They brought a book to a gunfight

Another school shooting, this time at Great Mills High School in Maryland.  But this attack was cut short: two wounded students, one dead shooter.  A far cry from the Parkland tragedy, with 17 killed, 14 wounded.  The difference?  Someone shot back. 

After the Parkland shooting, the government-media cabal launched a blitzkrieg on the 2nd Amendment.  Their mission: to make  guns unacceptable, to paint those who defend guns and the National Rifle Association (NRA) as the enemy. 

But the NRA had no role in any shooting.  The NRA doesn't get calls on dangerous persons, isn't given tips, doesn't see the warning flags.  People don't call the NRA to protect them; they call the police.  And so they did in Parkland. 

The Broward County Sheriff's Office got over 40 calls on Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland shooter.  None resulted in a written report.  Had law enforcement done their job, they could have prevented the Parkland shooting. 

The FBI, got two tips that Nikolas Cruz was going shoot up a school.  They ignored the calls.

Then there's the elephant in the room: gun-free zones, the law that turned our schools into killing fields.  Congress picked a friendly phrase, "gun-free zone," to suggest there are no guns anywhere near our children.  And what could go wrong if there are no weapons within a thousand feet of a school?

Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland.  That's what can go wrong. 

Why not try making Capitol Hill a gun-free zone?  Make our fearless leaders' safe space a liberal bastion, armed only with high-minded politics, just like our schools and military bases.  And like other gun-free zones, there will be no armed Capitol Police, no private bodyguards, no Secret Service, zero tolerance. 

Then, like our kids, Congress can show up at work every day wondering if some nut's going to walk into those hallowed halls, guns blazing.  And if (when) a crazed killer does show up, they can demonstrate to the rest of us gun-loving rubes how to handle an AR-15 with platitudes.

Our government will never accept a gun-free zone.  No, the plan is to disarm the people outside of Washington.  The plan is to make the rest of America a gun-free zone.

Ironically, the "plan" is the reason for the 2nd Amendment.  Our right to bear arms isn't to protect us from home invasion or muggers; that's a bonus.  Nor is it so Johnny can bag a deer.  No, the 2nd Amendment is to protect American citizens from a corrupt government.  In fact, all the amendments in the Bill of Rights are to protect us from tyranny, from an oppressive, intrusive regime, from government.

This is why the framers enshrined the people's rights.  They foresaw a power-hungry government that would come for our guns in their march to tyranny.

Does our government want school shooters?  Of course not.  But these would-be tyrants are so consumed by their lust for power that they turn a blind eye to real consequences again and again, remaining intentionally ignorant to the tragic outcomes of their edicts.

Author Margaret Heffernan defines willful blindness: "You are responsible if you could have known, and should have known, something that instead you strove not to see."

Our government could have known that gun-free zones are a crap shoot, that a crazed killer could open fire unopposed, unstoppable.

They should have known that gun-free zones are open season on our kids and our soldiers after Columbine, Fort Hood, and Sandy Hook.  And yet we had Parkland.

Step up, Congress.  Repeal the Gun-Free School Zones Act and lift the gun ban on military bases.  Put armed security in every school – teachers, private security, cops,  those who can and will shoot back.  Make it a requirement, not an option.

Our government's surrounded with armed security, private security, Capitol Police, and Secret Service.  News networks are protected by armed guards, have "airport-like security."  Hollywood has armed private security, the celebrities' 2018 Oscars protected by 500 armed policemen.

These people are safe, protected by guns, and they deny that same protection to our kids and soldiers.

After every mass shooting, we're caught in an endless loop.  Shock at the shooting subsides, the story fades from the news, the gun push loses steam, and nothing is done to protect the kids.

Again and again, our armed-to-the-teeth government forces our schools to bring books to a gunfight, to leave our kids as sitting ducks.  Enough!

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