We feel a compelling need to “do something now.” Our federal and state constitutions task government with the responsibility of apprehending criminals while protecting people and property. It seems logical to ask, “what can government do?”
Many people argue that if guns are used to perpetrate the violence, removing the guns from society would remove the violence. This narrow focus in the search for answers might be sufficient if we lived in a different world where men were angels, as the saying goes. Unfortunately, we do not.
As a legislator who believes in the value of our freedoms, I ask, how can we reconcile our solutions with the unalienable right of self defense? To get good answers, we must ask good questions. While we may ask what government cam do, we must also ask what we, private citizens, institutions, and organizations can also do. I believe the longterm answer we seek requires a fundamental societal change, not an increase in government.
Furthermore, if our society sanctions violence and barbarism, what delusion allows us to believe that as a people we will be spared the consequences of that glorified violence? Abortion, movies that feature grotesque violence and video games where teens and pre-teens compete to murder and decapitate their opponents are either a cause or a consequence of this violence in society. It is foolishness to pretend there is no corollary between violence itself and our willingness to blatantly profit from it.
In Parkland, Fla., we saw layer after layer of government institutions radically fail the children in that school. Why? How? These are not merely interesting questions, they are essential to determining causes and solutions. Many people who want to see guns removed from our society are also victims of myths and misrepresentations from the anti-gun extremists for whom the constitution and the Second Amendment are remnants from an earlier time and are outmoded. I believe they couldn’t be more wrong.
As your elected representative, know that I will continue to seek real answers to get real results that will offer effective countermeasures against those troubled individuals who would perpetrate this senseless violence on our children. I am convinced that Second Amendment protections are compatible with well-conceived defenses that end vulnerable “gun-free” zones (regrettably perceived as shooting galleries by lunatics). We absolutely can and will protect our children and end this terrible blight throughout our nation. And, we will do it while preserving our liberties.
http://www.mcrecordonline.com/opinion/article_ff5ef082-2213-11e8-a5a5-436918accbc4.html
