20 Aug 14

“Warning” Shot(s)!

“No one remembers who came in second.”

Walter Hagen

On 19 Mar 1988 in West Belfast, Northern Ireland, two young British Army corporals inadvertently drove in the vicinity of the elaborate funeral procession for Kevin Bradey, considered a hero by the IRA.

The two corporals were in civilian clothing, and their car was unmarked. Both were armed with ageing Browning Hi-Power Pistols with standard, hardball ammunition. Pistols were issued for “personal protection,” because of the dangerous nature of Northern Ireland at the time, but neither soldier (nor anyone else in the British Army) had ever received any species of competent training in their serious use. Of course, neither pistol was carried with a round chambered.

The UK, then and now, has no gun-culture, so no one there knows anything about carrying and using guns for serious purposes!

The two junior NCOs, realizing their mistake, tried to get turned-around, but they never made it!

An angry crowd quickly surrounded their now-stationary vehicle. Both soldiers were dragged out of their car, beaten half to death, and then shot multiple times through the back of the neck by IRA operatives, who, by the way, do know something about carrying serious pistols and do carry them in the correct state of readiness!

During the incident, one of the corporals managed to get a round chambered, and fired a single shot, not at his attackers, but in the air, as a “warning,” just as he had been foolishly instructed. Both NCOs had been sternly warned by their cynical superiors that if they ever used their pistols for any purpose other than starting horse races, they would be drummed out of the Corps!

As a result, neither made any effective use of weapons they had readily at hand, pistols, nor the car itself.

In Parliament two days later, Northern Ireland’s Secretary of State publically condemned the killings, and added this gem:

“… although they both had loaded personal-protection pistols, they showed incredible restraint in using them only to fire a warning shot in the air.”

Yes, so much “restraint” that they allowed themselves to be murdered while scarcely even inconveniencing their murderers. So, now we lavishly praise people for these demonstrably incompetent, inadequate, and ineffective responses to criminal violence. No wonder Western Civilization is crumbling. We’re congratulating people for being losers!

The problem is, of course, the British Government’s hysterical hatred of self-defense and its paranoid fear of guns. This irrational fearfulness makes itself felt, even the Army!

The two murdered corporals were not MI5, nor SAS. They were just two junior NCOs who drove by the wrong place at the wrong time.

When exposed to violent, criminal attack, the only “warning shot” that should be fired by any one of us should go straight through the ventricles of our attacker’s black heart, as a subtle indicator that more are about to follow in rapid sequence until he/they find something else to do!

“Warning shots” are a sign of lack of commitment to one’s personal survival. They will invariably be interpreted as such!

“You never know how much is enough unless you know how much is more than enough.”

William Blake

/John