We live in a reactionary society. A major event occurs and we react to it in illogical and hasty manner. We implement devices and measures in hopes to curb such activities in the future, and as time progresses, we look and see that nothing has happened, and believe that the measures put in place actually prevented such activities to occur. This is a completely illogical deduction, and one that further allows these irrational measures to be put into place. What happens when subways are bombed? We start searching bags, as if it would be impossible to detonate a bomb in a line of people waiting for their bags to be checked. What then, start searching outside the subway? Get rid of the right to carry bags all together?

We are so simple, and our greatest flaw is ultimately our lack of imagination. To think that putting metal detectors in school after Columbine “prevented” school shootings is a failure to realize that these murderers walked into their school armed and prepared to commit the atrocities which they did. A metal detector would have provided no deterrence to their ultimate goal.

We have to look at the big time line of the world. How often have subway bombings occurred? School shootings? Planes used as missles aimed at large buildings? These are sporadic, isolated instances. If it were happening on a daily basis, then there might be cause for concern. We need to focus less on patchwork legislation and more on fixing the underlying problems.

Believing that increased ability for law enforcement to tap our phone lines and collect our data would also assume that law enforcement has the ability to predict the future and find the needle in the haystack. This data would provide nothing more than an after-the-fact “we should have seen this coming…the evidence was staring us right in the face” reaction. It’s very easy to put the puzzle together once you’ve seen the end result, once you know what you’re looking for.

Had all of these post-9/11 laws been in place, could 9/11 have been prevented? Look at what we had. Some of the hijackers had been flagged by the FBI. On August 6, 2001, the CIA presented a report aptly titled “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States.” In the end, when there’s a will, there’s a way, and these laws in place do nothing more than destroy the very rights in which this country was founded on.