If it's crazy to call for putting police and armed security in our school to protect our children, then call me crazy.

We think it's reasonable to provide mandatory instant criminal background checks for every sale at every gun show. No loopholes anywhere for anyone.

Laws can't control the lawless.

How many more copycats are waiting in the wings for their moment of fame — from a national media machine that rewards them with the wall-to-wall attention and sense of identity that they crave — while provoking others to try to make their mark? A dozen more killers? A hundred? More? How can we possibly even guess how many, given our nation's refusal to create an active national database of the mentally ill?

We, the American people, clearly see the daunting forces we will undoubtedly face: terrorists, crime, drug gangs, the possibility of Euro-style debt riots, civil unrest or natural disaster.

Here's a summary for the time or attention challenged: Never surrender freedom for laws that can't affect criminals; they disobey laws for a living.

Freedom is never an achieved state; like electricity, we've got to keep generating it or the lights go out.