When tragedy strikes, the first reaction often involves hysterics. The public cries out for justice. Politicians cry out for power. The media cries out for news. And the nation’s “experts” cry out for attention. None of this serves the nation or its citizenry well. The public often ignores the collapse of society through licentious behavior. Politicians often ignore that sufficient laws exist to corral the law- abiding citizen while no law exists that can corral the criminally intent. The media often ignore the facts under the duress of fleeting customers. And the nation’s so-called experts often ignore that they bear insufficient study of the topic to lend anything but a remote personal observation regarding the crisis at hand. These conflicting prejudices conspire to compound any serious study of dealing with tragedy, especially those representing school shootings such as that which happened in Newtown, Connecticut during December 2012. Hysterical response often destroys the very fabric of society such measures are intended to protect.
A Dire Need for Common Sense
As the nation reels in horror over the recent tragedy in Connecticut, subversive powers have set into motion damaging ideologies that will further escalate the long-term implications of this massacre, shepherding in restrictive legislation while law-abiding citizens remain sacrificed over the actions of a miniscule portion of the population that cannot be saved from his or her own destruction. Following the Newtown massacre – the third most horrific killing of schoolchildren in U.S. history – two fundamental facts were largely ignored by both the press and legislators in Washington. First, inherent evil exists and has challenged society throughout the whole of human history.1This may not be easy to accept for secularized and “enlightened” individuals, but there will always be individuals who, regardless of background, rearing, education, and health, will serve to harm his or her fellow citizens. They cannot be legislated away anymore than there rests any ‘cure all’ solutions for their barbarism.
Secondly, the provisions of the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment remain a non-issue in this matter. The Bill of Rights, particularly the Second Amendment guaranteeing firearms ownership, serves to ensure that the people corral the government, not that the government controls the people. Any effort – local, state, or federal – that conspires against the Second Amendment remains unconscionable at best and tyrannical at worst. To permit politicians to set gun control legislation represents little more than permitting bank robbers to control security at the nation’s largest financial institutions. America’s founding fathers established the right to bear arms to keep our national leaders honest – not the U.S. population as a whole.
Once these two conditions are acknowledged, reasonable and practical measures can be considered to protect American schools and universities, as well as other “soft targets” such as hospitals, churches, and shopping malls. Provisions to protect these facilities requires no additional legislation, no hiring of extra personnel, and no major expenditures. Regardless of foreseeable challenges, most institutions already bear or can access everything they need to respond to all but the most catastrophic attack. All that is required is a paradigm shift in societal thought and facility management expectations.
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