“If it saves just one life, it will be worth it!”

Obama said that gun control will be worth it if it saves even a single life. Let’s think about that in the context of this Iowa news story from earlier this month.

A medical helicopter flying from Mason City to Emmetsburg, Iowa, crashed in a field late Wednesday, killing all three people on board.

The Mercy Air Med helicopter, affiliated with Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa here, was answering a call when it went down sometime around 9 p.m. CST in a farm field just north of Ventura, Iowa. Pilot Gene Grell, nurse Shelly Lair-Langenbau, and paramedic Russell Piehl died.

Had we had the foresight to ban medical helicopters last year, these three people would still be alive. We would not have saved one life, we would have saved three. Right? Technically, yes. But wrong as policy.

There would certainly be a net loss of lives if quick responding medical helicopter flights were banned. That is obvious. We also know that, even for people who wouldn’t die during ground base ambulance rides, there are benefits to flying in terms of reduced suffering and quicker recovery.

Still, we know for certain that there will be people killed in future helicopter crashes. We accept that. The benefits of life flights make it worth the cost. Nobody would say that banning medical helicopters would be worth it even if it did save the lives of the three Iowans.

Jonah Goldberg elaborates on this fact and gun control in a short, must-read article at NRO.

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