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SUMMARY: From this week's headlines comes a good example of why

the right to bear arms is so important.

In the news this week is the Cascade-area man who shot and killed an escaped convict who broke into his home and threatened his wife and him. What an awful, terrifying experience. Thank goodness Robert Nylund had a weapon available, the ability to quickly access it and the skill needed to use it under trying circumstances when the stakes couldn't be higher. That's what we call gun control.

We in the news business never seem to miss an opportunity to regale the public with examples of firearm misuse. Examples abound and they invariably feed firearm opponents' demands for stricter regulations or outright bans on guns. What too often goes unacknowledged, at least by the mainstream news media, is that the difference between a harrowing situation and brutal crime sometimes comes down to an armed citizen. Guns are inanimate objects, neither good nor bad. Bad people can put them to bad use, but good people also can put them to good use.

No, it isn't every day that an escaped convict breaks into your house (although, we can't help but notice that convicts escape from the Great Falls regional jail with distressing frequency). But it's a dangerous world in which we live, and you can't always count on the cops to be on hand when you need them most. Relatively few people will ever be called upon to defend themselves from deadly threats, but many of us value greatly the ability to do so, just in case.

Montana law is unambiguous when it comes to your right to use a firearm for protection:

"Any necessary force may be used to protect from wrongful injury the person or property of one's self, of a wife, husband, child, parent or other relative or member of one's family, or of a ward, servant, master or guest."

"A person is justified in the use of force or threat to use force against another when and to the extent that he reasonably believes that such conduct is necessary to defend himself or another against such other's use of unlawful force. However, he is justified in the use of force likely to cause death or serious bodily harm only if he reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or serious bodily harm to himself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony."

Like all rights, the right to self-defense comes with significant responsibilities. It's deadly serious business. It starts with the right to own a firearm, but it includes the responsibility to exercise good judgment and competence in handling the weapon.

Incidents like the one this week near Cascade help remind us all why the right to bear arms is one so many people hold dear - even as we acknowledge and work to combat criminal use of guns. You should never take for granted the fact that you live in a country - well, at least a part of the country - where citizens have the right to use might for their own protection.

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