Guns & Government: What's the Solution?
It should be obvious by now that something is seriously wrong in America regarding the responsible use of firearms and effective enforcement of our nation's gun laws. Last week's gruesome shooting sprees in Newtown, Connecticut and Portland, Oregon, are the latest wake up calls in a long series of gun rampages.
The latest gun massacres have left us shaken, shocked, outraged and bewildered. That's because we know something is seriously wrong in society when any teenager, 20-something, person with a mental illness, or even an average law abiding adult can gain fast and easy access to military-style assault weapons. The sole purpose of such weapons of warfare are to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible.
An American Battlefield?
No ordinary civilian needs to possess automatic or semi-automatic weapons...ever!
Moreover, anyone brandishing military weapons should NEVER be able to simply walk into an elementary school and start shooting it up -- or a shopping mall, a movie theater, the grocery store, a university campus, a high school, place of worship, or any other public place. Yet that is exactly what is happening everywhere nationwide from inner cities to middle class towns and beyond.
Has 21st century America already become a literal battlefield?
There are reportedly about the same number of guns circulating in America as there are people, over 310 million. And that figure only includes the guns authorities know about and report. The actual number is likely much higher. Further, public opinion over various gun issues appears fluid despite the continuing carnage. Can we ever reach a national consensus on such a contentious issue?
Nevertheless, something must be done to ensure a safer America -- if not for us then for our children and grandchildren. However, is government the solution to our growing gun problem, or has government in fact become the problem preventing a solution?
Familiar Pattern of Gun Violence
The pattern of mass gun violence always appears the same as the media-political cycle plays out. First, we receive the tragic breaking news via TV or Twitter:
There’s been another mass gun shooting at XYZ school [or public place] on Main Street USA. Over a dozen innocent people have been killed and wounded, including defenseless women and children who were murdered in cold blood with military style assault weapons.
Then the cable TV news channels and digital media light up providing further saturation coverage. Ditto for the national broadcast news networks and print media. The non-stop news reports carry disturbing banner headlines such as, “National Tragedy in ABCville” or “Mass Murder on Maple Square." Each new gun massacre receives its own sensational media moniker to boost TV ratings.
(photo credit: The Newtown Bee)
Media Saturation & Political Posturing
The President of the United States and our elected leaders make moving speeches condemning the mass gun violence in the strongest possible terms. They express sympathy for the victims and their families, as well as remorse and regret to the nation. They pledge to take some unspecified action, of course, to halt such murderous shooting sprees in the future -- as such brutal and barbaric behavior is clearly uncivilized and un-American.
Tears are shed. Hearts are broken. Flags are flown at half mast. Memorial and funeral services follow, with the news media covering every step like a shark seeking out its prey. The media turn over every rock to scrutinize the lives of the shooters, victims and their respective families -- like a national soap opera playing out in real life.
High-fives are exchanged among executives behind closed doors of some network newsrooms and the C-suite for scoring what's known in media circles as the "Get" -- an exclusive live interview on a major TV news or infotainment show. Mr. and Mrs. Smith go live on air to talk in tears about their young daughter who just sufferred an untimely death after several bullets were randomly shot into her head and body by a deranged gunman.
Yet despite all the media coverage and political posturing there has been little substantive progress made, legislative or otherwise, to effectively address the gun epidemic. Some observers chalk it up to political dysfunction and partisan gridlock in Washington and state capitals. Others blame the powerful gun lobby led by the National Rifle Association and its affiliates.
Some say the root cause is the breakdown of the nuclear family structure. Others point the finger at popular culture, led by the entertainment industry, which has allegedly desensitized young people by glorifying gun violence in films, TV, music, the Internet and video games, among other things.
Eventually the aforementioned media cycle ends after wall-to-wall news coverage and potent political pronouncements. Then another sad situation develops. A week or two passes and we, as a nation, collectively mourn and move on. Politicians and the media embrace the next national crisis, regardless of what it may be, and we follow along. The previous crisis is soon dismissed as old news, be it mass gun violence or something else.
