R: The Masses Should Be Armed

Wednesday, April 11th, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. in the Berkeley Mendenhall Room

Thomas Eakins, Pushing for Rail, 1874, oil on canvas, 33 × 76.4 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

There is perhaps no greater tragedy than the killing of an innocent child.  Every time we see another horrible school shooting on the news, we must ask ourselves what we can do to prevent future tragedies because one is too many.  Calling someone out for not wanting to protect children is unproductive.  We all want the same thing, safe schools, it's time to have a real discussion about how best to accomplish this goal. 

Is an armed populace a safe populace?  Thomas Jefferson thought so as he once remarked: "For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security."  Now, many people are quick and correct to point out the substantial strides in military technology that have taken place in the last 200 years.  This certainly warrants consideration, but critics suggest that banning certain types of weapons is a dangerous road to start down.

While many people argue that the safest thing to have in a crisis is a well-armed trained citizen, others suggest that it's impossible to keep guns in the hands of only the responsible.  If there was an easy answer, we'd have found it already.  We all want the safest nation for our children.  How do we get there?