Editor’s Note: This letter contains mentions of violence.

To the Editors:

Nathan, thank you for your thoughtful piece on gun control. I respond with respect. I used to be Jewish and a Democrat. Unfortunately, the Democratic party has now almost completely abandoned liberalism and instead embraced the illiberal value system called leftism. I am still a passionate liberal. Now, they call us constitutional conservatives. I certainly understand your values regarding gun control. However, I consider them, in general, highly illiberal and very harmful to us all. Here is why.

First, like or not, believe it or not, leftism is a child-like value system. It appeals to people because all of us have a deep and strong drive to be taken care of. It’s a very natural feeling. It’s a feeling that men and women must fight and try to control. Because many of us do not fight or control the feeling, we end up with auditoriums full of students channeling the child inside of themselves, cheering for The Bern, for free college, free healthcare, daycare, free family leave care, free public school education, retirement care, job care, food and housing care. They want to be taken care of by a mom-and-dad government. Now, they don’t even want to hear opinions they disagree with, so they shriek and shout down speakers or run to safe spaces built by childish administrators. This childishness is wired into the nature of us all, but if boys and girls don’t grow up, they wreck their societies with this foolishness — take a peek at Venezuela today. Take a peek at men being hauled into court in Europe or Canada because the child-leaders don’t like their non-leftist speech.

This childishness is the reason we have all the cheers about gun control and common sense gun laws. The state will be there to take care of all the bad guys that populate the world.

On the other hand, the world you never hear about at Oberlin is the world of mature Americans and their liberal values. These are the people who embrace the values of the anti-child — the values of freedom, self-reliance, strength, bravery, traditions, dignity, and manhood. These are the values that teach us the realities of life. One of the great teachings is that nothing is free. The government has no money. The only money it has is that which it takes by threat of force from citizens. So all this shrieking for free this and free that are the inarticulate and foolish cries of a child.

The other reality is that evil is always with us here on earth — evil in the micro and macro sense. This is the understanding of the liberal wise man and women. These are the liberal values that tell us that no matter how much you hope or wish upon a star, robbers, rapists, kidnappers, and mass killers are always lurking about — always on the prowl. No matter how many laws we make against murder, rape, or nasty folks with a gun, they will always be there — always full of rage, lack of self-control, and victimization, always there looking to murder, rape, shoot, stab, crucify, machete, poison, throw acid in the faces of girls, behead, blow up or run over innocent people with a truck.

The more important part of reality that mature free men and women who believe in liberalism understand is that the worst evils come from men gathered together in oppressive governments. This is the evil in the macro realm. This is the gargantuan evil that comes in the industrial sized, Costco-level, wholesale packages of mass evil. Our wise, mature and liberal founders understood this about our world. They knew when great power and money flow to the very flawed self-anointed ones of the Big State, corruption, oppression, and tyranny usually follow.

You can draw up any constitution you want, make as many laws as you care to, but if you give massive power and money to very flawed humans, by nature, they will usually come after their fellow citizens in very nasty — and often very violent — ways. It is why we fought in the American Revolution. This is why 6 million disarmed Jews lie as dirt now in Europe after facing the Nazi Big State. It’s why millions of men, women, and children lie in the fields of the Ukraine, horrifically starved to death by the sadist Stalin. It’s why a hundred million innocent people are food for grass and crops across Communist China and former USSR. It’s why millions of very unarmed and very unfree people are still slave to the state thugs of Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Syria. And if you don’t think this can happen here in America, you’re more naive and unwise than many of your thoughts exhibit.

You don’t learn any of this adult stuff at college now because our colleges have been taken over by illiberal leftist professors and administrators — most of them still children in adult bodies.

Nathan, I’d encourage you to channel your liberalism and manhood. Embrace the wonderful gifts of liberty from our founders, particularly the God or nature-given, inalienable freedom of our great Second Amendment. Man-up to liberal American life and its beauty, reality, toughness, and tragedy. Learn to safely use and own a very assaulting handgun with a magazine containing at least 10 rounds. Encourage some teachers in our schools to arm up and protect our kids from evil in the same way we protect our politicians on Capitol Hill, internet moguls behind their walls in Palo Alto, and media tycoons ensconced in their heavily armed offices in New York. Understand that we live in a beautiful country called America, but both micro and macro evils are always roaming our land. Life is beautiful, but also tragic and tough. Liberal, brave, independent, and free American men and women face that reality and embrace their God-given right to defend themselves from all the micro and macro evils roaming our land. The good arm themselves with very powerful and with very assaulting weapons.

Unfortunately, so much of your money and time is being wasted learning the opposite, learning the childishness of leftism at places like Oberlin. Detoxify a bit. Try to push away the child inside.