A 14-year-old boy with a history of troubling behavior used a semiautomatic rifle to shoot and kill two fellow students and two teachers Sept. 6 at a high school in Georgia, police say.
The teen faces criminal charges, as does his father—who police say recklessly gave his son “unfettered access” to the gun despite knowing he’d been investigated previously for threatening to carry out a school shooting.
Such events, while rare, are devastating. The media spotlight shone on them can make well-meaning people question whether the grave consequences of the criminal abuse of firearms outweigh any positive impacts the Second Amendment might have on society.
In reality, it’s far more common that peaceable Americans rely on their right to keep and bear arms to successfully defend themselves and other innocent victims from imminent harm. And every day, countless…
