School Shootings are Worth the Price for Freedom

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Here we go again. I’m not trying to minimize the tragedy, but the response has been minimized before it even starts. One more round of “we need more than thoughts and prayers” and “THIS time we need to do something” before it fades into the background.

But there is a reality that stumps many people, and it’s the title of this article:

“School shootings are worth the price for freedom.”

If you wonder why cries for action seem to fall on deaf ears, it’s not because of the big, mean ol’ gun lobby, and it’s not because of cold-hearted politicians.

It’s the weight of certain priorities within a large portion of the population.

I’m not making a judgement call here (that’s your job, reader who is running to the comment section to tell me to fuck off) I’m just letting you know what one of the common mindsets is, even though adherents to my statement haven’t quite put it into these words.

If the price of freedom to bear arms, to equalize women with a handgun against aggressors, to protect our property and lives and to survive the imaginary-yet-hopeful zombie apocalypse is an occasional school shooting, a disgruntled employee, an accidental shooting by a child who finds the gun, well then that’s the price. The rare (on the grand scale) loss is worth the prevention or dissuasion of a much larger loss: Liberty.

None of the believers of this are so crass as to think that we shouldn’t try to fix those problems, of course. EVERYONE knows those are steep prices for freedom, but those are prices willing to be paid by a large portion of the population, rather than requiring gun locks, locked weapons or weapon restrictions all of which are viewed as being “less than” the freedom we get now with this high price.

For those in the cheap seats, I’ll spell it out more clearly: The Russia/Ukraine situation, the Mexican Cartels, even our own history with gangland shootings (think early 20th century Chicago) and recent riots spilling into neighborhoods (Black Lives Matter, and soon to be Roe V Wade riots, I’m sure) all give people reason to hold tight to their Smith and Wesson pacifiers.

And they are willing to pay the price so long as it’s strangers losing their lives.