Carol Browne did everything she could to protect herself from Michael Eitel, her abusive ex-boyfriend. She had a restraining order against him, citing years of physical and emotional abuse. She installed security cameras at her home. Browne even went so far as to ask for a police escort home to protect her from Eitel, a request that was denied due to "lack of manpower." She also applied for a gun permit in New Jersey, a state with some of the strictest gun control laws. Under that law, Browne had to wait up to 30 days for her permit to be granted or denied.
On June 3, 2015, Eitel violated the restraining order and stabbed Browne to death in the driveway of her home, two days after she'd gone to the police to check on the status of her application. Eitel himself was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound three days later, on what would've been Brown's 40th birthday.
I spent my 40th birthday in Washington, D.C., with dear friends. Carole Browne didn't even get to see that milestone birthday.
Republican Governor Chris Christie changed New Jersey's gun laws in response to Browne's death, so that "those living under a direct or material threat" could get their permit in 14 days, not 30. Democratic Governor Phil Murphy reversed that to "make New Jersey's gun control policies the 'strongest' in America."
Contrast Browne's tragic, and avoidable, end with what happened to Sarah McKinley in Oklahoma. McKinley was an 18-year-old widow and new mother who found herself the target of a home invasion on New Year's Eve, 2011. McKinley had buried her husband, who died of cancer less than a week before. The day of his funeral, a man named Justin Martin showed up at McKinley's home claiming to be a neighbor. McKinley didn't let him in. On New Year's Eve, Martin showed up at the home again with Dustin Stewart. Armed with a hunting knife, Martin and Stewart tried to break into McKinley's home.
McKinley grabbed a shotgun and a pistol, put a bottle in her baby's mouth, and called 911. When Martin finally kicked down the door, McKinley shot and killed him. Authorities ruled the shooting justified. Had Oklahoma adopted "strong" gun laws like New Jersey, McKinley and her son would likely be dead.
Earlier, our own Tom Knighton mentioned the Giffords organization's push to end "Stand Your Ground" laws on the basis they "encourage people to shoot first and ask questions later."
Stand your ground laws encourage people to shoot first and ask questions later. It’s a license to kill that makes all of us less safe.
— GIFFORDS (@GIFFORDS_org) October 29, 2025
These legally sanctioned killings are on the rise and must be stopped. https://t.co/dpexy0JJSq
As Tom wrote:
And Giffords wants to put an end to all of these "legally sanctioned killings."
Let's understand that they used the word "killings" and not "murders," which suggests they aren't differentiating between people trying to play games with the law and those who legitimately acted in self-defense. Killings include all of them, and one could argue that because the good guys with guns weren't prosecuted, it was legally sanctioned.
In other words, yes, they want to stop all self-defense shootings.
But it goes much further than stopping self-defense shootings. Giffords explicitly attacks "Stand Your Ground" laws, which do not require the use of a firearm. Such laws mean a person does not have a "duty to retreat," which is defined as "a legal principle requiring individuals to attempt to retreat or remove themselves from a threatening situation before resulting to force, or deadly force, in self-defense" according to NCLS. Under "Stand Your Ground" laws, I could defend my home with a knife, a baseball bat, or my cast-iron skillet.
The point is, it protects my right to defend myself, even sans firearm.
I do not believe that's ignorance on the part of Giffords. Yes, the group is anti-gun and anti-Second Amendment. But this is an attack on the concept of self-defense in any form.
Given the current political mindset of the Left — both in America and elsewhere — that should raise all of the red flags for everyone.
We have seen, time and again, the Democratic Party put forth policies and legislation that are "soft on crime." The Democrats do this intentionally. They thrive on the chaos created by having career criminals running loose to rob, assault, rape, and murder innocents. The collapse of Western civilization, which the Left loathes, is brought about by such chaos.
It's why, for example, Indiana career criminal Courtney Boose can be arrested and released 99 times and still only be charged with "aggravated battery" after stabbing a man in a gas station parking lot. It's why Decarlos Brown, Jr. can board the Charlotte light rail after 14 prior arrests and fatally stab 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska in the neck. It's why Logan Federico was killed by Alexander Devante Dickey, who had 39 prior arrests.
This is not a uniquely American problem, either. In the U.K., the suspected terrorist who is literally named Jihad Al-Shamie was out on bail when he stabbed Jews outside a Manchester Synagogue on Yom Kippur. Two were killed and several were injured.
If you want a vision of what our future is, if Giffords has their way, we can look at the U.K. There, guns are banned, but it doesn't stop the rape, assault, and murder of anyone. Self-defense is also rendered meaningless in (not so) Great Britain, too.
Richard Osborn-Brooks, 78, was arrested in 2018 after he allegedly stabbed an intruder to death at his home in Hither Green. It took over a year for authorities to rule that a "lawful" killing.
In 2009, brothers Munir and Toker Hussain were not so lucky. The pair were jailed for 39 months and 30 months, respectively, after they beat with a bat a man who broke into Munir's home, tied up his family, and threatened to kill them. The judge presiding over their case said the "public must not take law into own hands."
Manhattan man Daniel Penny protected his fellow straphangers from the violent and aggressive threats of Jordan Neely. Penny put Neely in a restraint hold after the man harassed women and others on the subway. Neely, like Boose, Brown, and Dickey, had an extensive criminal record with more than 40 arrests. He also had health issues and later died after his interaction with Penny. For defending himself and others from a career criminal, Penny was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and negligent homicide. After a long, racially charged trial, Penny was acquitted. But the message sent was clear: defend yourself, and we will throw the book at you.
And that's precisely the problem in both the U.K. and the U.S. — authorities do not want citizens to "take law into our own hands" but the authorities also have no interest in protecting the citizenry from violent criminal thugs.
As I mentioned earlier, it's because they don't want to. They want us at the mercy of criminal thugs so we'll beg them to "save" us.
While not explicitly enshrined in the Constitution, I would argue we do, in fact, have a right to self-defense embedded in all the other rights. The First Amendment protects our right to defend ourselves through speech, the press, peaceful assembly, and a "redress of grievances" with the government; the Second, our right to defend ourselves with firearms; the Third, the sanctity of our home; and the Fourth, against government confiscation of our property.
Those rights are so deeply intertwined, if we lose one, we — eventually — lose them all. And the erosion of those rights begins with places like Giffords arguing we don't have a right to protect ourselves from those who would do us harm.
Just ask Carol Browne.