Aug 20th - A Sad but Necessary Proposal

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.