Sunday, August 18, 2019

America's Red Flag Warning: Take Responsibility for Ourselves or the Government Will Do It For Us


Sitting in the quiet stillness of a Sunday morning, sipping black coffee from my “I am your father” Darth Vader mug, I find myself reflecting on a personal experience pertinent to what we are facing as a country. These days a person couldn’t be taken seriously if they didn’t acknowledge that there is something off in our society. People seem to be losing it. Emotions are boiling over and people are being driven into fits of rage over socio-political issues that in all reality, shouldn’t even exist on the level they do. Since when in our country do people write manifesto’s and then go on a shooting spree? Manifesto’s no less that just happen to fit perfectly into the mainstream narrative describing what the social justice warriors should be infuriated about. Why are we as Americans, having to deal with the issue of red-flag laws and the seemingly inevitable lock down of our society?

Yes, something is wrong and there are many theories pertaining to what it may be. The removal of Christian prayer from the public-school system is one theory. Another is Feminism and the destruction of the American male. These are topics that I have written about many times and they are legitimate points of interest that explain a great deal. There is something else underneath that ultimately, in my opinion, may have been the catalyst that started it all. As Americans we forgot who we are, and the responsibilities we have to each other and maintaining freedom. We have given up the obligation of self-governance and allowed the government to move in and take responsibility for the things we should be answerable for. We became too enthralled by the pursuit of material goods, wealth, social status and prestige that we forgot everybody matters. Don’t misunderstand me. This isn’t some social awakening to the left’s misperceived evils of capitalism; you won’t be seeing me at the next Antifa or Occupy Wall Street protest anytime soon. Let me tell you my story.

To some it will seem like no big deal, to others it represents only a tiny fraction of what they go through in their daily lives. To me, well, to me it gave me something to think about and now I’m doing what I do. I am working armed security at a large industrial plant while I’m completing my master’s degree at Liberty University. We run three shifts with several officers on each. Most of the time the days are very uneventful, in fact it can be a pretty boring job. One day we received a call about a man making threats to come in and “shoot the place up” and then take his own life over social problems he was experiencing. Do you see where this is going? This brings the issue of red-flag laws front and center because we must act. My first thought was that I wasn’t going to let anybody get away with that while I was there for fear of it being used as an event to push gun control. Anyway, the individual in question was known to carry a gun. That in and of itself is no big deal, but he is making threats. When he arrived on property at the beginning of his shift, I intercepted his vehicle and asked him to get out of his car. At this point I really had no idea what I could be facing, but as he proceeded to exit the vehicle, I immediately ascertained the man, to my great relief, was not a threat to anyone. He did have a firearm in his car, but so does everyone else most likely. He was not in possession of a conceal carry permit however, and it is against company policy to bring a firearm on the property without one.

Luckily, after a thorough investigation we were able to determine the alleged threats he made to harm others were exaggerated rumor but, the threats he made to take his own life were not. Our actions just may have saved him from committing suicide. Think for a moment about what police officers go through on an everyday basis. Again, I urge you to not misunderstand my position. I am not a newly appointed leftist advocating for gun control on any level here, but just imagine what police officers go through. There is a legitimate concern among law enforcement and the general public no less, about how to keep firearms out of the hands of dangerous people.

Red-flag laws, to the people that are uneducated about how such things can be abused, seem like a reasonable solution. They are not, they will turn our society upside down. Red-flag laws are more than a draconian tool to suppress freedom and target political enemies however; they are a consequence of our failure to police ourselves and look out for one another. Just like my situation at work, there are already systems in place that enable authorities to intercept and stop people that are making credible threats from carrying them out. Making threats is against the law, and a person can be arrested and charged with a crime for doing so. The shooter in Parkland Florida for example, could have been stopped several times over for the threats he made but the school, out of a fear of losing funding in Obama’s promise program, ignored the threats. This was a complete failure of systems already in place and it is the American people that will suffer the consequence.

Yes, arguments could be made about the removal of prayer from school and the destruction of masculinity as being the root cause of many problems we face in America. I think we also need to realize we have a responsibility to each other. When was the last time you reached out to a person in need? When was the last time you asked that one person that everyone else was harassing and teasing because they are different, if they were oaky, or if they needed help with something? Sometimes that one act of kindness can be all it takes to make a difference in someone’s life. I mean, we can’t continue the way we are going now. Something has got to change and if we fail to take responsibility for ourselves, the government will be forced to move in and do it for us.

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