Abdul Haji, The Hero Of The Kenyan Mall Massacre: The Case For An Armed And Responsible Citizenry

Contrasts are stark, tragic. On the one hand, we have a paranoid schizophrenic with a shotgun and a security pass into one of America's most vital defense bases, where he goes on a rampage, murdering people who WERE NOT ALLOWED the means to defend themselves. Thank you Bill Clinton, for ordering that employees in these sensitive posts be sitting ducks.

On the other hand, we have some El Shabab homeboyz who decide to kill as many as they can inside a shopping mall. Horrific, inexcusable, words fail. (By the way, what did our Homeboy-In-Chief have to say about these young Kenyans, who could have been one of his sons? Anything?)

There was someone on the ground, Mr Haji, who knew what to do. He was armed. He was trained, He was responsible. He entered the mall to help defend his brother, and ended up fighting alongside the police to rescue the victims. That fabulous picture showing the tiny girl running toward the outstretched arms of that African gent? That African gent is Mr. Haji, a Muslim, a decent compassionate man who was equipped for the task.

The Telegraph features a wonderful story about him. Comes the time, comes the man....

Mr Haji said his father taught him to use a gun to protect their cattle from bandits when he was growing up. 

Last Saturday, he used his skills to provide fire cover for the Kenyan Red Cross workers and, over a period of three hours, help to evacuate some of the 1,000 people who escaped the mall in the initial stages of a siege that would last three days and leave at least 72 people dead. As he stood with a fellow rescuer crouched outside the Nakumatt supermarket, Mr Haji said he noticed the women hiding under the table.

"Just a few minutes ago we were exchanging fire with the terrorists and these people were right in the middle of it, in the crossfire. We regrouped and we started to strategise on how to get them out of there," he said.


Let's think about this. President Trayvon, if he had his way, would make certain that the Mr. Haji's of America would be disarmed. All of the little Trayvons, of course, would be armed to the hilt, ready to fire into playgrounds (as occurred in Chicago last week) or shopping malls (which may occur next week, who knows?).

What if the decent and compassionate, the sober and responsible, were equipped for the task of responding immediately to the little Trayvons?

Memphis, Tennessee--A Whole Lotta Carry Permits Issued

For OldSouth's readership from across the globe, Memphis probably means Elvis, Johnny Cash, barbecue, Beale Street, Blue Suede Shoes and the duck parade at the Peabody Hotel. It's those things, to be sure, but the reality of Memphis is actually quite gritty. A lot of widespread poverty, a lot of concentrated wealth, a long tradition of corrupt machine politics, all situated on a 'choke-point' for all modes of shipping, north-south-east-west, in North America. Built on the nineteenth-century cotton trade(which was predicated on slavery), everything about the place is shot through with race. Locate the city in a brutally hot climate, next door to Arkansas and Mississippi, and stir gently. What could go wrong?

Well, they have always had a crime problem, a drug-and-despair fuelled crime problem, a completely-senseless-murder-and-mayhem-as-a-way-of-life problem.

So, from today's Commercial Appeal:

The simultaneous election of a leftist President and Congress, and a severe economic downturn, have led to a surge in handgun permits across the state, and especially in Memphis.

The number of Tennesseans licensed by the state to go armed increased by nearly 51,000 people last year — to 268,711, according to new state statistics. That's an increase of 23 percent over the 218,004 Tennesseans with handgun-carry permits on Jan. 1, 2009. By comparison, the 2008 increase was 14 percent, according to Tennessee Department of Safety figures.

In Shelby County, the number of residents with handgun-carry permits jumped by 5,205 in 2009 to 38,130, up 16 percent. The Shelby County increase in 2008 was 15 percent.
The new data indicate that about 6 percent of Tennessee residents old enough to have a handgun-carry permit -- those ages 21 and up -- had one at the start of this year.

The permit rate is a little lower among people with Memphis addresses. The 20,716 people in the city with gun permits account for about two out of every 50 Memphis residents 21 and up, or nearly 5 percent.

Knoxville has the highest concentration of permit-holders among the state's largest cities: More than 11 percent of its residents 21 and up are licensed to carry firearms.

That's two years of double-digit increases, year over year.  The article notes a bit later that violent crime rates dropped dramatically as the rate of handgun ownership rose. Of course, the two facts were separated in the article, and no possible correlation between the two phenomena was mentioned. 

It's probably impossible to validly correlate one with the other, but the coincidence is striking. If a person with intent to commit a crime knows he faces a real probability that his potential victim is packing, that is a true incentive to make better life decisions. 

Tennessee is a 'right-to-carry' state, a 'must-issue' state. Ergo, any legal resident of the state with proof of citizenship, no criminal record, who passes the mandated course, completes the application, and pays his $115, will be issued a conceal-carry permit. Comply with the statute, and the State must comply as well. Easy-peasy.


OS predicts the trend will continue...