Walk away and think it over

Ted Folkert

June 19, 2015

Stacey, one of my favorite daughters, sent me the article about the State of Kansas passing the law to allow concealed-carry of firearms without even a permit. This, of course, comes at the same time that the nation is grieving over the heinous crime committed in South Carolina, wherein nine people were sadly and needlessly murdered while worshiping in their church, by a racist, angry, mentally-disturbed young man with a concealed firearm that he recently acquired. This would not have happened if he hadn’t had the firearm.

This Kansas legislation is just another perfect example of pathetic governance by self-interested and politically-owned leaders who cater to their donors and ignore the best interest of the common good – you know, me and you. I suppose these misguided legislators were elected because Kansans either were influenced by adverse advertising financed by political contributions from the likes of the Kook Brothers or they ignored their civic responsibility to be aware of the character, intelligence, and intentions of those they elect to run their state.

It is hard to imagine who can be helped by a law that permits anyone to carry a concealed firearm. They should at least have to expose them on their gun belts like Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp did. Then they could turn around, take ten paces, and draw – like the OK Corral. Where is Doc Holiday when we need him?

Those who are inclined to carry guns are usually cowards, bullies or criminals. So where is the benefit for the average law-abiding adult citizen or for the children who we would not want carrying a loaded weapon? Just another example of laws passed for the benefit of the wrong people or the manufacturers of these weapons – weapons that we don’t need on the street. (Or the hunters who kill helpless animals for pleasure – humans are the only animals that kill for pleasure, you know)

Now, back to the murderer in South Carolina. This young man is obviously mentally deranged. He says he wanted to start a race war. He has confessed and is unrepentant. It is easy to say that he should be killed, but one could also have sorrow for him along with sorrow for the loved ones of those he murdered. He, like all of us inhabitants of this planet, is a victim of a character with mental demons which probably were formed by circumstances and influences that were beyond his control. Perhaps bullying, perhaps brainwashing by misinformed racists, perhaps by listening to the wrong blabbermouth on the radio. He, of course, must be removed from our free society so he can’t do it again.

But this is only one incident of many, this is only one incident among millions of inexplicable examples of sick and sad human behavior yesterday and today and tomorrow, around the world. There are actual wars going on in dozens of countries as we speak, with millions of people being injured, murdered, or displaced from their homes and countries, entire communities destroyed, infrastructure destroyed. There are thousands of examples of unjust actions by abusive rulers, political tyrants, human vultures, power mongers, all of them criminals, going on as we speak.

So, we can’t solve this by distributing more weapons to everyone? More killing hasn’t seemed to work – just read the Bible or any other book with historical information – or read any newspaper in the world – more weapons creates more killing, not less.

Neither more weapons nor more liberal use of weapons is going to solve this problem, a problem which becomes more prevalent as our population grows and our leaders continue to be unable to achieve a more equal distribution of education, opportunity, resources and living standards.

We don’t need to build and distribute more weapons, we need to build and distribute more education -from the young to the old. Education is the only thing that has made life better thus far and it is the only thing that can enable us to sustain a livable planet in the future. We need more education about racism, bullying, empathy, sympathy, helping those in need, dispute resolution – or in Biblical terms, loving thy neighbor.

We need more of what most of our leaders profess and less of what some of them try to enforce upon each other – with weapons, explosives, starvation, impoverishment and exploitation. We need more of what those of us who practice passion for good government and compassion for treating each other with respect and less of what the cowards, bullies, and mentally disturbed now have access to – weapons and explosives.

Our brave and diligent police officers have a tough job of protecting us from harm. They do a great job of it. With more weapons on the streets it only makes their jobs that much tougher. We have had several incidents recently where officers killed or injured those they were apprehending. Maybe some of them made a mistake, we don’t know for sure. But think about doing their job. They want to go home to their families every night just like you and I do. Think how much tougher their decision-making is as the number of weapons on the street continues to increase. Think about how much tougher their job will become with everyone carrying a concealed weapon. Talk about trigger-happy. They would have to be trigger-happy.

It is so easy to pull out a weapon and use it in a rage – and so easy to walk away and think it over – if there is no weapon.

Think about it!