We all like to think we’re mostly honest people, and for the most part that is probably true. There are people who are habitually dishonest or pathological liars, but that’s something different.

In the every day scheme of things most of us consider ourselves moral and upright and point to our actions and choices to anchor our belief.

But do you ever wonder if honesty is subjective?

It’s easy to say we would never cheat or steal or do anything to compromise our integrity, and to judge harshly those who do. But is it easier to make the choice to not cheat or steal if we’ve never been desperate or broke for a long period of time?

This became very clear to me one day several years ago when I was checking out at the grocery store. The cashier gave me back change for a twenty, but I had only given her a ten. “You gave me too much,” I told her as I handed back the money. She praised and thanked me for being such an honest person, and as I walked to my car I began to think about what had just taken place.

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If you’ve ever dealt with a family member who is mentally ill, than you know that they think they are acting perfectly fine when everyone around them can see how irrational and deranged they are being. With our proposal to arm teachers, the United States has officially become the mentally ill family member of the human race.

When our answer to mass school shootings is to put more guns in the schools, we have not only lost the moral high ground, we have lost our minds.

Aside from the sheer insanity of this proposal, let’s look at the logistics. Let’s say there is a gun in a locked compartment in the classroom. No matter how ‘secret’ it is which teachers are carrying, you know damn well every student will know which teachers and which classrooms have the guns. How soon do you think it will be before a student figures out how to access the guns and kills other students and teachers with it? It doesn’t matter how fool-proof the lock is, someone will figure out a way to access it.

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