Scrapbook friend Daniel Gelernter, an occasional contributor to these pages and an NRA-certified firearms instructor in his spare time, emailed us last week with some reflections we thought worthy of reprinting here:

“According to liberals, the most dangerous place in the world must be a gun show: It's a giant room full of macho, vigilante maniacs with itchy trigger fingers and several guns apiece, with evil assault rifles everywhere, and a mysterious loophole that somehow allows the criminally insane to walk away with AR-15s.

"According to liberals, the safest place in the world is a 'gun-free zone': a school, a bar, a movie theater with a 'no guns' sign, or, since 1993, any American military base.

"But there has never been a mass shooting at a gun show.

"Some societies are more prone to violence; some are less prone. America is a relatively violent society, a relatively hyperactive society, a risk-taking society. And yet, the safest place in America is a place where everybody has a gun.

"The only excuse for a 'gun-free zone'—the only justification that is not intellectually dishonest—is as one step on the march to a gun-free world. This is a favorite liberal pipedream. And yet, assuming we could delete every gun in the world with the touch of a button, would that be a good idea?

"Not unless you believe that when someone attacks you with a knife, you should be forced to defend yourself with a knife. Some liberals do think this—or, rather, they think that, when you are attacked, you shouldn't have to defend yourself at all. They are not comfortable with the idea of self-defense and do not see how anyone else could possibly be comfortable with it. A variant of this view is the idea that AR-15s are scary and trauma-inducing and that, if you're not afraid of them, well, you darn well ought to be.

"To a liberal, the reliance on collective responsibility replaces the idea of individual responsibility. If someone collapses on the sidewalk, it's the community's responsibility to get him an ambulance, but no individual is deputized to check his pulse or deliver CPR.

"Oddly enough, the absence of individual responsibility is how our government operates—especially the one particular branch that liberals imagine is saving us from the need for self-defense: In the 1981 case of Warren v. District of Columbia, the D.C. Court of Appeals held that the police had no specific duty to protect individual citizens. Which is how the D.C. police got off after failing to respond to multiple 911 calls from Carolyn Warren when she and two friends were held captive and raped repeatedly over a period of 14 hours. The police have a responsibility to protect society as a whole, but don't expect them to be there when your life needs saving.

"Gun owners, as liberals know, are quick to anger and whip out their guns on the slightest pretext and mow down everything they see. They're mentally unstable. They're playing with fire. So why aren't gun shows dangerous?

"If you want to get shot, your odds are slightly (though infinitesimally) higher in a gun-free zone. If you'd rather avoid getting shot, carry a gun. And if you're afraid to carry a gun yourself, find some people who are not afraid, and stand next to them."