Misinformed. Again

Easter Sunday. I am sitting in the back of the church in my usual spot, wearing a nice jacket, shiny boots and my Ruger LC9 discreetly tucked away when the guest preacher launches into a mini-tirade against the "make my day" law. His problems were three: he absolutely does not understand the specifics or intent of the law, he fails to see how protecting property justifies applying the law (basically the castle doctrine) to businesses, and he thinks people who have guns do so because they are afraid.
He and his wife also revealed later that they think anyone can go to a gun show and buy a fully functional "AK-47" which they equate with "machine guns."

I had the opportunity to discuss their assumptions with them, at some length, so that they were at least exposed to the facts of the law, that it is intended to protect people, not merely property, from harm regardless if one is in your home or place of business. That people should be afraid when encountering criminals or crazy people with guns and the way to not be afraid and to offer an effective way of protecting oneself and others is to legally carry and know how to use a firearm responsibly. And, I also disabused them of the notion that one can walk into a gun show and buy a machine gun.

Now, I am not at all certain that they believed me or will approach this with a more objective perspective. Likely not, especially since he was invested in convincing people that if one believes in Jesus, then you don't have to be afraid, because if someone kills you, you are going to heaven anyway. I'm not kidding. This was the underlying message he gave to the congregation.

I am not buying into that. To state only one objection: would it be all right if I did nothing while innocent people were murdered and I had an opportunity to stop it because they might be going to heaven anyway?

All that aside, the essential issue is a common one. People are misinformed about the reasons why our rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are fundamental and, in many cases, can only be guaranteed by our right to bear arms to protect ourselves from others who would seek to take those rights, and our very lives, away from us. People are misinformed. Why?

I suspect it is because of fear and ignorance. Fear of guns, since they only know what they see in the media - and by that I mean film and TV as well as gun-hostile press - and ignorance of basic facts regarding self-defense shootings and crime. A prime example of this is when the preacher also said that the number of self defense shootings had "doubled" over the last few years. That is statistically incorrect, however, he mentioned nothing about the curious facts that while the number of citizens arming themselves and acquiring concealed carry permits had grown tremendously, the violent crime rate has significantly dropped during that same period. That this interesting connection was not mentioned by the preacher tells me that he didn't know this, or, if he did, it did not fit his preconceived notions about guns and people. Certainly didn't fit with his "it is ok to be afraid" sermon.
I couldn't help wondering, sitting there with my legal, concealed 9 mm, if he would have condemned me should I have had to protect him and the others there from some crazy with a gun come to church to settle the demons in his head?