Rusty speaks true

Will this solve the problem? No. Nothing will ever solve the problem. There has been, and always will be, evil in the world.

I've not written about the NIU shootings because every time I sit down to do so, I get angry. Instead of focusing on what I want to say, the blogger in me that's been fighting this fight for so long wants to argue every point again like I do each time this happens and I know it will be to no avail. But Rustmeister brings up a valid point that many people are missing.

Nothing will ever solve the problem.

The other day, a man threw his children off a bridge. A woman puts her 3 daughters in a closet, douses them with gasoline, and sets them on fire. A 19 year old boy beat a doctor to death. Another doctor is killed by a meat cleaver.

In none of these cases was a gun to blame. Also to note, in these cases a gun in the victims' hands would have more than likely not made much of a difference. The one thing that is the same with all these cases (and there are hundreds more that you've not heard about) is that they involve crazy people.

I know crazy. I'm one of those people who take medication to keep his brain chemistry working properly. For every story you hear about some whack-job going off his meds, there are hundreds of thousands of people like me for whom the medication works fine and, if we were to stop, would simply be uncomfortable or depressed. Not suicidal, not psychotic, just depressed.

Just like for every mass murder you hear about with guns, hundreds of thousands of other people have defended their lives with one sans a shot fired.

We also need to instill in our children that it is OK to fight back. We’ve neutered our kids into thinking that all violence is bad when in reality, only predatory violence is bad. A mother who shoots a goblin intent on harming her and her kids does nothing wrong. A cop who uses his baton to subdue a violent drug addict with a knife is doing the right thing. The will to fight back will lower the amount of damage these idiots can do. How many of those kids simply laid down and waited to die?

Will this stop these things? Nope. But it will give idiots like the NIU shooter pause if they’re looking to go out killing as many people as they can since they’re not going to be assured their victims won’t fight back.