America, Where a Life Is Not a Life

In America, the value of your life apparently depends on how you die. Some deaths matter more than others. Let’s try to be fact-based and rational. 

American carnage is protected

When nearly 40,000 Americans are killed by guns each and every year, we do nothing. When China, Japan, and Amnesty International issue warnings against US travel, characterizing the US as a gun culture, we do nothing. When anyone can legally purchase a modern weapon of war and turn it indiscriminately on our people, we do nothing. Even now in the face of rising domestic terrorism we are unlikely to do anything.

Other deaths are not

And yet, when a handful of Islamic terrorists managed to bring down the World Trade Towers, killing 2,606 Americans, our reaction was swift and violent. We unleashed what has now been 18 years of continuous war and investments in homeland security, costing nearly $5 trillion, almost 7,000 American lives, 1 million injured, and hundreds of thousands of Arab lives. 

Why do we need a TSA?

In order to prevent the loss of more lives in events of airline terrorism, we created the TSA, at significant cost and inconvenience to travelers worldwide. In 2020, the federal government will spend $92 billion on homeland security. 

Or an FAA?

To protect the public from airline crashes, pilots are licensed, training is frequent, airlines and manufacturers are tightly regulated, and new airplanes are approved by the government. The effort appears to work: In the four years ending in 2017, there were zero commercial airline deaths in the US. Despite this record of safety, when a commercial airline crashes, we react with indignation at airplane manufacturers, ground airlines, launch investigations, and review the FAA.  

Or driving laws?

With the digital revolution came the phenomenon of “distracted” driving, resulting in an estimated 3,200 lives lost in 2016. So far, 20 states have reacted by regulating cell phone use while driving. 

The list is long. We eagerly enact helmet laws for kids and adults, require airbags in cars, enact speed limits, build guardrails, establish OSHA to protect workers, prohibit alcohol and cigarettes for minors, and regulate car seats, to name a few. All this in the name of protecting lives. But not all lives.

Where is our self-respect?

Why is one death acceptable and another not? Why do we react to some and not to others? Where is our respect for human life? Where is our self-respect? 

The Second Amendment is not a natural right

Senator Barrasso from Wyoming recently reverted to the Second Amendment defense as he cast cold water on the proposed “red flag” laws. “I want to make sure we protect our constitutional rights.” He is not alone in his support for the Second Amendment but we wish that respect for the Second Amendment would not derail reasonable discussion and compromise about gun control. A constitutional right is not a human right. It is not a natural right. It is not sacrosanct. It is simply a right that was agreed upon between constitutional framers over 200 years ago when muskets were the weapon of choice. Times have changed and we need to change with it— or at least talk about it.