Second Amendment

The signs of a nation in decline are all around us

In the mountains of Bogota, Colombia, there’s an understanding among drivers. There’s the left lane, the right lane, and then the newly created space in the middle of those two lanes to allow an impatient driver to pass without creating a head-on collision. Everyone knows what to do. The left lane driver and right lane driver squeeze to the outside boundaries of their lanes. The impatient driver fully believes the other two will do that and drives through the middle.

Colombia has an emerging economy but falls short of being highly regulated like more developed nations. If you’re going to drive through the mountains, do so defensively. Or die.

A hallmark of an industrialized nation, like the United States, is that a strong rule of law will protect you. But sometimes there can be a whole bunch of laws, and its citizens are still not protected.

Let’s start with our roads. Rural Americans drive many two-lane roads. Traveling 55 miles per hour and meeting another car doing the same thing always had its risks. But it’s different now. More and more vehicles are crowding and crossing the center line before jerking back to its own lane. Many times when meeting these vehicles, the driver’s head is down—most likely looking at a cell phone.

There are laws against that. Lots of them. The Governors Highway Safety Association reports that 34 states ban handheld cellphone use to make and receive calls and 49 states ban texting while driving.

Many pay very little attention to these laws. Anyone who regularly drives on two-lane roads sees an increase in distracted driving and is frequently making the judgement call to take the shoulder to avoid a head-on collision.

We’re not so different from Bogota.

The law of the land is also failing to protect Americans from the societal costs of illegal immigration. There are nearly 1,200 pages of immigration regulations in Title 8 of the U.S. Code.

It doesn’t stop 10,000 individuals from illegally crossing the U.S. border in a single day. Millions can cross annually.

It seems as though there are no consequences for entering the country unlawfully. We have 435 elected officials who write reams and reams of rules that get ignored.    

Many still developing and emerging nations have stronger border enforcement than this country.

The U.S. is not the highly developed nation it thinks it is.

At least we still have the Second Amendment. The right for Americans to possess weapons for the protection of themselves, their rights, and their property was ratified in 1791. Since then, 20,000 gun laws have been adopted at the local, state and federal level.

Tens of thousands of regulations should accomplish at least one thing—the ability to make the average American feel safe.

But it doesn’t. The Pew Research Center reports that 72% of gun owners cite protection as the major reason for owning a gun.

It’s not that difficult to connect the dots. Our general population is increasing. There are more of us to deal with. Arrests have fallen from 14.1 million in the 1990s to 4.53 million in 2021. Bad people aren’t decreasing. They’re just not being arrested. And the number of full-time law enforcement officers has dropped from 697,000 in 2019 to 660,000 in 2021. There are fewer protectors on the streets.

More people capable of mayhem plus fewer cops making fewer arrests.

It’s understandable why citizens desire to keep a gun in the home for protection, despite 20,000 laws designed to keep them safe.

We really cannot count on others to help us. We must protect ourselves.

The people of less developed and lawless nations know this all too well. They must depend upon themselves for their own security. We’re not so different from those other countries.

It’s election season. There’s a lot of rhetoric about whether or not we’re a nation in decline. It’s a good question to ask because a nation’s strength is a fluid matter. It can increase or decrease.  

A strong rule of law, or lack of one, is a primary indicator of a nation’s rise or fall.  

We do a great job of writing legal code—of putting laws on the books. Every politician’s favorite word is, “comprehensive.” It’s a signal that massive new regulations will be written.

But these laws are meaningless congressional paperwork if they’re not enforced.

Ask a defensive driver, a defiant texter behind the wheel, a border patrol officer, an illegal immigrant, a police officer, a criminal, a gun owner. Ask anyone.

Yes, our nation—once a shining city on a hill—is in decline because of increased lawlessness. Politicians must deal with this reality.

Citizens already are. 

Effective teachers are key in solving school safety issues

teacher and student

Image by Shutterstock.

The United States may be the Wild West of the civilized world. Many perceive us as a nation of freedom-loving gun-toters, and it has its perks. It takes a gritty spirit to successfully defend the homeland. We have been unconquered. Not every nation can say that.

Some want to strengthen the Second Amendment, and others want to weaken it. All, though, can recognize the need to balance our freedoms with public safety.

The aftermath of a school mass shooting rightfully focuses on the immediate loss of innocent life. The long-range view, though, is dire as well.

Our schools are already struggling. According to the 2015 Program for International Student Assessment, the United States ranked 30th in math and 19th in science out of 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

It’s a challenge to find and keep high-performing teachers in the classroom. They deal with multiple frustrations daily—some students who don’t apply themselves, a lack of tools they sometimes need to be successful in their job, and no increased financial reward or recognition for excellent performance.

And now we must add a sense of lack of safety to the mix.

A 2013 School Improvement Network survey reported that 31 percent of educators felt their school was not safe from gun violence. Now, that number has jumped to 69 percent.

At some point, these high-performing teachers will make the reasonable conclusion that they can take their skill set and be equally or more successful in another endeavor. And feel safer.

Our country can’t withstand that loss. A report entitled, “U.S. Education Reform and National Security,” published by the Council on Foreign Relations, states, “Human capital will determine power in the current century, and the failure to produce that capital will undermine America’s security. Large, undereducated swaths of the population damage the ability of the United States to physically defend itself, protect its secure information, conduct diplomacy, and grow its economy.”

In order to keep our best teachers in the classroom, we must ask them what they need in order to feel safe and keep their students safe. It also wouldn’t hurt to survey our high-achieving college students who are pursuing teaching degrees.

We need to listen—and then deliver to the best of our ability.

There have been many suggestions to make our schools safer: Secure entrances with locked doors that require the individual to be buzzed in, increase police or security officer presence, utilize metal detectors at entrances, strengthen background checks for firearm purchases, allow concealed carry permits in schools, raise the age to purchase certain firearms, eliminate certain firearms, conduct active shooter drills, address mental health and social breakdown issues, educate all that when you “see something, say something,” and hold accountable authorities when they drop the ball.

Some of these solutions must be debated and tackled at the federal or state level. Others can be considered now at the local level. For every solution, there’s the potential of an unintended consequence. And nothing will make our schools 100 percent safe. But teachers’ voices should be one of the loudest when we aim for that goal.

In Iowa, a child who has reached the age of six and is under sixteen years of age by September 15 is of compulsory attendance age. Unless home schooled, kids have no choice and are required to be in these school buildings.

Teachers, though, choose to be in the profession of teaching. And they can choose to leave.

A loss of effective teachers from our schools would be harmful to our nation. A poorly-educated populace could lead to a different kind of Wild West—one that none of us wants.