Print Column: Post-Shooting Hysteria Ignores the Reality of What Really Keeps Us Safe
MINOT, N.D. — What keeps you from being murdered on any given day?
It’s a serious question, and one we should be asking as we grapple with what to do in the wake of mass murder attacks in Texas and Ohio.
In the hysterical environment after one of these attacks — one inflamed by posturing politicians and insipid incitements from celebrity commentators — we talk a lot about what freedoms we need to give up to prevent more attacks.
Gun rights are the most obvious target, then come the attacks on free speech.
The “do something” crowd (a group of people from across the ideological spectrum) see violent video games, violent television shows and movies, and the more awful backwaters of the internet as the problem.
The “do something” crowd wants laws which let government authorities, like characters in a Philip K. Dick novel, take rights away from people who haven’t committed a crime but might.
The problem with these supposed solutions is they assume we can actually stop people from committing crimes.
We can’t.
Not really.
