By Chris Rossini
Following the latest tragedy in Orlando, we're once again watching the political class jabber about non-solutions. More power for themselves? Of course. Less liberty for us? They seem incapable of thinking otherwise. But actual and real solutions? No way.
Aside from advocating policies that have created this mess, the usual response is to point fingers at whoever the current president happens to be, and say "He's not keeping us safe." This argument, of course, leaves the world of logic and grants powers to an individual that he can never have in this world.
The President Himself Cannot Keep You Safe
It's a shame that something so obvious has to be pointed out, but unless the president is your personal bodyguard, he's not going to "keep you safe". Even then, you better hope he knows what he's doing.
The last time that I checked, the president isn't a bodyguard for anyone. Quite the opposite. He has his own bodyguards that make sure that he is safe...and they have lots of guns.
Americans have been conditioned into believing that every president is like some omnipotent superhero. Perhaps it's time to look at reality. At most, the president can take care of himself and his family, and protect them from danger. He is, after all, a human being.
Not Superman.
The Police Can Only Do So Much
Americans have also been conditioned (starting in government's elementary schools) that the police are there to keep you safe. This is onlyslightly true. For sure, there are many good police officers out there that are doing the right things. However, just like the president himself, they are limited in what they can do.
It's not like you're able to hire the police privately to make sure you're safe. The way it's setup today, the police are tasked with protecting everyone in a certain geographic area. An impossibility to say the least.
Today, only the really rich have the ability to hire private security firms that take of them exclusively.
As every mass shooting has proven, you're really on your own when the tragic crimes take place. Criminals don't choose locations where the police are on the premises. Once the police show up on the scene, the damage has been done. Until the police show up, you're on your own.
You can't blame the police for this. They can't be everywhere, and their task of literally "keeping everyone safe" is impossible. With that reality, they must show up after most crimes are committed.
So if the president himself can't possibly keep you safe, and the police are very limited in what they can do, where does that leave the average person?
Deterrence
For the average person (i.e., everyone that doesn't have private security or a bodyguard) it's of utmost importance to have the freedom to defend yourself.
It should go without saying, and it's now painfully obvious, that criminals will always be armed in some way.
Banning firearms, or making them against the law only makes it easier on the criminals. We shouldn't want that. Part of being a criminal is that you break the law. If guns are banned, it provides an opportunity for criminals to get an edge. That's backwards. Criminals should not have the edge.
After all, drugs are banned, right? How easy is it to get drugs? They're everywhere. Government can't even keep drugs out of prisons!!
Creating laws that forbid the average person from being able to defend themselves creates the very soft targets that criminals are looking for. Take Orlando as an example. It was against the law to have a firearm in the nightclub. The law basically made the club a "gun-free zone". As a result, no one was able to shoot back. The shooter was able to reload several times.
The goal of any president, and of all Americans, should be to remove as many soft targets as is humanly possible. A criminal must be deterred by the thought that someone around him might be armed and might take him out before he's able to fire the first shot.
You never see criminals storm into police stations. Why do you think that is? Could it be the fear that they may get shot right away? Criminals should have that same exact fear in as many places as possible. And since police can't possibly be everywhere, individuals must never be forbidden from arming themselves.
So a president can help to "keep us safe" by advocating the removal of all government violations of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That Amendment was put there for a reason.
What else can a president do?
Leave other countries alone
As Ron Paul so astutely pointed out to Rudy Giuliani in front of a national audience, terrorists seek to do Americans harm because of America's military interventions in their countries.
There are 196 countries in the world. Why is it that terrorists look to do harm to the few western nations that have invaded them? Why not the rest?
Once again, there are 196 countries. Please let that sink in.
Terrorism is desperation and a form of revenge. Those who choose such a despondent path are not going to defeat the mighty U.S. military. So they resort to terrorism as a way of inflicting great damage, knowing full well that they're going to end up dead themselves as a result.
We Americans do not need this. We don't need people seeking revenge against our country. We should be petitioning our government to stop swatting at hornets nests in other parts of the world.
Instead, we Americans have not only not petitioned the government in such a way, but we've also acquiesced to being placed under a surveillance state. We've lost so many liberties since 9/11. We now have a government that monitors our every move...whether it be financial transactions, phone calls and locations, emails, bank accounts, license plates, cell phones....and on and on.
We've already discussed how government cannot be everywhere at all times. So surveillance of every detail of our lives can't change that fact. It only rips away our privacy, individuality, and dignity.
Do we have the mightiest military in the world? Sure. Then they should be protecting this nation only, and preventing any outside nations from invading.
There is great news that should be completely understood...There isn't a country in the world that is even pondering the thought of invading America.
It's time for a foreign policy of non-intervention and peace. As Americans, we should be able to live in peace without fear that a country that our government has invaded has created individuals who seek revenge against us.
We can have a president that truly can "keep us safe". A change of ideas and policies are all that stand in the way.
