Aug. 20th - A Sad but Necessary Proposal
Some of you are not going to like this blog entry. For that I make no apologies. Sometimes some things just need to be
said.
Many of you have emailed me to ask me my opinion of gun
control in the wake of the recent shootings in Colorado and Wisconsin. Curiously not one has asked me about
the alleged shooter in DC that opened fire on a conservative think tank because
he “disagreed with their views”….his words, not mine.
I don’t blame you for not knowing the details about the DC
shooter….he doesn’t fit the criterion of a good villain…he is a self proclaimed
liberal….and most of the media is having a tough time figuring how to deal with
that.
I have purposely kept silent on these tragedies for a little
while to allow some of the emotions and hyperbole to die down. There were more than enough
pontificators taking up air time to fill the vacuum. I saw no reason to add to the din.
That said….some observations:
First….you might be surprised to know that mass casualty
disasters at the end of the gun is a fairly recent phenomenon. Prior to the recent use of firearms to
commit mass murder, psychotics employed a far more efficient tool to
exterminate large swaths of humanity…..fire.
Yep…the weapon of choice of the deranged throughout history
has not been the gun or the sword….rather it has been a confined area and
bundles of burning straw.
Forensics not with standing…prevention of future tragedies
is of paramount concern. Much has
been made of preventing firearms from falling into the wrong hands. By and large this seems like common
sense….who wouldn’t want guns being kept out of the hands of a psychotic?
But what about that nasty straw?
If someone is prevented from obtaining a firearm are we to
assume that their murderous tendencies will just simply vanish? I doubt it. Furthermore, if someone shows up at a gun store wearing a
tin foil hat and ranting about the government it is highly likely that they
will be having an intervention with the police before they walk out the
place. The point is….the one’s
that appear crazy are usually not the one’s you need to worry about.
So….prophylactic measures aside. (As we all know, sometimes the condom breaks)…how to prevent
future atrocities?
Many of my fellow commentators always like to point out that
when the government confiscates the weapons of it’s citizens and reduces them
to subjects things usually turn out badly. I won’t go into the gory details of this…most of you already
know the story. Hence to say
Cambodia, Germany, Armenia and southern Africa have a lot more graves filled
with the bodies of the defenseless, than those who were capable of resisting
through force of arms.
But here is where I differ with my fellow pontificators:
I’m not sure I really believe anymore that is was the object
of confiscation that lead to some of my ancestors demise, or those of other
decimated peoples.
No….it was the not the taking of the gun….it’s what was left
of the person after the gun was taken.
People robbed of their independence become by definition
dependants. Dependants…well…depend not just on authority, but on a system of authority
for their survival. We might
modify our bodies to imitate the ideals of the Greek Gods, but at the
superficial we choose to stop. We become
wealthy by participating in the system.
We feel safe by grouping ourselves within the collective. We outsource our protection to those
that wear a uniform, and yet we know…instinctively know… that their job is by definition remedial. They cannot logically stop a tragedy
before it happens. It is even
doubtful they have the ability to respond to a tragedy rapidly enough to prevent loss of life. They are there to at best put an end to
the carnage, or investigate the devastation and find the culprit. This is the same if the tragedy is the
result of a 9mm or a chained door and lighter fluid.
So here is a modest proposal:
Nationally, locally,…we release the demon of "victim" from our
psyche and become the aggressor.
When confronted with unimaginable horror most people flee. Some people find bravery and try to
protect others. Few are willing to
unleash hell on the monsters that threaten us.
We must, as a society be willing to shed our humanity when
faced with barbarity. It matters
not if the insanity that motivates the perpetrator is fed through ideology,
religion, or psychosis. When they
execute on a plan to end the lives of innocents, the innocents must become
combatants. And do so with extreme
prejudice.
This does not necessarily mean only happy endings.
When a monster attacked a place of worship in Wisconsin one
brave soul went operational and attacked the attacker with a butter knife. He sadly perished, but his actions
confounded the attacker and gave scores of others the chance to escape. Good…but not good enough….what would
have happened if those that ran had instead went after him with butter knives,
chairs, and the soles of the shoes?
Sometimes to reclaim our humanity if the face of
unimaginable evil we must shed it temporarily to send that manifestation of
evil back to whence it came.
No…gun control is no more the answer to preventing future
tragedies as banning spoons will prevent future obesity.
What we need as a society, is sadly far more
aggressive.
