Bulletproof Friday: The Morality of Shooting People in the Face

Any time there is a mass shooting the media,

politicians, and everyday people ask, “Why do we allow these things to happen?” The answers are usually given in sound-bite snacks to feed their respective sides, left or right, without ever exploring the moral foundations of our Second Amendment rights or examining where the real issues that lead to these tragedies reside.

I will get into the historic underpinnings of the Second Amendment in a later article but right now I want to focus on the moral pillars that the Second Amendment is built upon.

Before I get into that, let me say that I have spent much of my adult life hunting and fighting criminals and terrorists who think nothing of killing the innocent regardless of their age. However, those that hurt children light a particularly intense fire of hatred in my heart. I feel great sorrow for the lives and potential lost, and, as a father, I can empathize with the families left behind. Some people need to die for the security of our families and for the protection of our society. Wishing it wasn’t so is not a solution.

The world is an imperfect place full of evil men intent on doing evil things. They come in all shapes and colors; all religions and ages; some sympathetic and charismatic, some blatantly hostile; but the effect of their actions is not something that can be ignored, tolerated, or wished-away. I have seen the effects of their bullets and bombs on the fragile flesh of my fellow servicemen and on innocent civilians caught in their sights. This is the really-real world ladies and gentlemen. To deny that these people exist and are not actively praying for your death, training to kill you, and seeking to target you is to live in a state of denial that makes the bad man’s job easier.

While some liberal elements are sounding emotional calls for everything from a new Assault Weapons Ban to a repeal of the Second Amendment their leftist political overlords are salivating at the prospect of new laws destroying your liberty and giving them more control. Remember, the founders believed this was a God-given basic human right that no individual or government could take away.

But what is the moral ground that the Second Amendment is based on? Why is it so dear to so many Americans? The founders believed that everyone had the right to be safe in their own person. This comes from the Judeo-Christian society that thousands of years of Western Culture bore and in whose philosophical tenants they were brought up in.