Three mass shooting events this year. Unimaginable horror for the victims, and unfathomable sorrow for their friends and families. When will this stop, and what can we do about it? Thought I’d hammer out a few of my thoughts here, as way to vent a bit. Please feel free to comment and join the discussion.
The 2nd amendment was intended to allow our nascent country to defend itself from invasion and from the dangers on the frontier. Not so we could more easily kill each other, and not so our nation’s founders could ensure a future where anyone could own a machine gun.
Even if you have no common sense at all and just don’t get it, look at the data: A proliferation of guns is strongly correlated with more people being shot - just as standing out in the rain is strongly correlated with getting wet. Fewer guns on the street means fewer chances of getting shot.
The NRA and others have done a tremendous job of linking gun ownership to patriotism and political conservatism (even if the logic is a bit shaky), simply because they have an economic incentive for there to be more guns in our country, not less. It’s a big, big business… and guess what? It’s really about money.
The arguments against greater gun control are weak, tired, and need to be put to rest. “I have the right to defend myself” – sure, but does that mean you ever want to be in that situation? Because if you are really in favor of more, rather than fewer guns on the street, you are advocating for increased odds that you will have to defend yourself someday. “It’s my hobby” – ok, is your hobby really worth a higher chance of innocent people being killed somewhere? Think maybe you could find another hobby? “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people” – true, but guns sure make it easier for someone in an unstable state to do a lot of damage very quickly. Is that really what we are trying to preserve?
So what’s the answer? Here are a few thoughts. I’d like to hear yours as well.
1. Ban public ownership of automatic and other especially deadly weapons, period. No private citizen needs a machine gun, assault rifle, etc. Maybe make them available for use at shooting ranges, but they have to stay there, locked up. I’m not talking about shotguns and rifles designed for sport.
2. Up the ante on gun buy-back programs in the inner city. Pay more for people to turn in their guns, and they will. Think it’s not worth it? Look at the medical, police and other expenses associated with the tragic shootings in our country and I’m sure the math works out in favor of getting guns off the street - even if we pay more (perhaps much more) to do that.
3. Increased registration fees or taxes on handgun purchases and ownership. Money goes to victim funds.
If we want to live in a civilized society, we simply cannot have complete and total freedom to do whatever we want. We have to give up a few things here and there for the greater good. Can I build a nuclear reactor in my garage? No, that would be a huge public safety issue. Can we all drive as fast as we want? No again, public safety. We have laws and regulations that are designed to help us live and work safely together, and for the most part they work quite well.
We won’t eliminate the threat of gun related violence in our country, and I’m not suggesting we can. Let’s just take some prudent steps to make it a little less likely (even if only a very little, in reality) of yet another repeat of what happened on Friday.
