To the Brady Campaign, he was an innocent victim

The article in yesterday's Globe starts out:

It was just under a year ago that Marilyn Thomas-YisraEl’s son was shot to death as he sat in his wheelchair on their front porch. A bullet had hit Jihad Watters, 24, two years before, leaving him paralyzed. Last spring, he was enjoying a sunny afternoon and planning to barbecue before he was gunned down.

Yesterday, on a day meant to honor mothers and bring families together, Thomas-YisraEl could only think of the day her family was ripped apart.

“This is my first year without my son,’’ she said. “It’s really hard.’’

Tragic, isn't it.  Just a nice young man enjoying a sunny day and getting ready to throw some ribs on the BBQ.  He's one of the innocent victims of gun violence that the Brady Campaign loves to talk about - in fact, the 24 year old would qualify as a child in their demographic breakdown. 

What the article doesn't mention is that Jihad Watters was a career drug dealer and illegal gun owner.  Yes, I am as shocked as you.

I write about this in response to our favorite Brady board member, who today wrote "Such is the way of gun deaths. They are sudden, unexpected and violent. They can happen to anyone. Just because it hasn't happened to you doesn't mean it won't."  


No, they are not, Joan.  Violent crime, whether or not the gun is the chosen tool, is not really distributed equally throughout the population.  A lot of the "victims" people like her trot out aren't really victims at all.  Many of them have made the concious decision to be a career criminal.  If you make the decision to compete with other drug dealers in Dorchester, and they kill you, you're not really a victim. 


The Brady types think we should ban guns to save the lives of people like Jihad Watters, when the truth is that good people need guns precisely to protect ourselves from the Jihad Watters of the world.