Freedom from Violence

            The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday is the simple fact that all people deserve to be free from violence. Every person – black or white, young or old, male or female, liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican – deserves to be safe from violence; yet violent people continue to prey upon innocent people.

            Another school shooting took place on Valentine’s Day, and this one was at a high school in Parkland, Florida. It is a different state and a different school, but it brings the same results. First, there is the heartbreak and sorrow of losing loved ones and friends. Second, there is the cry for more gun control. It is insane at how quickly these calls come! If the killer had killed 17 children and injured dozens of others at a bus stop by running over them with a car, there would be no call to ban cars. Yet, people immediately start calling for more gun control every time some maniac goes crazy and starts killing.

            Why is there a call to ban guns because a person with evil in his heart misused a gun? There were already gun control laws on the books that should have protected the students at that Florida high school. The school was declared a “gun-free zone,” and there was a law in place banning guns from the campus. If laws alone could protect the students, that law should have done the trick. In addition, the shooter obeyed the laws for purchasing the gun. The FBI says that the rifle was purchased legally. Why didn’t the current gun laws protect the students?

            The answer to that question is that laws are only obeyed by law-abiding citizens. Every single gun could be taken from law-abiding citizens of the United States, and there would still be people killed with guns. Why? Because it is not the law-abiding citizen that goes around killing other people! It is someone who has gone mentally insane either temporarily or permanently, or it is plain evil. At any rate, it is the person behind the gun that is doing the killing, not the gun itself. I have been around guns for my entire life, and I know many people who own guns. I know for sure that not one of those guns has been used to deliberately kill another person. In fact, I personally know only one person who was killed with a gun, and he was killed in a hunting accident. It was an accident, not murder! Guns cannot kill anyone by themselves. They must have somebody willing to pull the trigger.

            So, instead of calling for more gun laws to control the law-abiding citizens of America, we should be taking a good, solid look at our society. When I was a student in high school, classmates brought their rifles to school and left them locked in their vehicles during the school day. I lived in a rural area, and the students hunted for deer on their way from school. It was a common occurrence to have rifles on the school campus, yet there were zero murders at the school. Why?

            This is the big question that we should be asking. Why are there so many school shooting now when there were hardly any prior to the massacre at Columbine High School in April 1999? What has happened to society in less than 20 years? Is it the breakdown of the family unit? Are parents too busy now to teach their children right from wrong? Is it too much technology? Is it video games? Are drugs too easily obtained? Has the whole human race suddenly gone crazy? Instead of calling for more gun control, I suggest that we demand answers to these questions and others like them.

            I also suggest that we discuss the reason for the Second Amendment and why so many people want to destroy it. The Second Amendment is not about hunting or recreational shooting. It is the Founders’ answer to tyranny from the government. The Founders understood that no government would go against an armed population. This is why they wrote into the Bill of Rights the Second Amendment, the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. They wanted the populace to have the capability to protect themselves from the government if need be. So, start asking why people want to take this right away from law-abiding citizens!

            I have watched the following video titled “This is the best and smartest gun argument I have heard yet!” several times, but I think that it is time to watch it again. I hope that you will take the seven minutes to watch the video in which a “virtual President of the United States” discusses murder, violence, and insanity.