Imagine if every two or three months, there was a mass shooting at Lowe’s. Or McDonald’s. Or at movie theaters. Or at hair salons. Or airports.
How long before people would start to say, “What’s the safety problem with these particular places?”
I find it fascinating — and revealing — that we never, ever ask those questions of public high schools. Yet that’s where virtually all of the shootings are happening. [See the story on the latest shooting at a high school in Texas here.]
What is it about public schools that are unsafe? And what is it about the psychological/mental atmosphere of such settings that make them far, far more prone to violence than just about any other place in society, outside of a war zone or an inner city drug-ridden neighborhood?
The NEA will not let us ask the question. Why? It would threaten their legally protected monopoly and risk the opening up of competition with their union. People might step up and say, “Hey, we can do better with safety.” The Deep State won’t let us ask the question, because it would threaten their comfortable jobs at the Department of Education, Health and Human Services and our other parasitical federal agencies. The media won’t let us ask the question, and Facebook or Twitter will probably censor us for doing so. Why? Because to challenge what happens in public schools is to risk criticizing the socialized education system we have, Common Core and all — and that’s simply not acceptable to people who consider themselves morally superior and intellectually advanced individuals who read The New York Times and HuffPost.
So instead, like classically conditioned dogs salivating at the sound of a bell, a plurality of us will once again shriek, “Guns, guns, guns are the problem!” Let’s eliminate the Second Amendment and if that’s not enough — why, let’s eliminate the First.
Even for a non-conspiracy theorist such as myself, it’s tempting, at such moments, to consider the possibility that these shootings are the handiwork of a plot by George Soros and other Democratic Party-supported groups to get their way with the Second Amendment’s eradication, once and for all.
Even if that were true, it would not be the most disturbing part.
The most disturbing part is what we already know to be true: that people who support the Democratic Party probably wouldn’t have much of a problem with such a conspiracy, even if it were true.
That’s every bit as evil as the shootings themselves.
Instead of asking, “How many more must die?” we ought to be asking: “Why are government-run high schools the least safe places in America?”
It’s an honest question, and it has to be answered eventually. Otherwise, even if we take away guns from law-abiding and peaceful individuals, the death toll will continue to rise.
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