by Brian G. Jeffs, MS, CPG
Clash Daily Guest Contributor
In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting, the topic of allowing lawfully carried firearms into schools and other gun free zones (GFZs) has been debated a lot. This debate happens after every mass shooting that takes place in GFZs. This time the shooting took place on a typical overcast December morning, as both students and staff went about their day. This day a mentally ill 20-year-old man, who had killed his mother earlier in the morning, shot his way into their idyllic lives.
This day the killer approached the school office where he shot and killed the principal when she tried to stop him using only her body as an ineffectual weapon. This man then went on to kill 5 more adults and 20 children, between the ages of 5 and 8 years old, before killing himself.
The Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy is now the worst school shooting in US history. But what does this school have in common with other places where mass murder has taken place? The one thing in common is they almost always take place in GFZs. Places where law-abiding people are denied their right to self-defense, but where murderers seem to choose to wreak havoc on the lawfully unarmed. These criminals know that GFZs are unlikely to meet up with any armed resistance. They know that the police are minutes away. And when your life is being threatened those minutes seem like an eternity.
What I don’t understand is why others don’t understand that GFZs are killing zones. Is it because the logic is so sound? Is it because we have been remiss in teaching our children critical thinking skills? Is it because people are thinking too much with their emotions and not with their minds?
As I was pondering this mystery it came to me that an analogy was needed to explain, in a simple way, how guns in GFZs can save lives. But first let’s go back in time some 150 years into the early works on Immunology and vaccination.
The idea of allowing more guns in schools as a solution to preventing the mass slaughter of children seems counter-intuitive. But then so did the vaccination theory. The idea of injecting the very thing that causes disease into a healthy person seemed preposterous. It seemed illogical.
This crazy idea of taking a dead or weakened virus and injecting it into a healthy person so that antibodies would be produced seemed impossible and insane. The very idea though, was that the weakened or dead virus would promote the production of a specific antibody for that virus. Then, if at some time in the future a healthy person was exposed to that particular virus, the antibodies would overtake and destroy them thereby protecting the host from harm.
And it works; it works very well. Vaccinations over the last 150 years have saved millions of lives since their inception and they continues to do so today. Smallpox, polio, diphtheria, Rubella and measles etc., have killed more children, than any mass murderer.
So let’s apply that theory to gun-free zones. Let’s imagine a school is a host body, a person so to speak, and the virus is a deranged killer that somehow gets into the host body and starts killing it. If the host is unprotected, i.e., no antibodies, then the host could die.
Now, let’s inject some harmless viruses, let’s say lawfully carried guns, into the host body; guns like viruses can harm a host. But what if these harmless viruses (lawful guns) were carried by lawful citizens, like teachers, parents and staff? Well then, these people become like antibodies, ready to attack any harmful viruses that may prey upon the host body. These antibodies (lawfully armed citizens) are now in a position to protect the host body by neutralizing the harmful viruses.
It would make sense that like vaccinations, allowing lawful people to carry guns in schools could save countless children from slaughter. The idea of allowing lawful gun carries into schools and other gun-free zones may seem counter-intuitive but so did the idea of vaccination. This crazy idea of vaccinations has saved countless million and so too would eliminating gun free zones.
Image: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/imagelibrary/medical/03.htm; public domain
Brian Jeffs is the co-found of and current Director of Research for Michigan Open Carry, Inc. He is on the Board of Directors for the Second Amendment March and a member of Gun Owners of America. Brian is also the co-host of AT ODDS a political talk show on Spreaker.com. Brian has co-authored a children’s book on gun rights called My Parents Open Carry which can be ordered here www.myparentsopencarry.com
