Present and willing – the foundational pieces for saving lives. Now add a healthy dose of training, and you’re arguably very prepared to stop a threat, put evil on hold, and spare the lives of innocent people.
We’ve got problems, but we’re asking all the wrong questions, which means we’ll get the wrong answers. Too many will say something thoughtful like, “When are we going to do something?” They would be right to ponder and ask a question like that, but what you’ll get in return, if anything, is a bunch of manure splashed across the wall in hopes some of it sticks. And that’s a really poor way to consider and erect policy.
Let’s ask the hard question. “How many lives are we willing to forfeit each time something bad happens?”
Yeah, I wrote that. And you read it. There is no way to eliminate evil. Stop being silly and thinking if you could ban one more gun or curtail one more civil right, evil would cease. That mentality is as stupid as it is dumb. Rather, let’s agree on the TRUTH. Evil exists and for as long a man has walked the Earth, it has been present. Knowing this, the question pivots away from how to remove evil, to what we’ll do when evil presents itself. That’s the right question to ask, and we all know the answer. Some are just not comfortable admitting the answer, that’s all.
When evil shows itself, if you’re present and willing, you intercede. YOU STOP IT.
Being present and willing are foundational to stopping the gratuitous harm of others. With training, your speed and odds of success increase exponentially. That’s it. There’s no magic formula. Are you present? Are you willing? Are you trained in ways that allow you to reach your full potential? If you can answer yes to the first two, and the third is well in hand with more planned, you’re what the innocent among us require to make it home at night. Not the wholesale curtailment of the good guy’s rights. Not a bunch of Pollyanish ideas that have never and will never work, but give us some warm feelings. No. Why have we departed from the TRUTH?
When the bad guy shows up with a plan to hurt people, why don’t we act on our plan? That requires you and I to be present, then willing. And the more trained we are, the better off everyone will be. May the Almighty bless them, but no police response time is going to compare to a person who is present and willing in the school. No SRO is going to react as quickly to disaster in a classroom as the teacher standing there. Stop trying to convince yourself otherwise – that’s a fool’s errand. When the person present is willing and prepared the body count these killers amass, plummets.
Evil exists when the bad guys have a monopoly on violence in “Gun Free Zones” – when we remove that advantage two things happen. 1, What violence they inflict is quickly halted, and 2, fewer and fewer attempts will be made due to logical outcomes for the perpetrator.
Join IFC in the fight to stop these phony “safe” zones that are anything but… The families in Perry and the community as a whole have suffered in unimaginable ways. The past is granite, but the future is malleable. If you don’t choose to be present, willing, and prepared you’re not communicating your compassion, but rather your indifferent cruelty.
In Libertatem,
Michael Ware – IFC Board
Very well said. I have always said. They know what they need to do to protect the children and others. And that is to harden the soft targets of gun free zones. But that doesn’t fit their narrative. They want to disarm the law abiding for some sick reason. They know full well that there is now law that can stop evil. There has to be some good person who is there and willing to put themselves on the line to stop the bad person. We need trained people who are willing to step up.
Well said Michael! Very Well Said!
Here is a Quote from Thomas Jefferson: “Every Citizen should be a Soldier. This was the Case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every Free State.”
Our condition is Orange! Are you “Ready at all times?”
“Eternal Vigilance is The Price of Freedom” Thomas Jefferson
Michael’s comments are 100% correct.
Well Said, Very Well Said!