Like Dorothy, we’re not in Kansas anymore. Unlike Dorothy, we can’t go back.
Yet still, we’re being told to follow a ‘Yellow-brick road’ which promises to guide us back to safety and security. But this road is both monolithic and naive. It is a route which depends upon equal parts wishful thinking and emotion. But the hard truth is that the genie is out of the bottle; guns will never be erased from the world, nor this society in particular. Depending solely on a solution which has at its core a requirement for the complete unavailability of guns is simply a dizzy panacea Neville Chamberlain might have championed. Prohibition taught us that, the ‘war on drugs’ tells us that, and the increasing size of the ‘nuclear fraternity’ tells us that.
People from all sides of the political spectrum have suggested road maps out of our current crisis. It seems, however, that many want to disregard answers which do not support their pre-determined position or advance their political view of firearms (good or bad), the second amendment or civil liberties. One example is the suggestion of putting armed protection for the children in schools, which is inexplicably drawing criticism.
Likely, most of the criticism is due to the source of the suggestion; Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association (NRA), rather than due to the merits of the suggestion. The reluctance of some Americans to be willing to protect the lives of their own children in school is mind-boggling and frankly, troubling.
Remarks: Please drop what you’re doing and take ten minutes to read an argument against gun control that is rooted in reality, truth, empirical evidence and the way the world actually works. An argument by a retired FBI agent and firearm expert who also knows a thing or two about criminals, the insane and the criminally insane.
That retired FBI agent (and former high school classmate of mine) is Steve Moore, retired recently after 25 years in the FBI. With his expert background and obvious writing skill, his clear, well-argued case must be addressed, especially by those who propose that simply by passing legislation we can make guns, crazy people, and criminals disappear.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that a man who risked his life by dedicating his career to protecting the innocent might propose that putting more people similar to himself in positions to protect schoolchildren – the most innocent human beings on the planet – might actually be a good and workable idea. He’s in law enforcement, and he sees the world through that lens. Well, I’m not in law enforcement, but I agree with Steve, for a whole host of reasons. So does the head of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre.
We all see the intrinsic value of having even one armed and well-trained security expert in a school, because one is one more than none. Here’s what we’re doing today: zero armed and well-trained security experts. Is it working? Pretty clearly, the answer to that is “no”.
It may come as a shock to some of you, but everybody wants to prevent future attacks like Sandy Hook, even those of us who believe in the Second Amendment. It isn’t about IF we want to protect the innocent, it’s about HOW to protect the innocent.
So, while it is tempting to imagine a fantasy world where guns are just “gone” (ie, confiscated) and crime does not go up directly because of that, a world where nobody is insane or thinks evil thoughts about killing others to make their horrific pain go away or just because they are no damn good, none of that changes the simple fact that the act of making policy to address real-world problems depends on understanding the world as it is, not as we’d like it to be.
Again: the act of making policy to address real-world problems depends on understanding the world as it is, not as we’d like it to be. Without that, you’re just throwing darts at a dartboard. Blindfolded. Drunk. With your feet.
As such, we must evaluate our policies based on how they would actually work, not on how they look or whether they advance certain a priori world views or partisan political positions.
We must evaluate our policies based on how they would work in the real world where we live, and in the real world where, quite tragically, some innocent children died at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
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