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In an interview, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said “What I’m observing is that it’s tragic that in the immediate aftermath of a series of high-profile mass shootings people feel like they have to go out and purchase a gun.”
It’s not tragic. It’s the act of the light bulb going on in the heads of thousands upon thousands of Americans. Not just are Americans scrambling to buy guns, they are applying to carry them in record numbers.
Most Americans don’t pay attention when the government argues in open court that they have no duty to protect us. They still trust that the police and federal law enforcement will come running to save us.
But attacks like those in Paris or San Bernardino show that the government can’t protect us. Not all the time.
Farook and his wife were operating an IED factory out of their home. They were radicalized overseas and had radical profiles online. Despite warnings and intelligence, nothing was done to prevent the shooting.
To be fair to the government, the government is comprised of people and people make mistakes. Doubly, It is hard to protect Americans from other Americans and respect civil liberties at the same time. Pledging allegiance to ISIS online isn’t exactly a crime, it’s a 1st Amendment protected act (I’m pretty sure that it qualifies as right of association). Our country was set up to make it difficult for the government to punish people for political or ideological beliefs.
But the point still stands. The government can’t protect us all the time. They can never make us 100% safe against attack. So it is up to us to be our own last line of defense.
Every terrorist attack, every mass shooting, proves that to more and more Americans. Every single new gun owner. Every single new carry permit holder. They are all proof that we can only rely on the government so much, no matter what they say.
They call it tragic. I call it self reliance.