Post-Shooting Reactions Vary, But We Need to Be Rational

A while back, I sat down with our own Ryan Petty. We were at the NRA Annual Meeting, and this was an interview I desperately wanted to have. The reason? It was because we have something in common.

We both lost people we cared about in mass shootings. Sure, he lost a daughter, which has to be orders of magnitude worse than losing a friend, but we both lost.

Here’s the video of that discussion, once again.

While many touched by such shootings become gun control advocates, neither of us did. We talked a bit about that, including my “crisis of faith” on gun rights, for a brief moment.

In the aftermath of something this horrible, it’s normal for people to want answers. It’s normal for people to want to do something to stop this from happening again. In fact, I desperately want to find a way to stop these things from taking place.

But right now, emotions are high. People are upset, and understandably so. The problem is that upset, angry people don’t make good decisions. Instead, they tend to lash out. That’s not the end of the world when it’s just words. You can apologize for saying things when you’re angry, though that doesn’t erase any damage done.

That’s still easier to deal with than passing laws, which can’t be erased with an apology. They can have long-lasting ramifications, some of which may last a century or more. 

What we need is a cooling-off period.

I’d love to leave the politics of gun control, as it relates to Minneapolis, on the curb for the time being. We can have that conversation later, after we not only know more but also after we’ve settled down enough to have a reasonable, semi-rational discussion.

That’s not what the anti-gunners want, though.

What they want is for people to be upset and emotional because history shows us that when people settle down after such a horrific attack, they’re less likely to support gun control. They recognize that there are other alternatives, or they see the way gun laws failed, or any number of other things. What matters is that they don’t support gun control any longer.

And that can’t be allowed. Not by gun control activists and not by the media, though I repeat myself here.

People have different reactions, but rationality settles most people in time. Then, maybe we can actually figure something out. Maybe there is an area where there’s legitimate common ground that might work and solve the issue entirely, all without infringing on people’s rights.

As it stands, all we get are people clamoring for laws, all while ignoring literally everything else in history that shows the proposed solution won’t really stop anything. They don’t even listen to themselves while they’re doing it, but it doesn’t matter. Emotion trumps everything else in the human animal, whether we like it or not. It’s difficult to step back and calm yourself.

The anti-gunners won’t let you if they can help it, but it’s what we truly need.

Today, we need it now more than ever before.

Editor’s Note: The mainstream media and their activist allies continue to lie about gun owners and the Second Amendment. 

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