By Ralph Esposito, Editor

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families of the terrorist attacks in Paris. Well over 100 innocents brutally murdered and hundreds more wounded by a handful of radical Islamic terrorists.

France is a nation that is restrictive of gun ownership, including all but prohibiting legal handgun carry. Despite these laws the terrorist had fully automatic military weapons, grenades and suicide vests. The best those were caught in the killers sights could do was call the police on their cell phones and beg them to save their lives.

I am not saying that the Second Amendment could absolutely prevent such a horror but we do know the following in the US:

•  The police always arrive after the shooting begins, long minutes   after.

•  Most mass shootings have happened in a gun free zone, assuring unarmed victims.

•  Many times when an armed citizen is present the shooter is stopped   long before the police arrive. Recall the Oregon mall shooting that was stopped by an armed civilian. Upon his arrival the shooter killed himself, October, 2015. Lets not forget the security guard who shot the two armed terrorists at the Dallas area Muslim cartoon event in May of 2015. Score two dead terrorists, one wounded security officer.

Could armed citizens in Paris have stopped have the carnage? That is something we will never know. What is clear is that armed citizens would have had a chance to stop or at least slow down the killers; perhaps saving some lives. Instead people died running away or begging for their lives. Pleas that fell on deaf ears of those callous vermin.

It is interesting to note that in Austria and other European Union countries since the first Paris terrorist attack, where some guns can still be purchased legally there has been a run on gun purchases. Funny how that is happening in the very countries President Obama's called "civilized" because of their restrictive gun control.

In World War II the evil that had taken control in Germany disarmed both it's own people and those it conquered. That allowed the round up and slaughter of millions of innocents to go unchallenged. I imagine many of them tried running away or begging for their lives too. Of course those who seek to disarm us today have only our best interests at heart - so they tell us, and of course that they will protect us (ask someone in Chicago about that).

The question is, if God forbid you were in Paris that tragic Friday the 13th would you rather have had a cell phone or a gun?