That was the Jewish watch phrase after the Holocaust – Hitler’s attempt at the complete annihiliation of the Jewish people. With the Tree of Life synagogue murders, the worst attack on Jews here on American soil simply because of their history and religion, it is being taken up again. Of course, President Trump triggered (heh!) a lot of liberals when he said that if the Temple had “had protection inside, the results would have been far better” including Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto who went all Minority Report:
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto: "I think the approach that we need to be looking at is how we take the guns — which is the common denominator of every mass shooting in America — out of the hands of those that are looking to express hatred through murder." #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/2avlb9Wosu
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) October 28, 2018
“out of the hands of those that are looking to express hatred through murder” – so how do you know that AHEAD of time? Sure, some people say or write things but how do you, how CAN you know which set of people are which? Which are just being stupid saying or writing that stuff and which ones will get that switch flipped that actually has them following through? We don’t have the technology to lay that down and we certainly don’t have the human ability to divine it either – until after the fact. So how to handle those situations?
We’ve been through this before – houses of worship that were effectively gun free zones that became targets. We’ve also had a house of worship that “appeared” to be defenseless but had a safety team that responded and stopped additional mayhem. Targets are targets, be they religious centers or not and those that have an evil intent will go where they know they will face the least resistance. Churches, temples, synagogues – all are generally soft targets ripe for the plucking unless folks have also said “never again”.
My church doesn’t have an organized safety team like the New Life Church but we have had meetings – staff and volunteers and again with those that carry. Yes, committed Christians do carry and we realize the heavy burden that it brings. No, no details are forthcoming here; just to let you know that people have been thinking about this for some time. Most law abiding people aren’t shoot’em up rednecks just looking for any reason to pull a trigger – they understand the personal ramifications of shooting someone even in the defense of themselves, their loved ones, friends, or even complete strangers whose only problem was being in the right spot at a wrong time. We have current and former LEOs – we talked about happens to folks like us that pull that trigger and how bad it can get – psychologically and legally even if you behave correctly and according to all laws and regulations.
Yet, there are those that complete dismiss that out of hand never having learned that hope is not a strategy. In fact, they simply demand that ALL guns be confiscated for “health and safety”. Look, I’m not going to get into the area of how that thinking is just another cousin of soft tyranny by those that Know Better than the rest of us what is best for us. Yes, every slaying of an innocent is an extreme tragedy – but so is the elimination of Liberty by each minute slice at a time.
What are you willing to trade for “health and security”? How much is too much before one realizes that under this rubric, you’ve lost your Freedom? Are you willing to outsource that to the State without asking the hard questions about “And the tradeoff is? And for how long will this last?”.
No, I do not choose to simply hand over my right to self defense – just so that someone like NH State Rep Katherine Rogers, a part of Government, could come up and assault me (and even being convicted, continues to be a State Rep). I rely on no one else to infringe on my rights.
Come and take it because I believe in never again.
(H/T: The Truth About Guns)
