A Different Apporoach to Preventing Shooting Tragedies

On July 23rd, Ed Hubbard wrote a blog entry for Big Jolly Politics regarding the recent Colorado tragedy. While I believe this has been used enough as ammunition by politicians both for and against stricter gun laws, Hubbard took a different approach. He is a conservative activist, so he doesn't believe that more government regulation on guns will solve anything. However, he does acknowledge that something needs to be done to help prevent future incidents like this, an by doing so, he's able to appeal more to some liberal readers, as well as his faithful conservative ones. This is important because he didn't write this blog entry for only fellow conservatives to read; he wrote it for all Americans, because it's going to take a unified effort from all Americans to stop gun violence. In his entry, he blames the "Baby Boomers," for the recent shooting tragedies at Columbine, Virginia Tech, a citizens meeting in Tucson, and now a movie theater in Aurora. This is a bold statement, but he does provide the reader with compelling evidence to support this claim. According to him, the Baby Boomers' search for "truth" during the 60s and 70s led them to embrace autonomy, which they called "liberty." This generation caused a shift in society where people began to do whatever they pleased, with little regard to others, because they had the freedom to do so. The truth is, we've always had the freedom to pursue our own happiness, but doing so by putting our own needs above others' is an irresponsible use of that freedom. This "don't trust anybody but yourself" attitude leads to us, as a society, to not be neighborly towards one another, and then we're surprised when that guy from math class brings a gun to school with no warning. Maybe if we took some time to talk to the troubled young people in our generation, we could recognize danger long before a tragedy occurs. Unfortunately, too many people are caught up in their own lives, and aren't willing to put in the work to help others. Instead, many of us choose the quick fix, and call on the government to implement laws, which is only a sorry attempt to mask the real problem. Hubbard acknowledges that it would take a lot of work, but that's exactly why he wrote this entry. The more people that get on board with this idea, the sooner we will begin to see positive changes in our society. Helping others isn't exclusively liberal or conservative, so no matter who you identify with, it's something we all should try.