Security and Liberty

http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul383.html

... The Virginia Tech tragedy may not lead directly to more gun control, but I fear it will lead to more people control. Thanks to our media and many government officials, Americans have become conditioned to view the state as our protector and the solution to every problem. Whenever something terrible happens, especially when it becomes a national news story, people reflexively demand that government do something. This impulse almost always leads to bad laws and the loss of liberty. It is completely at odds with the best American traditions of self-reliance and rugged individualism.

... Freedom is not defined by safety. Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference. Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live in such a fictional place. Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens’ lives. Liberty has meaning only if we still believe in it when terrible things happen and a false government security blanket beckons.

After the Virginia shootings, the age-old debate is once again on the front page: "if we would just ban the guns, these things wouldn't happen" vs. "if the people had been allowed to be armed, they could have defended themselves". Every tragedy brings the same argument of state control vs. self-control (both for the criminal and the victim). Ron Paul makes a great statement here about the true definition of Freedom, and the unseen risks that come with ceding our responsibility to the state.