A Fighting Chance

The 21 year old University of Wisconsin-Madison coed wanted to be a physician. She had altruistic goals of healing the sick and infirm, not of living a country club lifestyle. She was living with her fiance'. They had plans to marry in Hawaii. When he arrived at home, on April 2, 2008, he found her dead.

Brittany Zimmerman had been beaten and stabbed multiple times in her chest. She was finally strangled to death as she desperately clung to life. Her door showed signs of forced entry. Her cell phone was shattered. Amazingly, Brittany had notified a sheriff's 911 dispatcher of the vicious attack. The 911 tape revealed screams, gasps and the sounds of a struggle, according to court documents. Her call for help was ignored because "the dispatcher did not hear any sounds that would signal an emergency." After her murder, a Marquette Tribune headline had the audacity to declare that the cause of Brittany Zimmerman's death was still unknown. Her killer is still at large.

Here's a snippet of reality for those who still believe the cause of this young woman's death is "unknown." She was murdered. She bled out while some predatory animal in human form squeezed the last breath out of her collapsing, blood filled lungs. She died a horrible, unjust and unnecessary death. Police failed to respond in a timely fashion. It took them 48 minutes to arrive at her home to "investigate" Brittany Zimmerman's death, only after her husband-to-be found her dead body.

I have yet another reality snippet. The failure of the police to respond in a timely fashion is irrelevant. The lethal attack was already in progress when they were notified. Unless officers were already on patrol on her street, a 911 call was but a futile notification that a homicide would soon be investigated. The only way that Brittany Zimmerman could have been saved at that point was by having the ability to effectively fight off an attacking predator. It is evident that she did not have the physical strength or know how to do so. Thus, she needed a tool. She needed a gun.

A gun is not a magic talisman against evil. A gun is not some mystical device that saves lives any more than it is an evil device that takes lives. A gun is an inanimate object. A tool with which we can protect ourselves. A life preserver. A gun might not have saved Brittany Zimmerman on April 2, but with the proper training and effective ammunition, it would have given her a fighting chance. If only she had a gun.