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In establishing policy, one must constantly and consciously separate his or her opinion of the ideal situation with the proven facts. The acceptance and cold understanding of the parameters of reality will often determine the success or failure of any policy.
The following is excerpted from a recent post published in The Global Futurist Blog. Unfortunately, it focuses (of necessity) on the infamous and much-politicized gun control debate in the United States:
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In the united States, the issue of Gun Control has been a hotly contested and largely politicized one for many years. You hear multiple sound bites (or bytes):
"We need to get the guns off the streets -- gun violence is killing people"; "Guns don't kill people. People kill people. If they don't have guns, they'll use some other weapon."; "The Constitution cites the right, of the People, 'to own and bear arms' -- with gun control laws, innocent, decent civilians won't be able to get guns for self-defense, but the criminals who intend harm will keep getting them anyway.";"How can I defend myself if I am attacked -- the police get there after the crime has happened... what will they do then? Draw a chalk line around my body?"; "If the bullying criminals knew that civilians were likely to be armed, they would be less likely to prey on us and victimize us."
I personally believe that Human beings make choices. If you give a person a gun, it doesn't make him or her into an attacker. I also believe, as an economist, in the law of supply and demand; if people didn't want guns, they (the guns) would be economically eliminated from the marketplace. As a martial artist, I know that virtually any tool can be turned into a weapon... it just requires a bit of hasty ingenuity and the presence of a threat.
Weapons are merely an extension of Human nature. Some people carry them to inflict harm, some people carry them so that they can defend themselves in the event of a clear threat. I believe that Human Nature is more of an issue (in terms of gun control) than the laws which are passed in never-ending attempts to control it. Human beings ultimately exercise free will in making all of their decisions, the law notwithstanding. Our society is not controlled by regulations and laws; it is ultimately controlled by economics and the Human behavioral psyche. Unless you can control people, gun control just won't work.
If the government cannot protect me, I believe that I have a right (psychologically hard-wired into me) to self-defense in the interest of my own survival. I will not surrender that right.
If guns are available, the best we can hope to do is carefully screen prospective purchasers, and be certain that they receive some training in the use of these weapons. I don't stand with either the NRA or with the ACLU on the issue of gun control. I actually believe the point is moot, and that the Pandora's box of weaponry has already been opened.
Here's my apolitical take: Making all civilian guns illegal will simply 1) drive up the price of guns as a commodity, and that 2) weapons dealers, like drug dealers, will benefit far more than the Public-At-Large.
Here's a recent article about the "massacre" at the Empire State Building which is really worth reading: NYPD police officers responding and reacting to the lone gunman threat are responsible for all nine civilians injured during the Empire State Building incident.
As I have said before, maybe it's time that we, as a society, stop in our denial of the laws of economics and Human psychology and accept the reality of our situation and circumstances.
Solving problems starts with understanding their true causes, and by then addressing them.
I don't necessarily trust my fellow Humans (which sounds sexist - I mean to include females here as well [I am grinning]), but I do trust in my own ability to discern right from wrong, and I know that I would feel safer if I were armed and properly trained, than if I were not.
That's it.
Douglas E. Castle for The Daily Burst Of Brilliance Blog and for The Taking Command Blog
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If you are to make policy as a leader, or execute or enforce policy as a commander, you must deal with reality, and only reality, in order to meet your goals and objectives in either creating rules or in seeing to their enforcement. Otherwise, you are either wasting your precious time in the wonderland of your own imagination, or you are catering to a political agenda instead of an operational one.
You must focus on the Laws of Physics, practical economics and the body of knowledge as it relates to Human behavioral psychology if you are to make or enact policy. If you fail to take these three sets of variables into account, your policy certainly fail.
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