Here’s a news item that’s been floating around lately and gathering comments wherever it turns up.

SEPTEMBER 2—Meet Roger Stephens. The Georgia man, 61, was shopping Monday morning at a Walmart in Stone Mountain when he crossed paths with Sonya Matthews and her two-year-old daughter Paige. The child was crying, which apparently greatly perturbed Matthews. "If you don't shut that baby up I will shut her up for you," Stephens warned Matthews, according to a Gwinnett County Police Department report. Moments later, Stephens acted on his threat, slapping Paige "across the face approximately four or five times." Though the child "started crying and screaming" after being struck, Stephens told Matthews, "See, I told you I would shut her up." After police were summoned, Stephens told a cop that the child was crying "and he just slapped her," according to the report. Stephens was arrested for felony cruelty to children and booked into the Gwinnett County Detention Center, where he is being held without bond. Paige sustained "slight redness to the face," but was otherwise unharmed.

If this isn’t a fine reason to carry a gun, I’m not sure there’s a better one anywhere. I hear a lot about disparity of force and fear of loss of life when discussing shootings. This 61 year old piece of shit slapping a 2 year old child pretty well takes care of those arguments. There is absolutely no reason that the girl’s mom couldn’t have stitched half a dozen rounds into the assailant to protect her daughter from what could have been fatal blows (just think of the cranial damage that could have occurred from repeatedly slapping a child). But, I guess mom didn’t have a firearm or she was just too shocked to react. It is that ability to react that separates the wolves from the sheep.

Would any parent even suspect that something like this could happen? Probably not, which means that it must be something suspected and prepared for. Being shocked is fine, it is a natural reaction. It shouldn’t stop you, though, from taking care of the problem. In this case, the problem assailant could have been shot to the ground or pummeled with whatever was at hand. When you feel shocked, attack just like a wolf. I learned after this story was published that the news source omitted saying that some other customers in the store grabbed the worthless pile of garbage and held him down until the police arrived. Personally, I think they showed incredible self-restraint.

While I make it a point to not get involved in situations where I am not directly threatened, little children would be an extremely likely exception. Perhaps when this 61 year old reaches prison (I should say hopefully, as one never knows even with a felony charge), some inmate will do us all a favor and rid us of this maggot. Read the news article again and then think of what you would like to do to this guy, if you could do anything – no repercussions. If you’re thinking destruction, then you know how a wolf should be thinking. Some people just need killing.