An Even Worse Disaster Than Blacksburg

Certainly the horriying pictures coming out of Blacksburg are enough to make anyone stop and ask what could have been done to prevent this. It reflects the current attitude so prevalent in our place and time in history that bad things cannot and should not ever happen. If bad things do happen then surely some institution is negligent and the system should be fixed up right now to prevent similar disasters in the future.

Total security exists only in the purest of ideals. Pure idealism without any taint of real world experience only exists in the innocence of children or the hell of totalitarian regimes. Right now the anti-gun forces are marshalling themselves to once again assault the ramparts of the idea that each citizen should have the right to own a firearm. They will brandish the demand that the government make us safe from madmen by taking away all of our guns. To people such as this the government is like a mommy figure, nurturing, providing, and coercing. Whether it be a man with a gun or a hurricane, the government/mother figure needs to have all the answers and needs to make it right. Such is the justice and security of the nursery.

What becomes of our free society then? To Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers, the right to keep and bear arms was the cornerstone of freedom. How else would citizens protect their rights if the government, as in the times of Rome, went too far and destroyed people's ability to enjoy their natural liberties? Removal of gun rights has been the first aim of every modern dictatorship.

Don't think for a moment it won't happen. The NRA will have a fight on its hands as grieving families and intellectuals will once again use a tragedy (which after all is the fault of the perpetrator and no one else) to try to eliminate perhaps our most important freedom. It is up to those that would defend that right to remain resilient. Should the Virginia Tech tragedy be addressed? Definitely. Can it be prevented? Unortunately it cannot, unless we are willing to give up the constitutional right that ultimately exists for us to protect all of the rest. And that would be the worst possible disaster of all.