Matthew Sepi’s government taught him to kill. Now that he is back from Iraq, he has used the training, apparently to defend himself.
(Sepi) explained that he had been trained in the military that in a situation in which he was ambushed, he was to engage the targets and retreat from the area,” police wrote in the report. “He felt that the situation in the alley was an ambush, and he reacted the way he had been trained.”
This story illustrates a number of the silly rules our society expects us to follow. Sepi is 20-years-old. He was on a beer run. I’ve never understood why we allow 18 to 20 year old kids to kill for our country while at the same time telling them they aren’t responsible enough to have an alcoholic beverage or three.
Another silliness – we put our troops in environments where they are constantly in danger and then act surprised and shocked when they get back here and still want to carry around loaded weapons at all times. Personally, I think every responsible adult should always have a loaded weapon handy and be prepared to use it in self-defense or the defense of other citizens as necessary. If you put your personal security in the hands of anyone other than you or a trusted associate, you deserve it when you find you really don’t have much security.
Sepi may or may not be a great guy, but if he was defending himself, he had an inherent right to do so and I have no problem with him carrying an “assault rifle.” After all, if he was being shot at with a 9mm handgun in a dark alley, he needed it.