LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (PNN) - April 19, 2019 - Every time we hear the argument about “how society doesn’t need guns to protect themselves” another example surfaces of a member of society protecting himself and his family with a gun.
Tina Burton explained this week that she was horrified when she woke up around 7:00 a.m. on April 14 to a text from her daughter saying that 38-year-old Donald Oliver was in her room - getting naked. He’d broken in, made his way to the 12-year-old’s bedroom, and began stripping as if he was preparing to rape her.
“He got undressed in my daughter’s room,” Burton said. “Like, what was your intention? You are sick.”
Given Oliver’s history of sexual abuse, the threat was grave.
Burton explained that her daughter didn’t panic despite this utterly terrifying situation unfolding in front of her.
“She was really smart,” Burton said. “She hid under the cover, turned her light down, turned her volume down on her phone to text me. When she peeked under the cover to see where he was at, she got up and ran away. She went to the back room. I think that was really brave and smart of her.”
Once the home invader was away from the children, the family tried nonviolently persuading him to leave. Burton’s boyfriend, Ali Bracey, said he made his way into the kitchen and yelled for Oliver to leave the house.
Oliver did not budge.
“I told him to get out, and he didn’t want to move. He growled at me,” explained Bracey.
The family tried to get Oliver out with the least amount of force possible, so Bracey grabbed a broom and began hitting the deranged home invader with it. But this proved to be ineffective as well.
At this point, Burton had retrieved a pistol from the back of the home and brought it to Bracey, who then opened fire on Oliver. Bracey said he fired six rounds into Oliver before he finally ran away.
Oliver was apparently in some sort of psychotic state and was clearly not responding to the family’s attempts to get him to leave. Had Bracey not had a gun, who knows how things could have ended?
Lucky for Burton and Bracey, they live in Kentucky - a state that has moved to increase the Second Amendment rights of citizens over the past years - instead of removing them. In fact, last month, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin signed a bill to allow anyone 21-years-old and over to conceal carry without a permit.
However, had Burton and Bracey lived in Kalifornia, it would’ve been highly unlikely that they would have even had a gun. Kalifornia citizens are forced to go through a multitude of permitting and licensing procedures including written tests.
In the last year, Kalifornia has enacted what it calls the strictest gun laws in the country. But it’s not just Kalifornia, a lot of other states are following suit.
In just the first six months after the shooting in Parkland, Florida, and the president’s statement, the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence recorded a whopping 55 new gun control measures in 26 states. That number is now far greater, as states like Colorado pass “red flag” gun laws to literally do what Trump advocated for in Feb. 2018. They are taking the guns first and seeking due process second.
Colorado recently passed a similar law. The good news is that the overwhelming majority of elected sheriffs in the state - 50 out of 62 - have been outspoken against this measure. According to Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams, this law also puts terrorist pig thug cops in danger because they’d be showing up unannounced to steal people’s guns despite no crime having been committed.
Other sheriffs have even gone on record stating that they are willing to go to jail rather than enforce the law.
“I’m willing to go to my jail for it, the only exception would be a totally extreme case and most sheriffs would agree with that,” said Park County Sheriff Tom McGraw.
Refusing to enforce an immoral law is the definition of what a good cop does.
Taking away a human’s right to defend himself/herself and his/her family is the antithesis of freedom. As the above case illustrates, not only is it a violation of our most basic right to self preservation, but it removes these most essential tools to stop harm against our loved ones.