Yet the endless epidemic of gun massacres persists. Despite the heavy human loss and deep emotional toll, absolutely no substantive measures are taken by government to find a lasting solution. Therefore, America’s endless love affair with guns -- along with the often grim and gruesome consequences -- continues unabated.
By now, gun-related mass murders have become so ingrained in our cultural fiber that they have arguably become as American as baseball and apple pie. We all know it’s not a question of “if” but “when” the next shooting spree will take place? Yet perhaps the more pressing questions at hand are these:
Will such senseless civilian mass murder via military-style assault weapons ever come to an end?
Is it even possible for government at all levels to solve the gun epidemic?
Is there in fact any effective solution afterall?
Time will tell. Meanwhile, more innocent lives will be lost as the next Newtown may be your own neighborhood.
Also see: Guns & Gov: Banning Assault Weapons
DBG
* All views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author only.
Views: 1137
Tags: America, Newtown, assault weapons, communications, government, guns, leadership, shooting
Comment
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Comment by John L. Waid 1 hour ago -
Thoroughly agree, especially with Tom and Phil. This administration is notorious for using crises to push their agenda. Wasn't it Rahm Emanuel, who recently bought himself a mayoral job, who said not to let a good crisis go to waste?
If there is any governmental response, it should be after calm reflection. What has worked in the past will work in the future; what has not will not. Ever. Disarming the civilian population does not work and never has. Look at what happened in Britain last year during the riots. Over 20 years, the government had systematically disarmed the population so that when the thugs started breaking into houses there was nothing the terrified residents could do but call the over-stressed police.
Our system of background checks is seriously flawed. We thought siloing had stopped after 9/11, but in the case of the Arizona shooter, the Arizona DOJ did not have access to the information that the military had rejected him due to his sociopathic tendencies. Laws that seem designed to only infringe on our Second Amendment rights (such as ten-day delay periods for the second gun -- the reasons for the delay do not exist with a second weapon) should be repealed. Make it difficult to comply with law and people will tend to not comply.
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Comment by Tom Sullivan 1 hour ago -
Thomas, thoughtful comments. Wish I'd have thought of the shark analogy...brilliant!
Phil - Amen!
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Comment by Phil Sammon 3 hours ago -
Please, stop using the misguiided phrase 'gun violence' as if it had meaning. No one says 'spoon obesity' or 'digital camera child pornography' when they discuss those issues. Guns do not, in and of themselves, cause violence any more than cars cause drunk driving, or microphones and computers cause hate speech.
Our country has gotten away frmo holding children and adults accountable for their actions - we are a nation of whiners who all claim to be victims when they exact some evil, and our society lets them get away with that, instead laying blame on an inanimate object.
Lay the blame where it belongs - on the adjustable nut behind the trigger. After all, God did not punish the rock, He punised Cain. And if you don't know what that is a reference to, you have just identified the other major issue in our nation and proven my point.
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Comment by Thomas Alduro Palmer 5 hours ago
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I keep hearing on the news how three or four people going berserk and committing these types of atrocities is a miniscule percentage in a population of 300 million. But it is kind of like a shark attack, the percentages don’t matter if the shark is chewing on YOUR leg. That being said, I think any response, and I do think there must be a response, should take place after calm and careful reflection and not some knee-jerk reaction. The bulk of our 300 million citizens deserve no less.
Armed security seems to be one way to go to prevent these types of things. I am not opposed to teachers being armed, but whether you are a teacher, security guard or a police officer, you should be trained in responding to an “active shooter” situation. That is highly specialized training, and is usually the function of a SWAT team. Thus any armed teacher should be made a “special deputy” or some such after completing such training. Just an idea.
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Comment by Henry Brown 7 hours ago -
GETTING RIDICULOUS!
From the Salt Lake Deseret News:
11 Year old brings gun to school..
...
The student claimed that he brought the gun to the school, to protect himself and his friends in the event of a school shooting like the recent tragedy in Newtown, Conn., Horsley said.
...
