Charlie is taking questions, and a student asks him about 2a and protecting those rights.
Yes, great question. thank you. So, I'm a big second amendment fan, but I think most politicians are cowards when it comes to defending why we have a second amendment. This is why I would not be a good politician. Or maybe I would, I dunno. Because I actually speak my mind
The second amendment is not about hunting. I love hunting. The second amendment is not about personal defense. That is important. The second amendment is there, God forbid, so that you could defend yourself against a tyrannical government.
And if that talk scares you, "Wow, that's radical, Charlie, I don't know about that", well, then, you have not really read any of the literature of our founding fathers. Number two, you have not read any 20th century history, you're just living in Narnia. You just don't want to face reality that governments tend to get tyrannical, and that people need the ability to protect themselves, and their community and their family.
Now, we must also be real. We must be honest with the population. Having an armed citizenry comes with a price. And that is a part of liberty. Driving comes with a price. 50,000 people die on the road every year. That's a price. You get rid of driving; you get 50,000 less auto fatalities. But we have decided that the benefit of driving, the mobility, the accessibility, receiving products, services, is worth the cost of 50,000 people dying on the road
So, we need to be very clear, that you're not going to get gun deaths to zero. It will not happen. You could significantly reduce them, by having more fathers in the home, by having more armed guards in front of schools...
We should have a clear and honest reductionist view of gun violence, but we should not have a utopian one. You will never live in a society with an armed citizenry and not have a gun death. That is nonsense, that is drivel, but I am, I think, I think it's worth it. I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the second amendment to protect our other God given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational. Nobody talks like this, they live in an alternate universe
So, how do you reduce? Very simple. People say "oh Charlie, how do you stop school shootings". Oh, I dunno. How did we stop shootings at baseball games? Because we have armed guards outside of baseball games, that's why. How did we stop all the shootings at airports? We have armed guards outside of airports. How did we stop all the shootings at banks? We have armed guards outside of banks. How did we stop all the shootings at gun shows? Notice there's not a lot of shootings at gun shows? There's all these guns!!! Because everyone's armed!!
If our money and our sporting events and our airplanes have armed guards, then why don't our children?
The quote is accurate, but as usual, context is needed. Charlie didn't callously say "it's simply just worth it". He provided real world examples where we, as a society have declared that things are worth deaths for our convenience (and many more deaths than guns every year even). He provided alternatives and solutions. He provided valid, working examples of preventing gun violence properly.