I spent a great deal of last night and this morning muttering at the talking heads on my TV:
The question on every parent's mind right now surely must be: Is my child safe?
And I yelled back at the TV, "NO!"
They never have been "safe," since the moment they were born! What do you mean, "safe?" Protected from all harm? Nope. Most harm? Probably not. Some harm? Maybe. Maybe not. No, your kids are not safe. They can be safer, but living always comes with the risk of dying. Always.
Asking this question implies safety not only exists, but is good for everyone. Who says? What did you ever learn from being safe? It's creating a nation of people who think they can and should have this mythical safety. Worse, it enables people to think they can be made safe, and nothing else about their lives has to change.
Think about that. "What is the government doing to make us safe?" Why would you want your government to take that responsibility for you on the individual level? What are YOU doing to make yourself safer? is the much better question, isn't it? And just how safe do you want to be? How much are you willing to give up (because you will have to give things up) in order to be safe?
What can we do to make sure this never happens again?
NOTHING!
There is no practical way to ensure bad things won't happen. There are no ways to make sure no one ever takes another gun or other weapon and kills/injures another group of people.
I'm not saying nothing should be done. I'm not saying steps shouldn't be taken. I'm saying it is a bad thing to lead people to believe they can have and should want things they can't and shouldn't. It seems to make them focus on the wrong things.
I think Beeps is suggesting (correct me if I'm wrong) that an armed society is a polite society. Is that essentially it?
That may be true. I can't say for certain what people would be like if they all lived as if everyone might have a gun. But since it's hard to tell right now who might be armed and who isn't, why aren't we already living under that assumption? Isn't it already true, at least for pratical purposes?
I think we don't live that way now because we can't really live that way. It sounds good, looks good on paper, maybe, but I know I can't live in the state of heightened tension that assumption would create in me. I can't wonder if my careless attempt at humor is going to get me shot; if my failure to use my turn signal is going to get me shot; if I'm going to be the innocent, bleeding bystander who died while two other armed people squared off in the street, or while some well-meaning armed moron tried to shoot a fleeing criminal.
I can't believe more guns are the answer. I can't believe fewer guns are the answer. I can't believe the guns figure much into the answer at all.
Truth to tell, I don't think there is an answer to the "how can we be safe?" question. You know what a cry for greater safety implies to me? A desire to be protected from life, to escape its harsh realities and live encased in cotton wool. Someone in another thread (forgive me for forgetting whom) posted some lyrics from a Nickelback song, and part of it went:
"If everyone cared and nobody cried
If everyone loved and nobody lied
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride
Then we'd see the day, when nobody died."
And someone else said in response, "That's not living," or something close. I think I agree.
I don't know what "the answer" is. I strongly suspect there isn't one. But I don't think it's about the guns. I think part of it might be about living alongside your neighbor as if he's a real person who matters to you, and not just the annoying guy who waters his yard too often and lets his dog bark too much.
But I also strongly suspect that chasing this elusive "safety" is the wrong focus. It frustrates me, so I just wanted to say all this.
