A few years ago, "actress" Jenny McCarthy went on a crusade to convince Americans to stop vaccinating their children. No -- this isn't a new phenomenon, but her "celebrity" and that of her celebrity enablers like Oprah Winfrey turned the anti-vax campaign into a small success.
Small, yes, but big enough to have perhaps played a role in the return of long-dormant epidemics of whooping cough and other serious contagious diseases in the U.S.
Ms. McCarthy appears to be acting on a positive impulse: Her belief in her right to pursue her individual liberty in choosing the kind of health care that her children get. The problem is the greater social cost, which far away exceeds the (imaginary) benefit that she wants to claim for her children.
People like Ms. McCarthy put the health of the entire nation at risk while pursuing liberties specific to them, without regard to the cost of society as a whole.
And now enter the 2nd Amendment folks ...
They want their guns. Great!
But when you demand that guns are available for purchase, possession and transport, you are putting a cost on society that the rest of us have to bear. This is the cost that we are seeing today.
It's really a trade-off.
I'd like to ask Ms. McCarthy if she values her liberty more than she values the health and lives of thousands of children and immune-compromised adults that she is putting at risk with her anti-vaccination campaign.
Is it worth it?
I'd like to as our nation's 2nd Amendment activists whether their right to carry a gun is more important than the dozens of people who were killed or injured today in Colorado.
Was it worth it to you? When you read the headlines, do you tell yourself, "Yes -- it's all worth it?"