Friday, October 2, 2015

Hope Doesn’t Save Lives...

Thank you to Tim Schmidt - a very good article from an email he sent out.

Hope Doesn’t Save Lives...
BY TIM SCHMIDT - USCCA FOUNDER

At the time of this writing, details are still unclear, but preliminary reports indicate that up to 10 people are dead and some 15 more are injured after an active shooter situation at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon Thursday morning.

Once again, precious human lives have been victimized by circumstances beyond their control.

According to Ammoland, the community college, located about 180 miles south of Portland, is a posted gun-free zone. Their security page states that:“Possession, use, or threatened use of firearms (including but not limited to BB guns, air guns, water pistols, and paint guns), ammunition, explosives, dangerous chemicals, or any other objects as weapons on college property, except as expressly authorized by law or college regulations, is prohibited.”

And once again, I feel absolutely sick to my stomach.

I want to know:

When will we be allowed to defend our most precious resources?

During a time that is both exciting and scary for these students—where some still skirt that fine line between the innocence of childhood and the uncertainty of what comes next—let me be clear: we have failed them.

It’s crazy that in this country, we have armed guards in armored cars protecting money, and yet we send our kids to school with nothing but “hope.” Hope that the unthinkable never happens. Hope that our teachers will be able to get them out of harm’s way until help arrives.

But hope doesn’t save lives.

What does save lives?

Guns in the hands of good guys.

Students and teachers—from elementary schools all the way up to colleges—are taught to “lock down,” to wait for help to arrive. It’s ironic in a way, because it fights our natural and instinctual fight-or-flight response. Essentially, our children aren’t allowed to do either. They just have to sit quietly and wait. That’s their “best-case” scenario. I’m sorry, but that’s not good enough for me—or for our kids.

Now, I realize that not every teacher out there would be willing to carry a gun. Arming oneself takes a lot of courage—and it’s a huge responsibility. A life-changing one, in fact. But if there are some teachers out there who are willing to make that commitment, to accept the call to be responsible armed Americans, imagine how the equation would change. Their only option would no longer be barricading their doors and shutting off the lights and waiting. No...they’d be able to fight back. I think our children deserve at least that much. It sounds harsh, and it is, but what they don’t deserve is to sit around and wait to die.

And so I ask again:

When will we be allowed to defend our most precious resources?

In what world does it make sense that we have armed guards in armored cars protecting money (which, by the way, liberals claim "isn't worth dying over"), but we have absolutely nothing in schools protecting our children?

In fact, it’s not even that we don’t have it...it’s that we don’t allow it.

But don’t our most precious resources deserve that? Don’t they deserve somebody to stand up for them? And when they get old enough, don’t they deserve to choose whether or not to accept that responsibility for themselves?

It’s time we stopped allowing our legislators to decide how much human lives—especially our children’s—are worth. The answer is simple. They’re worth everything.

Take Care and Stay Safe,
Tim Schmidt
Publisher - Concealed Carry Report
USCCA Founder

No comments:

Post a Comment