Unicorns and Rainbows

“Well, don’t you want to be prepared?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your a teacher right?  You have kids that are completely dependent on you for their safety.  You know that there are three components to the ‘run hide fight’ program.  Don’t you want to be as proficient at the ‘fight’ as you are at running and hiding?”

“I’m not going to fight with a gun.”

“Well, legally our Governor signed a bill that specifically targets law abiding people from having firearms available to them when they are on a school campus.”

“Thank God.”

“What?”

“Thank God! The last thing we need is some cowboy thinking that they are going to be a hero and accidentally shooting a kid.”

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“What about the bad guy that is purposefully shooting at the kid.”

“What?”

“The law that Governor Brown signed has no intended effect on bad guys.  It is exclusively designed to prevent good guys from having access to a gun when the bad guy shows up.  The bad guy has made a cold calculated decision to use deadly force on innocent victims.  Why are you so concerned about the possibility that a good guy may miss his target?  I mean honestly, lets think about this from a utilitarian perspective.  We know that on average an active killer is going to execute somewhere between eight and twelve victims before he is stopped.  Typically they commit suicide when they encounter resistance.  You are so concerned about the “good guy” acting like a cowboy, but why do you have such little concern for the kids that you have condemned to die or be seriously injured because you are afraid of a “cowboy”?

“Thats not the point, the fact is that the more guns there are the chances are that there is going to be a shoot out.”

“Well that is true to a point.  IF you have allowed for the good guy to have a gun, then at least the possibility exists that he will terminate the threat before more innocent people are killed.  If you have disarmed him then your right, there will be no gun fight, because it takes at least two combatants for there to be a gun fight.  Instead you have mandated there only be a slaughter.”

“Terminate”.

“Excuse me?”

“You used the word ‘terminate’ that is the way people like you talk.  We are talking about deliberately killing another human being!”

“No.  That is the way YOU people talk.  What we are discussing is stopping someone from engaging in an evil act against innocent people.  In your case, innocent children that are under your protection.  I said nothing about ‘killing’.  Frankly I could care less about his status as a living breathing human being after this event.  All I want is for him to stop doing the evil thing that brought about this situation in the first place.  If me shooting him stops him and they live, so be it.  If he dies, I’m ok with that too.  My chief priority is getting him to stop, and prevent any death or injury to an innocent person.

“No.  You want to shoot him and kill him.”

“And you don’t.”

“Of course I don’t, I don’t want anyone to die.”

“Yet you are willing to gamble with one innocent life for the direct benefit of an evil one?”

“Oh please, stop with your “evil and innocent” stuff.  For all you know the shooter is under the influence of narcotics or bad brain chemicals.  You can’t call that evil.”

“Interesting, that you chose to ignore my point and focus instead on language.”

“What, about gambling with a life?  I’m not gambling, I’m not going to shoot the kid in the first place.”

“Yet, you are hoping for an intervening act.”

“What do you mean.”

“You hope that the police stop the shooter before the next innocent kid is shot.”

“Obviously.”

“But you yourself are not willing to intervene.  Because of your sensibilities you will ‘hope” for intervention, but you are not prepared to intervene yourself.”

“Well what could I do!”

“Nothing.  You have insisted that you and all your colleagues be disarmed.  You have purposefully refused to accept the fact that fighting might be what stands between an active killer, and dead children that have been entrusted to you.  You have accepted denial as a legitimate means for dealing with reality….. you’ve done more than enough.”