Army Bob: ‘Blame Game’ is played after every tragedy

The tragic murders in Florida has started a cascade of blame — The FBI “dropped the ball,” the County Sheriff, the school district, the federal government, the mental health establishment, the foster parents, the store that sold the weapon, the store that sold and the factory that produced the ammunition, video games, social media are all culpable.

4The building in which the children were murdered will be torn down, as if we can punish a building. All of them dropped the ball, or should have known this murderer was a time bomb; just how they should have known does not matter. The absolute worst thing an elected official can ever say, especially at the national level, is “there is nothing I can do about it.”

Any political figure who makes the true statement that preventing a tragic event is not within their jurisdiction or authority is toast in the next election. So, they do something, anything; the likelihood that it would not have changed or prevented the tragic event is not important — the elected or appointed official must be able to say he/she did something. After 9/11, both political parties, conservatives and liberals, voted for the Patriot Act, a tool that allowed the government to become more powerful and authoritarian.

The Bill of Rights gives us protection against the power of a dictatorial government, but after a tragic event like 9/11 or a mass murder we willingly surrender some of our rights to the seemingly benevolent government. Once we surrender our rights to the government the surrender is referenced forever; the Patriot Act is cited as authority every time the government wants to expand power over our freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution.

Government can be a force for good, but it is not a force that is free of the tendency to become all powerful as we find in a monarchy, dictatorship or a socialist system.

The American Constitution is a document designed to limit the power of government to protect the people from an overreaching, overly powerful government. Every time we are willing surrendering our freedoms to the government, we chip away at the Constitution.

The American media has been wall-to-wall blaming the FBI for not stopping the murders, even though they knew this man was a timebomb. I worked with the FBI at Fort Leonard Wood; we had an FBI Resident Agency located in our office, great folks who would have traded their lives for any of the young ones murdered. If the FBI arrested every young man who posted insane things on social media, it would be tens of thousands of young men in jail for exercising free speech, even if stupid, outrageous and dumb. If we jailed all young men who made stupid statements we would have darn near every young man in jail.

The media, in condemning those with whom they disagree, stated that the NRA donated money to train the murder to learn how to kill. A kernel of truth, but a real stretch. The NRA has donated to the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC), and the murderer was very briefly a member of that group. And oh by the way, I was a member as well for many years; JROTC an outstanding program that teaches responsibility and leadership, and it is not a training ground for mass murderers. Blaming the military and NRA in some way is predictable after every mass murder.

The blame game is always played after a tragedy. After an earthquake on the other side of the earth, we blame American industry. A hurricane destroying an island is blamed on those who do not give a blank check or dictatorial powers to the government.

Our Constitution limits government, and under a Constitutional Republic individual freedom is guarded. Under a socialist dictatorship the government has unfettered power; I vote for a republic, which with all its faults it is still the best form of government in the world.

We will now see a rush to do something, anything, right or wrong or ineffective; Constitutional or not be damned, just do something to assure the voters that they have.