Gun No Fun

A news story yesterday out of Colorado managed to float itself to national attention. It involved gun violence, injury, and death - the American carte du jour. We heard about this case I believe, as opposed to the endless parade of gun killings that barely make local news, because of the suspected reason for a motive - road rage.

That the victims were a young mother (41) and two of her children probably enhanced it news "worthiness", but the hook for the media was this type of anger which almost everyone can relate to at some level. What I'm interested in learning, as the facts proceed, is whether much or any of the attention will be directed toward the inclusion of a handgun in the crime. I suspect not much...but it should.

The killer, a 23 year old white male (almost a type cast role), has already been able to publish out to the media his mental instability and recent addition of medications. As he didn't know his victims at the time of the shootings, if he can prove that the "rage" occurred close enough to the event he'll probably be in a good position to defend himself from a 1st degree murder charge. His crime will lean closer to that of a drunk driver causing fatalities.

That actually may be closer to the truth than to lump him with those who plan killings for their own advantage(s).

The real problem is that he had possession of a handgun. Even if it is discovered that he planned this action, that "road rage" was not the motive, the existence of the handgun is still critical. But let me shoot a hole (not to be puny) in the anti-gun advocates (sure to come) argument. It's not the gun itself.

The NRA mantra; "guns don't kill people, people kill people", is ironically the best possible slogan for maximum gun control. It is because it highlights the question; why do so many people in the United States turn to guns to solve their emotional issues?

Okay, we know the US is awash in firearms. However, if you remove the 3% of the population (about 10MM people) who have accumulated arsenals (averaging 16 firearms each) the per capita ownership of the remaining weapons is not that far off from other countries. Yet US gun violence and gun related suicides dwarf all other developed societies across the globe. Why?

Gun control advocates want to address accessibility. That would be a nice clean argument if it weren't for the fact that this Country already has more guns then it has people. Making guns harder to get is a no brainer, but it doesn't solve the problem, which is why the NRA+ can so easily cut it off at the knees. We need strong gun control laws because we need to make a generational change in how American society, as a whole, values gun use.

Currently everything recent generations have experienced tell them that the use of a gun to solve your problem, whatever it might be, is acceptable and often laudable. Those 3% who have accumulated arsenals are virtually in love with their guns for much the same reason. The NRA, Conservatives, and Republicans are all members of the wedding party. The steady drone of gun violence news just adds validation to the affair.

We need gun control laws because the NRA is right, people kill people. If we enact comprehensive gun control laws, effectively saying as a society that guns are not cool, that they are what they are and no more. Then perhaps the next generation will grow up with no desire to include themselves with the outcasts who continue to find a way to exploit the violence of firearms.

Perhaps then the road rage of 2040 could no more be associated with gun violence than arguing whose turn it is to take out the trash.  The change needs to start now because there is a long, long way to go.