Right to Life

If Las Vegas doesn't cause you to question unchecked gun rights, what will?

Conservatives gaze at enemies and insist the Constitution assures our right to bear arms, because it's "a way that the weak can protect themselves against the strong."

Liberals gaze at young people's corpses and insist the Constitution assures "our right to a happy life."

There seems to be no room in conservatives' minds for equality, fairness, reasonableness, or real-life experience; there's room only for the endless fairy tale of "the weak" vanquishing "the strong."

In Stephen Paddock, they've found their perfect spokesman.

In defense of fairness, philosopher John Rawls once asked students to imagine themselves behind a "veil of ignorance."

Forget, for a moment, your personal situation (your wants and needs; your race and sex; your religion and education; your social and economic class; and so forth).

Then ask yourself: Without those privileges (or disadvantages), what kind of world would you want to be born into?

You'd be forced to conclude you want a world governed by fairness, where everyone is equal—and deserves equally to live.