Liberty and Security and Gun Control

Perhaps this post comes too soon after the recent tragedies that have occurred–first the horrific bombing at the Boston Marathon on Wednesday, and then the recent  killing of a police officer on the MIT campus Thursday evening.  There is also the recent Texas fertilizer plant explosion that, while not an intentional act of violence, has also helped set a very somber tone for the week.

It has gotten me thinking about random acts of violence (which a very recent poll reports Americans now fear more than foreign terrorist attacks) and the role that personal liberty plays in said violence. There is, of course, the raging gun control debate which has escalated over the past year since the Colorado movie theater and Sandy Hook elementary school shootings.  However, I’d like to set that specific debate to the side for now to talk about the greater debate at hand–that of liberty.

There’s that famous Benjamin Franklin quote, “those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”  But what does this exactly mean? What are essential liberties?

Liberty enables men to align their lives to the truth–and when this happens, there should be more social order, not less. The recent violence in our country hasn’t been the ordered exercise of liberty–it’s been senseless tyranny of madmen, and it has enslaved other men to fear.

People are dying.  “Give me liberty or give me death”–Patrick Henry, was this what you had in mind?  I have to admit that I am torn on this whole debate–not just about guns, but about liberties and their free exercise in general.

On the one hand, men should have liberty so that they can freely pursue the truth.  On the other hand, what is to be done when men abuse that liberty? What do we do when people starty dying?  Do you revoke some of those liberties–to gun ownership, etc–in order to protect others?

What are essential liberties?  And how do we keep them from being abused to the point of tragedy? Is this even possible?  In the face of these recent horrible tragedies, I have no answers–only questions, and prayers for those who especially suffer at this difficult time.