As "The USA PATRIOT Act: A Sketch" by Charles Doyles explains, the Patriot Act was passed by Congress in response to 9/11 as a means to better protect America from terrorists, supposedly. But it gets into scary, rights-violating territory in the process by granting federal officials greater authority in keeping tabs on and punishing certain individuals. It seems like the US government took advantage of the public's fear and general sense of vulnerability at the time, and if that's the case, that's obviously not okay.
This makes me think of a quote comedian John Oliver said: "One failed attempt at a shoe bomb, and we all take off our shoes at the airport. Thirty-one school shootings since Columbine, and no change in the regulation of guns." It's weird how our government seems to react very differently to terrorism and mass shootings. But I guess that's just one example of many strange contradictions and discrepancies in our society.
Why are people so adamant about their right to bear arms anyway?
Felicia Peng
Section A01
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