Ever since the most recent shooting, there has been a new round of calls for gun control. And frankly I have to say it was not unexpected. In the mind of liberals, anti-gun people, politicians, and closet socialist; having the government take guns away makes sense to them. You see to this bunch, the government knows everything. They are like our parents. They know what’s best and so we should listen to them. Regular people can not make rational decisions about guns. They just don’t have the intelligence level to process what owning a gun means.  Your government needs to make these decisions for you. After all, if the government has all the guns, then of course there will be no more gun crime, school shootings, and the murder rate would go down. That really sounds great doesn’t it? I mean no more fear of getting shot…Wow.

To me, this is the real problem. No one takes responsibility anymore for anything they do. The gun did not decide to shoot up a school nor did the gun by the ammo. That decision was that young man’s alone. He picked up the gun and made a decision that would effect his life and the lives of those people in that school. Yet no where do you hear that. All you hear is we need to take guns. So where does it end? There have been several killings using vehicles and knives. Do we ban those? And when we ban those, what is next? Baseball bats…golf clubs….What about the people that use their hands? Do we cut them off and stockpile them in a warehouse? Where does it end? It won’t. If people want to kill, they will find a way. This is not really about taking something away, but rather about something that has been eroded to extinction since LBJ’s Great Society. I am talking about personal responsibility, knowing right from wrong, and being brought up to understand respect for human life.

Somewhere along the way, the Great Society gave birth to the Great “I am not responsible” Society. In true governmental fashion, a check replaced being responsible. Oh don’t have a job…here’s money to help you out with really no strings attached. No health insurance..that’s ok..we can collect more tax dollars to pay for that. Oh wait…you had another baby and still no job…well here’s more money. Food Stamps, SSI Disability, Housing…the list goes on and on until the government subsided irresponsible behavior. Why make wise choices? The government will take care of you.

Fast forward to 2018. A teenager picks up a gun and shoots up a school. Who is responsible? He is. He made the decision. I do not blame society. But I do blame parents who don’t parent but try to be their child’s best friend. I blame people who talk about what a hard life he had and that led to this. Lots of people have hard lives and don’t pick up a gun and kill anyone. I place some blame on parents and family that continually bail children out instead of letting them face the consequences for their actions. Children grow up thinking they can do anything and they are not responsible. Your job as a parent is to be a parent. These lessons start at home. Society as a whole is not to blame. Rather these are individuals and their actions that are to blame. Stop making excuses. We are responsible for our own behavior.

We are blessed in this country to be free, to travel where we want, be what we want, and to protect ourselves. The Founding Fathers understood this. The right to bear arms was so sacred to them that it is the 2nd amendment. You hear how they did not intend for everyone to own a gun. But I believe, having come out of a tyrannical rule, gun ownership and protection from a government that could take all you had was foremost in their mind. You only have to look at Germany. The first thing they did was disarm the citizens. With no way to fight back, Hitler had no problem taking over and sentencing 6 million Jews to death. Taking away guns only lends itself to a government that can take away more than that. There is another quote I like by Gerald Ford that I have my students write down, ” A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”

Right now, we are at huge crossroads. People are protesting, students are protesting, and politicians are all screaming for gun control. No one is talking about responsibility or what it means to chip away at our rights. The government is not our parent nor is it our conscience. We have the ability to do good and to know right from wrong. I for one do not want to see a government as big as ours regulating guns because you have to ask yourself , “where will it end?” And you need to think, isn’t easier to be responsible or would you rather open the door to a government that can take away everything you have…I for one would rather the former not the latter.