We all mourn with sadness the tragic school shooting from Uvalde, TX. Politicians from one particular political party do their darndest to make political points from this horrific event. “Ban the guns.” “We need more gun laws.” “Take the guns away.” It’s always the gun. Always.
Over the weekend I had the pleasure to head to the theatre and catch Tom Cruise and the new movie ‘Top Gun Maverick.’ I can’t lie. I wanted to hate it. I was expecting some woke virtue signaling film that have been so common in recent years. It wasn’t what I was expecting. It was a great movie. I won’t ruin it for those who haven’t seen it but there was a reoccurring theme where the F/A-18 American jets were outmatched by the enemy’s SU-57, 5th generation jets. Maverick reminded everyone, “It’s not the plane, it’s the pilot.”
With this cliché we move forward to the school shooting from last week. Politicians are quick to blame an inanimate object for their own failures in governing. Removing prayer from schools, LBJ’s Great Society, the degradation of family values, not encouraging a 2-parent male/female parenting household; all of these are better scapegoats than the one in the hands of the shooter. The ones on the left-side in congress would never admit these policies have failed the American people and that they have blood on their hands. They don’t understand that it’s not the gun, it’s the criminal.
As the movie went on another analogy emerges that relates to the tragedy from last week. On two occasions, Maverick is about to meet his end. The first time at the hands of a Mi-24 Crocodile helicopter and later a SU-57. The day was saved when, a good guy with a gun(or a missile in this case), eliminated the threat and saved the day. Maverick lived to fight another day. The same could have been true for these poor kids in the school. There was no good guy with a gun. There was no saving the day.
It’s sad that the solution is so simple but so hard for these politicians to understand. Maverick understands, millions of movie watchers understand, my 16 year old son understands; “It’s not the plane, it’s the pilot.”