Guns: Stop Pretending That They Aren't Part of the Problem

What do we do about the increasing occurrence of school shootings, as well as other mass shootings?

To start with, no one is suggesting that we ban all guns or that the government confiscate people's guns. No one is suggesting that guns cause these killings. These are strawmen that the NRA-philic are putting forth.

I have heard these reasons put forth by those who would twist logic into a pretzel in order to deflect any role that the availability of guns plays in these shootings:

• It's mental illness. Trump hit this one right off the bat. He conveniently forgot that he eliminated a regulation that would have prevented mentally ill people from owning a gun
• We don't discipline our kids. I believe the Las Vegas shooter, as well as the shooter who killed five police officers last year, were well into adulthood
• No prayer in schools or the shooter hadn't known Jesus
• General decline in society
• Wimpy Hipsters (yes, I heard that one today)

The problem with these so-called solutions is that they're not really solutions, they're excuses, they're distractions from the fact that the common denominator isn't a person's mental state, the way that they were raised, religion or whatever else...it's easy-to-find, easy-to-use...guns. We're not going to eliminate mental illness, we aren't going to guarantee that everyone discipline their children the way you think that they should be disciplined, prayer isn't coming back to public schools and being a non-Christian doesn't make you a bad person, let alone a mass murderer. Saying that these shootings happen for one of the above reasons just serves to take the spotlight off the fact that they were mass shootings. 

I have also heard the following as "solutions":

• Arm the teachers. The same teachers who aren't given enough pencils
• More armed guards, including police and possibly veterans
• Basically, more guns

Among those enamored of the gun culture, the solution to every problem, like the guy who thinks every problem looks like a nail because all he has in his toolbox is a hammer, looks like more guns. Sure, guns have always been part of American life. At one time a large percentage of Americans got their meat by way of hunting and hunting is still an important part of many people's lives. Citizens should be able to be able to protect themselves. In lightly populated areas the police may be an hour's drive away - you'd better be able to defend yourself and your family. But gun culture has evolved way beyond that. Listen to the people who believe that the purpose of having guns is to hold off the government in case...in case what? In case fringe conspiracy theories actually come true? While there's always been hunting rifles in the pickup truck racks and handguns and rifles for self defense, it's only been the last few years where the open carry fetish has gained traction. Now we have opposing groups of demonstrators, who a few years ago might have tussled in the street and thrown a few punches, armed and brandishing their weapons. We had one man fire a shot at another in the Chartlottesville demonstrations earlier this year. We have had anti-Muslim demonstrations by heavily-armed men outside mosques. It's gun porn. 

Ask law enforcement what they think about "good guys with guns" and how difficult it would make their jobs if everyone was firing at the "bad guys". Ask teachers what they think about being asked to arm themselves in the classroom. Armed guards? There have been armed guards at several schools where these shootings have taken place. 

Gun rights supporters, at least those who are extremist in their views, will always frame solutions in a way that results in more guns. And they will always misrepresent their opponents' arguments as "they're coming for our guns".

Whether it's mentally ill people using guns to kill large numbers of people, radicalized domestic terrorists using guns to kill large numbers of people, jilted lovers using guns to kill large numbers of people, disgruntled former employees using guns to kill large numbers of people, people who received no discipline as kids using guns to kill large numbers of people, or people who wouldn't have killed large numbers of people if only there had been prayer in schools, the common denominator is guns being used to kill large numbers of people. However crazy, however radicalized, however disgruntled, however divorced from morality, these shooters would have been hard pressed to kill large numbers of people without weapon that was designed to easily kill lots of people very quickly. 

The counter argument is that someone who wants to kill will find a way. But what are the alternatives? Knives are deadly, but how many people can you kill with a knife in the 3-5 minutes that these mass shootings take? What about a bomb? It's happened, but you generally don't go to a bomb show and buy a bomb. You have to construct your own, which takes time. A newly popular method of mass murder seems to be running over people with a car. Already barricades and bollards in public places minimize the damage that a car can do. It isn't even arguable that a semi-automatic weapon can do the most damage and can be operated by someone with scant training. 

Then there's the "good guy with a gun" theory. Search long enough and you will find examples of a shooter being stopped by an armed bystander, but you'll not need to search for very long at all to find examples where shooters went on a rampage even though there were people nearby who were armed, even many situations where there were specifically trained and armed security officers on site. The short time frame in which carnage can be meted out makes the "good guy" solution not much more than wishful thinking. In addition, if everyone is opening fire, how does law enforcement weed out the "good guys" from the "bad guys"? And how do we avoid "good guys" from killing other "good guys"?

One of the gun fetishists' arguments lately has been to use Israel as an example of a heavily armed populace where there are few mass shootings. What is glossed over is that the majority of civilian gun-owners in Israel have had military training. There are intensive background checks and universal registration that must be renewed every three years. Non-military veterans cannot own a gun until reaching the age of 27. So it's not just that they have a lot of guns, they are responsible about it. Everyone who wants to carry a gun is vetted...extreme vetting if you will. And a big difference between us and Israel is that in Israel, gun ownership is regarded as a privilege, not a constitutional right. Our Second Amendment has been an idol which has been mindlessly worshiped. 

The gun rights people are right, guns aren't to blame for these killings. Guns don't cause people to kill. But unlimited access to weapons that have no purpose other than quick, efficient killing does contribute to the ease with which these killings take place. It's about time we end our idiotic love affair with unrestricted gun ownership, stop mis-characterizing those who want to do something about it and take some god damn action.