Arrrgh! Another mass shooting (October 1st, 2015) which leaves us all in heartbreak and civil turmoil. The usual questions come up, as they do every time:
Q: Who was this man and why would he do this horrible thing?
A: He was a man out of his mind and there is no other reason.
Q: Why can we not pass laws which would keep guns out of such a person's hands?
A: Men who are out of their minds do not obey laws and such a law would only disarm the law abiding and the innocent, since we never know who would cross the lines of human decency and must treat everyone as a potential murderer (millions) in the hope of stopping the one. The law abiding would remain disarmed while the law breaker would find a way to arm himself. This would also leave us all at the mercy of the everyday, run-of-the-mill thug, who is sane and threatens us with deadly force for personal gain.
Q: Why do these things keep happening?
A-1: I truly suspect that we are creating these rage-monsters through a medical system which makes money by prolifically prescribing mind altering drugs. In the last decade, the rate of prescriptions for ADHD has exploded. Has the true occurrence of ADHD and the commiserate need for such prescriptions really multiplied that much or are we seeking and easy way to control children with pills, with disastrous results? I would love to see a study wherein we see the percentage of these twenty-something male murderers who were under the care of a doctor and were taking these mind altering prescription drugs. With the huge numbers of these prescriptions being written, and the factor of one in a thousand turning into a monster, we are looking at the potential of thousands of these guys walking in our streets right now. It is truly amazing that we have as few of these shootings as we do!
A-2: The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. I do not know to whom that quote belongs but it perfectly illustrates my real frustration with these recurring mass shootings. Our men and women in this country need to wake up! We have been brought up in a civilly induced slumber. We walk around in the civil arena like it was our living room completely unaware of our vulnerabilities and naively believing that we are perfectly safe. Worse, we assume no responsibility for our own safety or give the slightest concern for those around us. We take the authorities word for granted that their rules, against our own self-protection, somehow make us safer. That is "bull-(redacted)" and deep down, we all know it.
Q: Upon the realization that the worse was happening, right here, right now, to you...and you were able to make that call to the 911 dispatcher and to make that person aware of the danger you are in, how long would you expect it to take for a very efficient police force to actually arrive and subdue the shooter? Remember to be fair about this, for that dispatcher would have to get another human on the radio and convey the message, that officer would have to drop everything and race over, stop the car, find the door and find the shooter. Would two minutes be a good estimate? (I think two minutes would be very optimistic, personally)
There are twenty other victims cowering in the room with you as the active shooter picks you out, one by one...BANG!...BANG!......BANG!...BANG!...BANG! How long would two minutes be? Too long, by any standard. And what are you doing? Fighting or waiting as...BANG!, another innocent person dies, while you cower and pray for help...for yourself? BANG!
Madness! I am not anymore angry with the crazy man or the gun than I would be with a rabid dog or a poisonous snake. I am mad at the men and women who allow this to happen in their midst, who allow politicians to lull them into a false sense of security with insane gun laws and "gun free" zones which only make themselves helpless victims. Why oh why does anybody live in New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Washington DC, Illinois or California?! Why have these state's voters not thrown their state legislatures out on their butts?! It is because they are walking around in a daze with an utterly foolish and false feeling of security.
Let me be fair. The shootings in Arizona, Colorado, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi and Arkansas, to name a few, happened in states where the gun laws are more liberal and people are afforded the ability to carry in public, though not in "gun free" zones. Unfortunately, the people in these states, like the others, are also asleep and do not always take advantage of their legal right to carry and are caught flat footed when the unthinkable happens.
I can tell you from experience that carrying a handgun everywhere, all the time, is a pain in the butt. However, that is what men and women of honor do. We prepare for the worst while expecting the best. Be ready! Wake up! We must protect each other. Get a handgun, learn to use it, carry it everywhere and learn to love your neighbor so much that you would readily kill anyone who tried to harm them. Stop expecting the cops to do for you what you are not ready to do for your neighbor or yourself. If anyone tries to shoot you, SHOOT BACK!
To answer that third question more succinctly, the reason these shootings keep happening is because we the people, allow them to happen.
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