The Best Way To Stop a Shooter

The recent shooting targeting Republican lawmakers at a congressional baseball team practice in Arlington, Virginia is instructive for many reasons.

First, it shows that the best way to stop a shooter is by shooting back. The House of Representatives acknowledged this in its resolution thanking the Capitol Police for their response at the baseball field. Even the liberal media were forced to admit that, without an armed response, it would have been a “massacre.” This basic truth may be uncomfortable or distasteful to those who want to pretend that evil and violence do not exist. However, until that time when evil and violence have been completely eliminated from humans, there will always be those willing to use violence to achieve their own particular, or peculiar, objectives. Everyone who calls 911 when violence erupts understands and literally bets their life on superior violence being used effectively at that point.

Second, the escalating verbal attacks on Republicans in general, and on President Trump in particular, must stop. President Trump was elected to lead the entire country, not just some of us. The attacker at the baseball field reportedly volunteered for the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, and according to published reports of his social media posts, was vehemently (and as we now know, violently) anti-Trump. The incitement to violence directed at this president is unprecedented, and we are beginning to see the tangible and tragic effects of that. In addition to damaging our political processes, it is causing tragic, preventable injuries to people. It has to stop.

Third, as articulated eloquently by David French of National Review, one of the proper responses to this travesty is to rebuild virtue. He writes: “All too often, the response to a breakdown in this scheme [of ordered liberty] — and make no mistake, an act of political terrorism represents just such a breakdown — is to try curtailing liberty, rather than repairing moral order.”

In his call for a restoration of ordered liberty, he points to an American community that openly demonstrates their commitment to this concept: concealed carry permit holders. “They carry weapons every day (that’s the liberty) and yet they commit crimes at lower rates than even police officers (that’s the order).”

The Second Amendment protects us in ways that the liberal left are unwilling to acknowledge. The First Amendment protects our right to express our views openly, but not when that expression incites or turns to violence. In our system of government, our freedoms are coupled with responsibility. Rather than curtail our freedoms, let’s restore and strengthen our commitment to responsibility. While that is a core duty of law enforcement, it is an obligation of everyone who lives in this country and enjoys its freedoms.