Following the latest tragedy in Orlando, we're once again watching the political class jabber about non-solutions. More power for themselves? Of course. Less liberty for us? They seem incapable of thinking otherwise. But actual and real solutions? No way.
Aside from advocating policies that have created this mess, the usual response is to point fingers at whoever the current president happens to be, and say "He's not keeping us safe." This argument, of course, leaves the world of logic and grants powers to an individual that he can never have in this world.
The President Himself Cannot Keep You Safe
It's a shame that something so obvious has to be pointed out, but unless the president is your personal bodyguard, he's not going to "keep you safe". Even then, you better hope he knows what he's doing.
The last time that I checked, the president isn't a bodyguard for anyone. Quite the opposite. He has his own bodyguards that make sure that he is safe...and they have lots of guns.
Americans have been conditioned into believing that every president is like some omnipotent superhero. Perhaps it's time to look at reality. At most, the president can take care of himself and his family, and protect them from danger. He is, after all, a human being.
Not Superman.
The Police Can Only Do So Much
Americans have also been conditioned (starting in government's elementary schools) that the police are there to keep you safe. This is onlyslightly true. For sure, there are many good police officers out there that are doing the right things. However, just like the president himself, they are limited in what they can do.
It's not like you're able to hire the police privately to make sure you're safe. The way it's setup today, the police are tasked with protecting everyone in a certain geographic area. An impossibility to say the least.
Today, only the really rich have the ability to hire private security firms that take of them exclusively.
As every mass shooting has proven, you're really on your own when the tragic crimes take place. Criminals don't choose locations where the police are on the premises. Once the police show up on the scene, the damage has been done. Until the police show up, you're on your own.
You can't blame the police for this. They can't be everywhere, and their task of literally "keeping everyone safe" is impossible. With that reality, they must show up after most crimes are committed.
So if the president himself can't possibly keep you safe, and the police are very limited in what they can do, where does that leave the average person?
Deterrence
For the average person (i.e., everyone that doesn't have private security or a bodyguard) it's of utmost importance to have the freedom to defend yourself.
It should go without saying, and it's now painfully obvious, that criminals will always be armed in some way.
Banning firearms, or making them against the law only makes it easier on the criminals. We shouldn't want that. Part of being a criminal is that you break the law. If guns are banned, it provides an opportunity for criminals to get an edge. That's backwards. Criminals should not have the edge.
After all, drugs are banned, right? How easy is it to get drugs? They're everywhere. Government can't even keep drugs out of prisons!!
Creating laws that forbid the average person from being able to defend themselves creates the very soft targets that criminals are looking for. Take Orlando as an example. It was against the law to have a firearm in the nightclub. The law basically made the club a "gun-free zone". As a result, no one was able to shoot back. The shooter was able to reload several times.
The goal of any president, and of all Americans, should be to remove as many soft targets as is humanly possible. A criminal must be deterred by the thought that someone around him might be armed and might take him out before he's able to fire the first shot.
You never see criminals storm into police stations. Why do you think that is? Could it be the fear that they may get shot right away? Criminals should have that same exact fear in as many places as possible. And since police can't possibly be everywhere, individuals must never be forbidden from arming themselves.
So a president can help to "keep us safe" by advocating the removal of all government violations of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That Amendment was put there for a reason.
What else can a president do?
Leave other countries alone
As Ron Paul so astutely pointed out to Rudy Giuliani in front of a national audience, terrorists seek to do Americans harm because of America's military interventions in their countries.
There are 196 countries in the world. Why is it that terrorists look to do harm to the few western nations that have invaded them? Why not the rest?
Once again, there are 196 countries. Please let that sink in.
Terrorism is desperation and a form of revenge. Those who choose such a despondent path are not going to defeat the mighty U.S. military. So they resort to terrorism as a way of inflicting great damage, knowing full well that they're going to end up dead themselves as a result.
We Americans do not need this. We don't need people seeking revenge against our country. We should be petitioning our government to stop swatting at hornets nests in other parts of the world.
Instead, we Americans have not only not petitioned the government in such a way, but we've also acquiesced to being placed under a surveillance state. We've lost so many liberties since 9/11. We now have a government that monitors our every move...whether it be financial transactions, phone calls and locations, emails, bank accounts, license plates, cell phones....and on and on.
We've already discussed how government cannot be everywhere at all times. So surveillance of every detail of our lives can't change that fact. It only rips away our privacy, individuality, and dignity.
Do we have the mightiest military in the world? Sure. Then they should be protecting this nation only, and preventing any outside nations from invading.
There is great news that should be completely understood...There isn't a country in the world that is even pondering the thought of invading America.
It's time for a foreign policy of non-intervention and peace. As Americans, we should be able to live in peace without fear that a country that our government has invaded has created individuals who seek revenge against us.
We can have a president that truly can "keep us safe". A change of ideas and policies are all that stand in the way.
The above originally appeared at the Ron Paul Liberty Report.
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