Highland Park, IL — Just minutes into the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, a coward opened fire on innocent people from a nearby rooftop. By the time the shooting stopped, 6 people would die and 31 others would be seriously wounded.

The shooter would eventually be taken into custody — alive.

As is the case with all mass shootings, both political parties frantically dug up whatever information they could in hopes of associating the shooter with their political rivals. Anti-gun activists and politicians have blamed everyone from the Supreme Court to the NRA as the right blamed antifa and liberals.

They are both wrong.

Thread from a guy who says he knew the Highland Park shooter (posts proof) and claims the shooter had no political ideology other than to co-opt random aesthetics in furtherance of his interest in “alternate reality games” pic.twitter.com/uqkXuVkTix

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) July 5, 2022

In reality, this loser likely fits the profile of all the other deranged lunatics who wish to cause harm to innocent people. Unfortunately, however, his likeness will be used to demonize millions of good people who would never think about doing anything remotely close to harming innocent people.

The reason this is all over the media is due to the fact that it is politically polarizing and helps push the establishment’s agenda. To prove this point we need only look at the lives lost just 24 hours prior to the Highland Park shooting — 25 miles south.

Before the coward opened fire on innocent people in Highland Park, more than 60 people were shot in Chicago, 15 of them fatally. In fact, this is a common occurrence just 25 miles south of Highland Park in Chicago and dozens of people are killed every weekend… yet we never hear about it from mainstream establishment sources. Why is that?

“Assault weapons” are illegal in Highland Park and Chicago, yet no one is talking about the 60 people shot in Chicago. Are their lives worth less? How could it be that the law is failing to stop criminals from breaking it?

Of course, there are two sides to this debacle. Gun rights advocates state the obvious when they say that restricting the possession of guns only keeps guns out of the hands of people who actually listen to the law.

“The gun laws in Chicago only restrict the law-abiding citizens and they’ve essentially made the citizens prey,” said Richard A. Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association.

But on the other side, the gun controllers would like to see even stricter laws across the nation to stop the flow of guns into Chicago.

“Chicago is like a house with two parents that may try to have good rules and do what they can, but it’s like you’ve got this single house sitting on a whole block where there’s anarchy,” said the Rev. Ira J. Acree, one among a group of pastors here who have marched and gathered signatures for an end to so much shooting. “Chicago is an argument for laws that are statewide or, better yet, national.”

Unfortunately, Acree’s sentiment is a popular notion among those who would take away the ability of people to defend themselves. The incredibly flawed logic behind the reverend’s statement and others like him is a common misconception.

Gun control advocates are saying that since this approach has miserably failed on a local level, if we just apply it to the entire nation, then it would somehow magically work.

But they are wrong.

Of course, a society without guns sounds fantastic and in a perfect utopian world, it would be nice not to need a gun. However, we do not live in utopia.

As John Locke stated, self-defense is the first law of nature. Each person owns his or her own life and no other person has a right to take that life. Those who would attempt to stop you from defending yourself, are attacking the very right from which all other rights are derived, protection of one’s own life.

What advocates of gun control really mean when they say they want to ban guns is that they only want the government to have guns. After all, who would enforce the ban on guns, and how would it be enforced — without guns?

Instead of attacking the hundred and fifty million people in America who legally own guns and who don’t go around shooting children, we should look at the reason that causes people to kill one another. We should examine America’s violent history, the cost of isolation during lockdowns, the media’s role in glorifying the shooters, and the state of mental health in this country.

Studying and seeking discourse on these factors would be far more effective then simply yelling to ban guns. Yet here we are again, like a broken record, stuck on repeat, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. How’s that quote about insanity go again?

Article posted with permission from Matt Agorist