Recently, two hikers disappeared in the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina. The police have found the body of one of the hikers, 84 year old Irene Bryant and are continuing to look for her 79 year old husband, John. Both went out for a hike about two weeks ago and did not return. The local police are now treating the death as a homicide, stating that Irene was killed by a blow to the left side of her head. Police have reviewed surveillance video from an ATM in nearby Polk County, Tennessee, hoping to identify the person using the Bryant's ATM card after their disappearance. The police do not believe the person using the card is John Bryant and the FBI has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person seen using the card on the video.

I have to wonder if the result for Mrs. Bryant would be different had her or her husband been legally carrying a firearm. I know this statement will raise the hair on the necks of readers, but gun control and prohibitions have only increased crime in areas where it's enacted. As noted in Dr. John Lott's More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun-Control Laws guns reduce crime, most especially, violent crime against individuals. He goes on to discuss the failure of Great Britain and Australia's failing gun bans in The Bias Against Guns: Why Almost Everything You've Heard About Gun Control Is Wrong.

As much as I hate the thought of having to carry while hiking, I would prefer to have the protection when I need it, than need it and not have it. The Bryant's attempted to call 911 from their cell phone, without much success due to poor cell tower coverage in the National Forest.

Before we build a bunch of cell phone towers in National Forests and Parks so people can wait hours for police to arrive when they are in mortal danger, why not allow those with valid carry permits to carry their weapons while hiking? Some of the original outdoors men carried weapons while blazing the very trails we use, today. These weapons were as much for protection from the "natives," as for hunting game -- today, those "natives" are the criminals that invade the trails and forests. I would rather provide a deterrent to them in the form of a weapon, than an invitation to an entire area of un-protected, disconnected victims.