Rare News Desk
Nikki Goeser, whose husband was murdered in a bar while her gun sat locked in the car per then-Tennessee law, recently said those businesses and public places that inhibit citizens from exercising their Second-Amendment rights — most recently Target, for example — are effectively accessories to the crimes they purport to condemn.
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“I personally choose not to go to those places. If you’re not going to allow me the ability to protect myself and you’re not going to protect me either, well, I have a problem with that. I don’t want to give them my money. I actually have these little cards that I carry around with me that tell them your gun-free zone — it’s a false sense of security,” Ms. Goeser said June 21 at the Grass Roots North Carolina Annual Dinner.
Grass Roots North Carolina is a nonprofit, volunteer organization that seeks to preserve the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights and rose to prominence in 1994 when it spearheaded a campaign to bring concealed carry to the Tar Heel State, according to its website.
Ms. Goeser, powerless to stop her husband’s murderer, has since worked with legislators in numerous states to implement restaurant-carry provisions, including in her home state of Tennessee, whose legislature in 2010 passed the bipartisan restaurant-carry bill. Like dominos, she is taking down the states with prohibitions on packing heat in restaurants.
The small-business owner turned author said those those inhibit or willfully remove a person’s right to defend himself or herself — take Starbucks and Chipotle, for example — perpetuate the cycle of gun-related murders and — unlike President Obama, Ms. Goeser doesn’t blame a “bullet from a gun” of wrongdoing.
“Obviously, my life has been changed forever losing [my husband]Â to that type of violence, but it’s violence. I get tired of hearing people talk about gun violence. Let’s talk about violence. I never blamed the gun. I blamed the murderer and, to tell you the truth, I blame legislators that prevented me from being able to carry where I needed to so I could protect my husband and I.”
And, though she said admires law-enforcement officials, she acknowledges they can’t always save the day.
“I have a huge amount of respect for law enforcement. But even law enforcement knows that they can’t be everywhere and anywhere at any time,” she said, adding authorities were at her husband’s side in enough time to put up crime-scene tape and photograph him for evidence.
She underscored the importance of self-reliance and precaution as not all are angels.
“You know, I had my hand-gun-carry permit. I went through my training. I tried to be prepared. I never looked at it as being paranoid; I looked at it as being prepared. And it happened to us. And I don’t want you to be paranoid, I simply want you and your family to be prepared because you never know when evil is going to choose to pay you a visit. Evil can strike anywhere no matter where you are. And the question is, will you be prepared to stop that threat?”
Any place that abridges Second-Amendment rights is a danger zone, she said.
“It is my firm belief that gun-free zones are killing zones or criminal-protection zones. It’s where people that want to do evil can harm or kill knowing that no one there can stop them.”
Furthermore, gun-free postings are to criminals what honey is to bees.
“I see time after time on the news we see these shootings occur and And the one thing the media will not tell you, the majority — if not all — of these shootings occur in gun-free zones. They’re places where these evil people know, no one can stop them. They know it. That’s why they go there. They want to get that higher body-bag count. And these are very sick, demented, evil people. They exist,” she said.
“People with evil intent could care less about a law; it’s those of us that are law-abiding that care about the law.”
