Is It Time for Citizens to Arm Themselves?

A clearly frustrated South Carolina sheriff had some harsh words for the criminal justice system after a man with a long history of arrests attacked and sexually assaulted a woman in a Spartanburg park.

“I can tell you that our form of justice is not making it,” said Sheriff Chuck Wright in a videotaped press conference posted on YouTube.

Wright said the suspect in the attack, Walter Monroe Lance, 46, has been arrested multiple times and convicted of 20 charges dating back to 1983. The charges range from disorderly conduct to assault and battery with intent to kill. Most recently, the suspect served 14 months for a federal probation violation.

“I’ve had liberals call me and tell me ‘a chain gang is not going to work.’ Well, let me inform you that your form of justice isn’t working either,” Wright said.

A clearly exasperated Wright said he does not believe every criminal should be permanently jailed, but added, while holding up a photo of the suspect, “I believe that this animal right here don’t deserve to be out in our society walking alongside of our women.”

Wright said it was “almost too bad” that someone with a concealed weapons permit had not walked by during the attack and heard the victim’s cries.

“That would have fixed this,” he said.

Sheriff Wright encouraged females to walk in groups and get a concealed weapons permit.

“I don’t want you to go for the mace, I want you to go for the concealed weapons permit,” he said.

Though Wright said he did not want to see citizens placed in a position of having to use a firearm, he said there was only one form of gun control as far as he was concerned.

“Gun control, to me, is when you can get your barrel back on the target quick,” he said.

What are your thoughts on gun control? Do you believe citizens should arm themselves? .