On April 27, the Baltimore Sun’s Justin Fenton charged into a riot scenario that deteriorated quickly. When he was inevitably attacked, he “retreated back to my safe spot where I was with a store owner who had a shotgun, protecting his property.” Later, Fenton credited a gang member for rescuing him, but parsing his language in the fog of a riot obscures the real truth.
Fenton witnessed “an incredible number of officers” who “had perimeters set up, …” yet “you could come to this place and break into stores, and you could set fires, and you could stand on the police car and get your selfie taken.”
This is the stark truth of the Rodney King riots, Katrina, Ferguson and Baltimore: When order breaks down, the armed citizen is the only defense beyond that perimeter. The Second Amendment limits government abuse, but is more often needed when government is absent.
