The Shootings in Newtown

I have been reluctant to write about the horror in Newtown. What could I possibly contribute to the discussion? Watching, however, the media cover the issue, and the grandstanding by politicians high and low, I might as well add my voice to the mix.

A note of caution. When dealing with events such as the Newtown shootings always remember that much of the initial reporting and analysis will prove wrong, woefully wrong. It can take days or weeks to correct the record; very often it never does, and the first inaccurate reports leave impressions on readers and policy makers.

As a father of four children, I can imagine the pain felt by those parents when notified that a creep with some grievance against the world had murdered their kindergarten-aged children. Nothing anybody says or does will soften that pain. That hard cruel fact comprises one of the points of this post. Let's stop the maudlin rituals such events demand in our age of phony outrage and mass Hallmark card sentimentality: I don't want to sound harsh, but enough with balloons, flowers, ribbons, teddy bears, "heart" signs, and candlelight vigils. Grief is a private affair, particularly when not about some great cause or issue. These kids were not heroes in some ennobling effort; they were little children murdered at school by a degenerate son of an increasingly degenerate culture. Focus on that.

Obama. OK, to my chagrin, he's President, and modern Presidents see themselves as consolers, grief counselors, and dispensers of teary hokum. But this one, really? This one talking about gun violence? This is the President who to make political points against the NRA and those who defend the second amendment had his administration ship thousands of weapons to some of the most violent and best organized criminals on the planet, the Mexican drug cartels. He sought to blame the violence in Mexico on Americans' right to keep and bear arms. The result? At least two dead US agents and hundreds of dead Mexicans, including teenagers and children. Yes, children. Children with parents who grieve as much as the parents in Newtown do. The grieving American parents, however, know that the man responsible for their children's murders is dead; the grieving Mexican parents, on the other hand, know that the man responsible for their children's murders got re-elected to a second term as President of the United States--in large part thanks to the votes of Mexicans in the US. It seems that the lives of Mexicans only count when they emigrate to the US and vote Democrat.

Now we have another outburst of media and elite rage against gun ownership. You all know the stupid and inaccurate things said about guns by people who do not know the difference between automatic and semi-automatic weapons, love to throw about terms such as "Assault Rifle," seem unaware of the voluminous gun legislation already in existence, and want to take guns precisely from the people who do not shoot up malls and schools and do not commit murder. They want vast new powers for the government and a "war on guns," which will prove as successful as the war on alcohol of the 1920s and the current war on drugs. We hear calls for a national discussion on guns and violence. We have had that discussion many times, in fact, have had it on these shores for some 400 years. Americans consistently support the right of law abiding citizens to keep and bear arms, a right enshrined in our Bill of Rights. Along with the freedoms of speech, religion, assembly, petition, and to be safe in one's person and property, the right of the citizen to bear arms serves to limit the power of the government. In this nation loyalty to ideas and ideals, comes before loyalty to government, something our elites forget, ignore, or simply do not understand.

Schools. Have you visited a public school lately and seen on what it spends their our money? The typical public school is stuffed with staff, overmanned by counselors of various types, multiple vice-principals, deans, etc. Money gets spent on teacher "planning days" and retreats. Yet schools have no money for trained armed guards? Cut one counselor position and hire a retired or off-duty cop, or a well-trained former MP or SEAL. Is it not possible to control the comings and goings of non-school personnel on campus during school hours? On college campuses put an end to "gun free" zones. Do maniacs intent on mass murder honor signs prohibiting guns?

And what of our great governing cultural elite? Do Hollywood, the media and, of course, the massive liberal assault on traditional institutions and values bear no responsibility for these acts of mass carnage?  The other day my kids had one of the "Batman" movies on Amazon or Netflix. What a dark and degenerate piece of garbage! And that is not the worst. On prime time TV and video games one can watch and interact with a steady succession of scenes portraying for entertainment purposes the most horrid acts imaginable: explicit enactments of murder, rape, and convoluted torture which make you wonder about the mental state of the writers, producers, directors, and actors involved. Relentless hour-after-hour pounding on the brain and imagination of young people by such images must have an effect. I refuse to think otherwise.

Traditional institutions, such as marriage, churches, synagogues, businesses, or old fashioned educational establishments get ridiculed, maligned, and held up as hypocritical centers of oppression and violence. As a result of this concerted assault throughout the Western world, not just in the US, we see hordes of one-parent, poorly educated, deracinated youths with minds full of repellent images and living with no sense of limits or responsibility to others.

We created this world. Our children pay the price.