Operation Self-Defense -- A Success!

by Robert A. Waters
Author, The Best Defense

Slightly more than two months ago, KeepAndBearArms.com was instrumental in working with me to form Operation Self-Defense.^1,2 Our goal was to focus the gun debate on a "winnable" issue: self-defense. While other issues are important, none has the emotional appeal to sway neutral Americans to our side.

We currently have about 40 volunteers who scan approximately 125 newspapers each day in a search for self-defense stories. We've averaged finding one-to-two stories each day. Those stories are distributed to a group of pro-gun writers, television reporters, politicians, and other individuals who have the power to help change the debate.

We are beginning to see a gradual movement among the media to report self-defense stories. Recently, one of my articles describing a half-dozen stories of armed self-defense was published in the Detroit News. Then the Washington Times published a pro-self-defense article using two of our stories. Dr. John Lott, Jr., author of More Guns, Less Crime, recently published two articles describing self-defense stories. The last article, published in the Los Angeles Times, details a dozen defensive shootings in a one-week period. (Operation Self-Defense found 20 stories that week, but there wasn't enough room in the Times to publish them all.) It is a brilliant piece of writing, well worth saving and giving to your anti-gun friends. [The article has since been removed from public viewing unless you pay for it.]

In addition, Senator Larry Craig reads summaries of our self-defense stories on the floor of the Senate. All U. S. Congressmen now receive every one of these stories in their email. Several have contacted me thanking me for sending them and stating that they use the stories to combat the anti-gunners in Congress. And one Congressman recently used some of our stories in a nationally-televised debate with an anti-gun Congresswoman.

Our stories are also posted on dozens of websites and message boards such as The Firing Line. We forward them to the most popular true crime site on the internet, Cybersleuths.com, where they are included among national and international headlines.

Many Americans, even some in the mainstream media, are beginning to understand the futility of passing restrictive gun laws that affect only law-abiding citizens. As proof, during the recent presidential election, most Democrats including Al Gore, ran away from the issue like the cowards they are. Their polling data reflected a distinct lack of popular enthusiasm for additional gun laws. After the latest school shootings in San Diego, very little anti-gun sentiment was heard on the national news. Although the anti-gunners are still there, they recognize that the time is not right to come forward with their bizarre proposals. (I say "bizarre" because it takes an unstable mind to think that an unarmed populace is safer from criminals than an armed populace.)

So now is the time to strike even harder at the collapsing enemy. If we can double the number of newspapers we're searching, we can double the number of cases we find. We're at somewhat of a disadvantage because most cases of armed self-defense are published once in a local newspaper--after that, the story sinks out of sight. Another would-be victim has saved himself or herself, and maybe others, but now he or she goes back to his or her daily life with no fanfare. (In almost all cases, that's the way they want it.) But if we don't find those stories on the one day they're published, we never know about them.

So I'm calling for more volunteers.

For those original members of Operation Self-Defense who continue to search for cases in your hometown newspapers, a hearty THANK YOU is in order. You're helping to change America for the better.

For those who wish to join by making a commitment to monitor one or more daily news sources online, please contact me at [email protected]. It takes less than five minutes a day to search the "local" or "state" section of a couple of newspapers.

We're making a difference.


Robert A. Waters
Author of The Best Defense: True Stories of Intended Victims Who Defended Themselves with a Firearm, Cumberland House Publishing, Inc.