As I mentioned in a previous post, thanks to her quick thinking, superior balance and keen gun skills, 18-year-old Sarah McKinley and her 3-month-old son are alive today.
The Oklahoma widow has been basking in the national media spotlight ever since she shot and killed a man who tried to break into her home on New Year’s Eve.
In the past week, McKinley has made the rounds on cable and network news shows, but now her name is gaining even more notoriety because Sarah Palin is trying to make her the poster child for gun rights.
The conservative politician is heaping praise on the gun-toting single mother, who won’t face charges for killing 24-year-old Justin Martin, because she acted in self defense.
“She fulfilled a purpose of the Second Amendment,” Palin said of McKinley in an interview with the National Review Online. “I’d advise my own daughters to do the same. I’m all in favor of girls with guns who know their purpose.”
Well, that didn’t take long.
You had to know that it would be just a matter of time before opponents of gun control would use McKinley’s story to try to expand gun rights.
This, of course, has proponents of gun regulation in a tizzy.
They point to the recent shooting death of a 17-year-old boy visiting his dad in Indiana to prove their point.
According to news reports, Brandon Spangler of Flushing, Michigan, was fired at by a farmer who mistook him for a coyote. The teen was reportedly playing on a friend’s farm in Shelby, Indiana, when he was struck by a burst of gunfire and pronounced dead on the scene.
The high school senior’s life was snuffed out in an instant, and the boy’s grieving family is still recovering from the loss.
Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, Sarah McKinley says she still has the ability to cradle her baby boy because of her right to bear arms.
Has your view on gun rights changed since you’ve become a parent?
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