A PRO-GUN FAIRY TALE

Every couple of months or so for the past several years, I’ve received pro-gun messages, many of which included the following untrue statement:

“During WWII the Japanese decided not to invade America because they knew most Americans were ARMED!”

Nothing could be further from the truth. The Japanese knew that they did not have the logistical capability to sustain an invasion of the U.S. and never planned to do so. They attacked Pearl Harbor hoping to destroy our Pacific fleet so that we would not be able to interfere with their plans for the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere," the conquest of China and Southeast Asia coupled with the installation of puppet governments led by the Japanese.

The most the Japanese could do to attack our mainland was to have their submarines shell the Ellwood Oil Field near Santa Barbara, the Estevan Point lighthouse on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, and Fort Stevens at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon. The Japanese tried to start a forest fire by sending a seaplane to drop two incendiary bombs over Oregon’s Mount Emily. And they launched over 9,000 firebomb balloons toward North America of which only about 300 reached their destination. All of the attacks caused only minor damage.

Some pro-gun jerk inserted this 'Japanese fear' fairy tale trying to oversell the case for our Second Amendment rights. The trouble is that the statement has been passed on an on so many times by well meaning pro-gunners that they’ve come to really believe the Japanese were afraid to invade America.

How can anyone with half-a-brain actually believe that a citizenry armed with pistols, rifles and shotguns could stop a highly trained army with its sophisticated modern weapons? World War II was not the American Revolutionary War. Nor was it the American Civil War. The partisan groups that fought the German army with their pistols, rifles and shotguns during WWII were never able to do more than harass the invading and occupying Nazi military forces.

Yesterday I received a pro-gun set of posters accompanied by that bogus statement. There are so many legitimate reasons why Americans should have the right to bear arms, that those of us who believe in the Second Amendment do not need to resort to fairy tales to make our case.