After the Parkland School shooting, I have listened to the blather from the students on gun control. Many of the students are very articulate and have made eloquent and moving speeches. I believe that they have a right to express their views.

However, I don’t believe that they have any “special” insights into gun control. The media and most politicians are letting these kids dictate the debate on gun control. This is a MISTAKE. As I said, they should freely express their views but they shouldn’t be given any more accord than anyone else. Just because you were witness to a shooting or even though you may have been shot, does not qualify you as an expert on the subject.  Getting shot at is unfortunate but it does not ordain you as the soothsayer of truth.  A Hispanic man was shot to death no more than 20 feet from me, but that doesn’t qualify me as an expert on gang violence or drug related deaths in the Hispanic community.

Jump all over me if you want to.  In our world of victim mentality I keep hearing that victims’ statements and ideas should be accepted without question.  From the “pound Metoo” movement to these students on gun control, we are lectured by the media to accept anything said by a victims as truth.  Hogwash.  All ideas should be examined and questioned.  Blindly accepting any “victim’s” statement as absolute truth is foolish.

Here’s an analogy. A group of 16-18 year old kids are driving around in a car and they are involved in an accident where some of them are killed.  This tragedy does not qualify the surviving kids with any extraordinary insight into automotive structural design or highway road construction. In fact most rational people would listen to what the kids testify as to the incident, but they wouldn’t immediately change automotive safety standards based on what the kids say, one day after the accident. This is exactly what we are doing as far as gun ownership is concerned.

I’m all for making schools safer, but not at the expense of trampling our Constitutional rights.