Terrorists are not attacking us; they are attacking our freedom. The freedom to think and express our thoughts; the freedom to select our own religion, or none at all; the freedom to govern our lives without interference from church, state, or others; the freedom to defend ourselves and these principles when necessary – these are what our attackers seek to abolish. Do not allow them to succeed in using our own freedoms to strike blows against us.
We have repeatedly condemned our own freedoms in the aftermath of terrorist attacks. After Charlie Hebdo, our freedom of speech was deemed as at fault – rather than the intolerance of terrorists – and calls for free speech reform were demanded. After the San Bernardino, CA and Orlando, FL attacks, the freedom to own guns for self-protection was criticized and additional gun laws demanded – rather than blame the terrorists for their hatred of our government or their intolerance towards our citizens. The result is that our freedoms themselves – rather then the terrorists actions – are attacked. The implication is that it is our freedoms motivating and enabling these terrorist activities, and that reducing our freedoms will reduce the attacks. However, we should not so lightly assume that our freedoms are to blame, or that infringing them will have any positive effect.
France already had strict hate speech and gun laws in place on November 13, 2015 when terrorists killed 130 and injured 368 in a coordinated attack on the inhabitants of Paris, France. The loss of freedom experienced by the French people through these laws was insufficient to protect them from these deranged terrorists. Stripping these same freedoms from the American people will only leave us more vulnerable to large-scale coordinated attacks by terrorist groups while fulfilling their ultimate goal of abolishing our freedoms.
We should be careful not to allow a vocal but mistaken minority to convince us that our freedoms are at fault in these terrorist attacks. Otherwise, we risk fulfilling the terrorist’s wishes by restricting the freedoms that we so cherish and they so despise.