Fifteen mass shootings in the last four years. The number of lives lost and altered forever is unmeasurable. Before I start this, let me provide you some background on me about the subject at hand. I am not a gun owner, but have owned a gun in the past. I am not anti-gun, nor am I pro-gun. I have many friends that have guns, and hunt and shoot regularly. I also have many friends who are not gun owners. In my life, the gun issue is not important. Nor am I convinced that guns are the only problem here.
I have no concern about folks owning and using guns. Most do so with specific purposes. Primarily, they are hunters; but many are also target shooters. They take firearms seriously and treat them with the respect they merit. Some even own them with the primary purpose of defending themselves and their property.
Where I get concerned is those firearms that were primarily created for use in military situations being available to the general public. It may just be me, but I see no purpose in someone owning a Bushmaster .223 with a 30 round clip. Unless you are hunting charging packs of wild dogs, I don't see the sport benefit of that kind of firepower.
Do I believe that we can legislate the problem away by banning such weapons? No. Should such weapons be available as easily as they are? Yes. Then again, I am curious as to what purpose in a civilized society there is in having ballistic armor so easily available too.
Ours is a culture that is increasingly desensitized to the whole idea of violence. Yeah, I include myself. Our favorite sport is an unapologetically violent game played by helmet clad warriors. We have dramas on TV that deal in multiple murders and other acts of violence per episode. The top box office movies are often violent affairs. The top ranked video games are all violent and martial in nature. Does this play a factor in these mass shootings, I do not know. I leave that to psychologists and other researchers to determine. (Sadly, the ones who could provide insight kill themselves more often than not.)
Does mental illness play a factor in these kind of events. Again I don't know for certain. It sure does seem that the media defaults to this explanation. I do know that our courts have consistently held that you can not force the mentally ill to stay on medication. We also have made a societal decision that treatment should be on an outpatient basis. Could this be a factor as well? Again, I do not have an answer.
Sadly, in surfing the net, reading Twitter and Facebook feeds it is clear to me that folks on the political extremes are already in their default positions. Ban all guns vs. the 2nd Amendment. This rigidity will not solve anything. To me the common sense approach is for us to look at all these shootings in an analytical way and determine what factors we can address and fix them.
I agree with much of what you say. With some exceptions:
ReplyDelete1. Body armor has nothing to do with it. That monster wasn't wearing body armor. It was a military load bearing vest. (BTW The Aurora shooter was wearing low grade "body armor" that cost $200 and change. It probably couldn't have stopped a .22 rim fire. Quality body armore starts at $800 and up).
2. Semi-auto firearms like an AR-15 have a useful purpose for home defense, or when social order breaks down like when Hurricanes and looting occur. The second Amendment isn't about hunting or target shooting. You don't have to like or buy an AR-15, but law abiding citizens have a right to buy and own them if they want and even my local Wal-Mart sells them. Get used to them: they are mainstream now and they are here to stay.
Besides, the monster who killed those innocent children used two common 9mm handguns to kill all those people. Not an AR-15 which he left in the car.
The problem is not guns. Someone could have helped that guy before he became a monster. Was he bullied? Mane no mistake, I don't forgive him for what he became, and I hope he burns in Hell if there is such a place, but I also blame his parents for not getting him help, especially his Mother who enabled him to access those guns (why were they not locked up in a safe? She KNEW her son did not "play well with others."
We as a society have become morally unhinged. A culture of death. Take for example these people who glorify death and violence: in their music (death metal - which sucks ass BTW) movie choices, and even tatoos! Life is too short as it is -- and quite frankly, death sucks! I despise slasher movies (The SAW franchise is one of the worst examples) because we have REAL monsters among us who kill and abuse humans and animals every day! That shit isn't fun or entertaining!
You are correct, you cannot legislate away mass murder:
Two of the worst school shootings that ever occurred happened
in Germany, a nation that has some of the strictest gun control in the world.
Law abiding gun owners should not and will NOT be punished for the actions of a monster.
One trusted, armed teacher could have stopped that creep in his tracks. At the very least, we should have one armed cop at every school. Lets quit giving money to Egypt and pay for that instead. Egypt can hate us for free.