Guns and People

I don't know what the allure is of guns. I know that I am subject to it and own two that are very rarely fired other than my .22 for shooting at varmints. I hardly ever hit them. Maybe it is something about the power, I just don't know yet. I can understand sportsmen who enjoy hunting and I can even understand collectors but I have a difficult time understanding why anyone would actually need an assault type weapon. Why does any law abiding sportsman need a 30 round magazine. First, if you can't hit your target in 5 or 6 shots you need some practice. Secondly, if you empty the magazine you have endangered everything and everyone in your vicinity. By the same token, why would anyone ever require more than an 8 or 9 shot magazine in a handgun. If you haven't protected yourself by the time that clip is expended you are more than likely dead. Sure, arguments can be made in favor of those large clips but not very good ones. The question is whether or not we are willing to give up a little to mitigate the chances of such a massacre as the one in Connecticut. Notice I did not say “stop” because smaller magazines do not insure a cessation of multiple deaths. It only lessens the chance that 26 will be killed. Just like the shooting when Gabby Giffords was shot and that little girl was killed. Someone would have gotten shot anyway but someone might have not been shot. The large clips are just not necessary.

I know that as Americans we are not going to give up personal ownership of firearms. We are just not made that way. I know that it is the shooter who does the act and not the gun. But it only makes sense that we can do some things that can help. In almost all of the mass murders we can think of there are two commonalities, large clips and irrational or mentally disturbed people. In a free society it will be hard to eliminate acts of mentally disturbed people but we can eliminate large clips. Will it stop the shootings? Probably not. Will it decrease the numbers of casualties. Probably so. We will not know until we try. I read recently that Japan had only two gun deaths last year. We had 177,154. Now, you tell me what the difference is. Can we cut that in half?

The other thing is we have no idea where the guns are going. One thing I am absolutely certain of is that large corporations understand their markets if they are successful. When was the last time you heard of a gun manufacturer going out of business? They know that immense numbers of these weapons are being diverted to illegal uses but they still do nothing to control that and we do nothing to legislate that control. We would have to be idiots to think that all those guns are being stashed for family protection and hunting. But, just as the drug companies are in the business of making money so are the gun manufacturers in the business of making money. I don't know if one of the answers is a more efficient accounting of weapons or if gun registration would work but I do know that it would help. Look, it goes against my grain to have to register firearms but it just could be that we will have to make that a part of the defense of our public. If you are still harboring any hopes that you could use your Bushmaster to defend yourself against an intrusive government you need to wake up. That is just not going to work any more. It is too late for that. You might be able to take a few pot shots at a drone before it dropped a hellfire missile in your pocket but you will still be dead.

Fact is, we are going to have to do something and it is not going to be just one thing. There is no magic bullet that will turn us into a nation of rational, non-murderous beings. We are just going to have to try some things to see if they work. If they do then great. If not, then we will have to do something else but what we can't do is accept the carnage that is going on at this time. The greater harm is that we will expect a more intrusive police presence and will gradually allow our freedoms to be eroded. Already we have cameras on the streets, eyes in the sky, monitoring of e-mail and social networking sites all done in the name of assuaging our fears.

Possibly our schools will become more fortified. It is a shame because schools have long been considered community property and have served as the focus of community activities. We are more disturbed when our children are threatened. They hold the keys to our futures and our aspirations but the schools are not the only venues for acts of violence. Movie theaters, shopping malls and any other place where people gather to make an easy target serve the crazed gunman quite well. In our cities the streets of depressed neighborhoods make a fertile ground for gang related shootings. There will not be one solution to this twenty first century bane. Better control of weapons, better access to mental health counseling, school security and improved economic opportunity can all be parts of a plan to reduce violence. Unfortunately, we crave simple solutions but such solutions are rarely successful or even available.

In the case of the murders in Connecticut the weapons used were appropriately bought and registered. The handlers of those weapons were well instructed in the safe and appropriate use of those weapons and those weapons were used for the purpose for which they were constructed. Acts of killing. We can argue about weapons being used appropriately for protection, hunting and other recreation but it remains that their purpose is destructive. Adam Lanza had been instructed by his mother in the proper use of firearms but it remains that without access to those weapons the deaths would not have occurred.

It is not possible for us to discern the proclivities of every troubled mind and a free society has to accept some risk. It is possible for us to take the many steps we can in order to create a more peaceful society. Our society accepts violence as a remedy and even glorifies it if it suits us. Many things in our society inure us to the use of violence. I won't try to enumerate them here but we must look inside ourselves to find what violence we can root out. Whatever we do, it still will not be enough to protect us from ourselves.