gangstas that assisted him in the bar robbery? With twenty or thirty rounds available as fast as he could pull the trigger, Pugh would have been very likely to prevail even against the four-to-one odds.

The gun prohibitionists deplore the fact that “assault weapons” are designed to kill large numbers of humans rapidly. Yet Jonathon Redding wasn’t killed, much less blown apart by two hits from the medium-powered bullets. The elephant in the room, that they are unwilling to recognize, is that there are times, even in our enlightened modern society, when people need to be prepared to instantly stop the aggressive acts of multiple violent predators.

Gary L. Griffiths, a retired Federal Law Enforcement Officer, is Director of Advanced Force Tactics, Inc., a Texas-based firm that trains law enforcement and armed security agencies in the judgmental use of force and in gunfighting tactics.