It has been two weeks since the terrible murder of innocent students and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school. Nothing can prepare one for this horrific taking of life. Nothing can bring back those so suddenly gone; nothing can ever really assuage the searing pain of loss.
I know firsthand. An attack like this occurred exactly ten years on the night my own son, Avraham David Moses, was brutally murdered in a Jerusalem library. He was only sixteen — simply a high school student sitting and studying — when a terrorist began a ten minute shooting spree that left Avraham David and seven more students dead.
Just like in the Parkland massacre, the night my son was killed, several police officers hunkered down outside “securing the perimeter” while the killer shot round after round into his helpless victims. My son’s murderer was stopped, not by the police, but by a pistol carrying college student and an off-duty army officer who charged past the police and put an end to the carnage.
I understand how difficult it is to ponder the lives which were lost, that some of the beloved children and adults killed could have been saved…if only. I understand how painful it is to wonder what could have made a difference, what could have spared those mourning a loss still too painful to fathom.
I’ve heard the clarion calls, sincere in their desire to save lives by abolishing access to weaponry, that spring forth after such a devastating event. And I’ve read the claims considering even armed police didn’t act to stop this killer, guns are no protection. Now, I am not an expert on guns or armed citizenry, although I’ve served in the military and own a pistol. But I know, that despite the irresolute response of the official security forces who reached the scene of my son’s murder while children were still being shot, it was the bravery of others, ordinary men who chanced to be in the area while armed, that finally halted the massacre of innocents.
There are few salaries large enough to convince someone to risk his life–even if that is what he is paid to do. But–one can inculcate an ethos of shared responsibility, foster a willingness to give one’s all–no matter the cost–that has no price. Paid mercenaries, even those sworn to serve and protect, are at the end of the day just another employee. Social solidarity, though, is priceless.
And that, combined with adequate access to the tools needed to fight back, kept other families from needing to bury their children as I did my own beloved son ten years ago. Guns don’t save people, but courageous armed men and women certainly can.
Dr. Naftali Moses contributes to The Times of Israel.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.