Just One Bankruptcy
The Moral Vacuum Behind “If It Saves One Life”
by dischord
distribution permitted and encouraged

How often do we hear, in defense of gun controls, “If it saves just one life, it is worth it”? That sentence latches onto the concept that every life is sacred, and attempts to dismiss any opposition to a gun control proposal as standing in the way of saving “just one life.” If fact, I suppose, it latches onto the old saw that a million deaths is a statistic but one is a tragedy.

It sounds good. It’s real high in the guilt quotient. Yes, it has power. But stop to consider two points that expose the moral bankruptcy behind the sentence:

First, nearly any proposal ? say painting all guns pink to make them unattractive to uptight men ? will conceivably save at least one life. However, society has limited time, workforce and monetary resources. Enacting a bunch of proposals that save one life here and two lives there undermines effective proposals by pulling resources from them.

Second, if saving one life causes worth, then the corollary is true ? causing one lost life counters that worth. For every “passion crime” stopped by a waiting period, I can point to a woman who died waiting for a gun she decided to buy when the police didn’t offer enough help with a stalker. So, who are more valuable ? people dead due to the existence or to the lack of waiting periods?

Once again, it’s a matter of looking a consequences ? at remembering that the true goal is saving lives, not enacting gun control. So the next time someone lays the “just one life” guilt trip on you, remember that when we oppose do-nothing “just one life” proposals we are insisting that the saving of lives be maximized by eliminating a bunch of piddly, feel-good proposals that divert resources. We are insisting on a net sum of lives saved rather that a shifting of death from one group to another. We are the ethical ones, because we look at results.

It’s not about controlling guns; it’s about the kids. You see, kids are dying, and those selfish, callous gun control brutes are standing in the way of saving kids with catchy phrases like “just one life.” For the kids, let’s start making them understand that their defense of existing “just one life” policies and their insistence on more is draining resources from what works to save kids.