Yesterday, a Canadian soldier was shot to death at the Canadian War Memorial in Ottawa by a Muslim lone wolf terrorist.  That man continued on to the Canadian Parliament building and would have likely killed as many people as he could find had he not been stopped.

How was he stopped?

The Parliament’s ceremonial sergeant-at-arms engaged him with a handgun.

Imagine if something similar happened where you live or work.  You’re on the way to lunch and you hear shots ring out, screams of the wounded and dying, and then more shots.  You orient yourself and finally identify the threat.  He’s a 20-something black-haired man with a rifle raised to his shoulder aiming at the crowd.  He’s firing.  You may or may not be able to run away.  He may turn his attention to you next, or your work friend, wife, child, or a random stranger praying for safety near where you find yourself.

It is in this moment when the stark reality of violence is recognized by most.  When an attack is underway you cannot rely on someone else to protect you.  The police may be immediately present, but more likely they are minutes away at best.  Whether you are by yourself at home, walking through a shopping mall or grocery store, or strolling around downtown, violence can and will visit you at the most inopportune moment.

You are the first line of defense.  You are the first responder. The police are second responders 99% of the time.

The antidote to lone wolf terrorism is not complex forms of layered security, increased surveillance, or hardened machine gun emplacements surrounding potential targets.  Lone wolves will strike soft targets before hard targets because their likelihood of success goes way up.  The antidote to lone wolf terrorism is simple and can be answered easily.

When you find yourself facing what was once a hypothetical situation where someone is firing into a crowd indiscriminately what will you find on your belt first – your cell phone or your handgun?

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

You are the militia – the traditional minuteman – an armed citizen in defense of society.  The State is powerless to prevent such attacks as they can be planned completely in secret.  Thus, the original security allowed under English common law, American law, Constitutional law, and Biblical law is a free man in possession of modern weapons of war in which to do battle with whatever evil may befall us each day.

I celebrate Mr. Vickers in Ottawa, but I also mourn because that attack highlighted how vulnerable Canada truly is because it does not allow the carrying of arms outside the home for the defense of self and society.  The entire nation is a soft target.