On both sides of America, deadly men showed up with arsenals

Most Americans have a “live and let live” philosophy. When they see someone odd or defiantly antisocial, they let it go. However, two recent incidents in which disturbed people showed up with arsenals that would make a military unit proud are a reminder that, in a country with the right to bear arms, a corollary responsibility is that we must remain vigilant to spot those who would abuse this right. We do not have a gun control problem; we have a bat-fecal-matter crazy problem.

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The first story that broke was that a man calling himself Allison Howlett (and, naturally, claiming to be a woman) had been arrested in Las Vegas when his ex-wife warned that he was heading there, prepared to engage in mass slaughter at a casino. What made the report notable—after all, at this point, killer men with gender dysphoria is becoming a dog-bites-man story—was his weapons cache. Howlett really was ready to engage in an act of mass slaughter:

The officers were shocked to see that Howlett had been sitting on a handgun and had an MP5 submachine gun sitting on the back seat.

When cops searched Howlett’s car, they recovered 22 other guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Cops who searched the suspect’s home in Henderson found 30 more firearms, including automatic rifles, plus ammo, grenade launcher attachments and silencers.

Those who know weapons were impressed by Howlett’s personal armory:

Howlett was armed and capable of doing a tremendous amount of damage.

That a stone-cold crazy man who had been making past death threats had this kind of cache was disturbing enough. However, it was joined yesterday by reports of another man, this time in North Carolina, with his own personal armory:

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Police1 reports that police were called to Wesley Memorial Church in High Point over the weekend to handle an armed, camouflaged man sitting in his truck in the parking lot. An off-duty police officer in attendance first confronted the man, 44-year-old William S. Milliken III, who falsely represented himself as a police officer there to enforce a smoking violation. More officers arrived shortly, and disarmed and arrested Milliken.

Milliken was also wearing body armor, and his truck was found to contain a “CO2-powered launcher, designed to resemble a handgun,” a pair of flamethrowers, a pair of crossbows, over 500 rounds of ammo, three knives, oxycodone, and a notebook containing addresses for churches, schools, and other public buildings.

As of now, there seems to be no information about Milliken’s life or motives. His mug shot suggests that he’s not a member of the so-called transgender community (but, nowadays, who can say?), and no one, so far, has found an internet history for him.

With these two examples before them, leftists (e.g., Democrats, DSA members, and other fellow travelers) will inevitably demand that we strike the Second Amendment from the Constitution. They’re wrong, of course. If we get rid of the Second Amendment, we leave ourselves open to the risk that our own government turns on us—and it cannot be said strongly enough that a hostile government is always the greatest killer. (I wrote the linked essay over a decade ago. While I would update it today to add Iran’s massacre of its citizens earlier this year, it still holds up.)

However, the Second Amendment, while one of the most important constitutional rights (if not the most important, for it keeps the government honest as to the other rights), comes with responsibilities. We are responsible for using our own weapons safely and wisely, and for staying vigilant against those who don’t.

That does not mean paranoia, where we suddenly suspect that any odd or angry person is a deadly risk. However, it does mean trusting that the survival instinct buried deep within the most primitive part of our brain recognizes when things are really wrong. In his excellent book, The Gift of Fear, Gavin de Becker explains that we all have this primitive spidey sense, but too often ignore it—and predators know and take advantage of this fact.

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Don’t be paranoid; do be vigilant. This responsibility lies with all of us.

Image created using AI.