I was starting to get worried by all this talk about arming everybody. I feared that, as usual, disabled folk were being left out of the conversation.
Because if the preferred method for not being shot is being able to shoot back, a lot of good that does me and a whole bunch of people like me. Guns are not accessible for us. I can’t even lift my arms, let alone pull a trigger.
In a society where the guy with biggest gun rules, I’m a sitting duck. All the bad guys will know by looking at me there’s no way I can shoot back. You might as well paint a bull’s eye on my butt.
But perhaps I have grossly underestimated my ability to survive a shoot-out. For one thing, the National Rifle Association has my back. They have something they call the Adaptive Shooting Program. The logo is that ubiquitous wheelchair stick figure shooting a handgun.
The NRA says, “Your disability should not prohibit you from enjoying the shooting sports or personal protection. We are committed to providing you with all the information you need to do what you love and protect the ones you love.”
The NRA says, “Adaptive shooting is applying any specialized technique or technology to safely participate in shooting activities. It can be as simple as lighter caliber guns to accommodate decreased grip strength associated with arthritis or as complex as hydraulic systems that allow people with quadriplegia to fire high powered rifles.”
In a society where the guy with biggest gun rules, I’m a sitting duck.
The NRA offers its instructors a special training course where they can learn how to teach wheelchair users like me how to shoot. The training course has a section on disability etiquette, which is very important for these non-disabled instructors to learn. If they’re surrounded by gun-toting people in wheelchairs, it’s a good idea not to accidentally insult us by calling us invalids.
But let’s get back to that part about quadriplegics shooting high-powered rifles. Is that really possible? Apparently it is! There’s a company called Be Adaptive that sells all kinds of gadgets that make this possible. Its website features a video of a guy with an AK-47 mounted to his wheelchair. And he fires it by blowing into a tube! It’s completely hands-free!
So now I’m all in on open carry. I want to roll around locked and loaded like that guy!
Concealed carry laws would be discriminatory against me, though. What am I supposed to do, throw a blanket over the assault rifle mounted on my wheelchair? No, there’s only one way for me to fully exercise my 2nd Amendment rights bestowed by the Creator.
I must be free to display my adapted machine gun assembly for all to see. Then the bad guys won’t mess with me or the ones I love because they’ll know I’m perfectly capable of shooting them down, as long as they stand right in front of me and hold still long enough for me to take aim.
Mike Ervin is a writer and disability rights activist living in Chicago. He blogs at Smart Ass Cripple, “expressing pain through sarcasm since 2010.”