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Comment by Tom Sullivan 15 hours ago
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There has been a lot of banter here (and everywhere else for that matter) regarding cause and effect; mental illness, evil, guns, violent video games, movies and music, culture, etc., etc. While I understand and even empathize with the instinctive need to “troubleshoot” what happened on Friday, and DBG, even to your desire to seek solutions in the form of some type of “gun control;” there is simply nothing to “fix” here…no miracle cure that will answer all our questions. There are as many excuses/reasons as there are people that commit these types of heinous acts. A single, one-size-fits-all solution simply does not, and in fact cannot exist.
I know this is not PC, but the human body is a complicated and intricate piece of machinery as prone to “mechanical” failure as anything humans have ever made. Call it mental illness, evil, birth defects, or just blowing a gasket, it can and does happen. We also live in a relatively free society (for all its faults, still the best and most desirable on planet Earth IMHO) which carries with it risks that include the kind of thing we witnessed on Friday. Combine these two truths and what you have is simply called “life.” Before we can effectively move on with our own lives, we must accept the fact that in some instances there will be nothing we can do because so much of what goes on around us is outside of our effective control. Period.
To answer DBG’s original questions:
NO, such senseless civilian mass murder via any type of weapon will never come to an end…
NO, it is not possible for government at any level to solve the above fact…
NO, there is, in fact no effective one-size-fits-all solution or set of solutions…
If you're looking for an answer, a solution to all this...I submit that accepting the above facts is the best place to start.
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Comment by Pam Broviak 19 hours ago -
@Clator - I think there were some people killed from non-gun violence in schools in China:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_attacks_in_China_(2010%E2%80%93...
Here's another one I saw posted somewhere - this was done in 1927 with the use of bombs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster
I am sure there are many more examples out there somewhere. Unfortunately it seems to me we will always risk mass violence by people with mental problems who want to kill unless we can solve true cause.
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Comment by Carol Davison 19 hours ago
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I refer to evil here because Adam targeted the innocent. The ?Colorado? guy deliberated and set up booby traps in his home. I don't believe that the mentally ill strategically plot these kinds of activites. Additionally, the mentally ill are statistically less likely to commit violence.
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There is nothing wrong with "responsible ownership of firearms". It's the evil, mentally ill and irresponsible that are the problem. Outlawing guns doens't seem to be the solution, because if we do that only outlaws will have guns. Police Officers agree with this point of view. In DC after they banned guns, MD crimials worked the city because it they had less probability of being hurt. As a performance manager, here's a suggestion solution: before a purchaser may remove a gun from a store, they must provide a bill of sale or photo of their combination locked gun safe. That will prevent the evil, mentally ill and irresponsible from having access to them. It would also be faster and cheaper than implementing gun training and having police inspect homes (scary thought!). This solution would be easy to enforce during "Walmart" type sales, but much harder to enforce at gun shows that travel around and set up in rental halls.
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Comment by John L. Waid 22 hours ago
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First, ask those who say that disarming the law-abiding will somehow make us safe from the non-law-abiding to give you statistics. They do not and cannot. Just the opposite is true. Crime rates go down when communities authorize concealed-carry permits. The bad guys do not know who is armed and are no keener on getting shot than anyone else.
Second, beware the statistics you are given. The anti-gun people lump in suicides and accidents with criminal behavior. No amount of gun control is going to stop those. The NRA advocates gun safety heavily and provides many safety courses free of charge. No one knows the dangers of a gun in the hands of a criminal or an untrained person better than the gun community. NRA child safety programs have reduced child deaths from accidents from 1 in 100,000 at the beginning of the century when they began to keep records to 1 in 1,000,000 (I believe that's right) today. No amount of government interference could do that.
Third, bad facts make bad law. It was, I believe, President Obama's former Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel who used to say "Never let a crisis got to waste." He meant that in a crisis people may support things they never would with cool heads.
Fourth: Here's an idea. Let teachers come in packing. Just think how quickly the gunman's rampage would have been over if that principal had had a .45 in her hand. His rampage would have been over right then and there. I believe I remember years ago a gunman entered an office building in Georgia and shot a couple of people before rounding a hallway corner smack into a secretary with a .38. His rampage was over. These rampages are usually ended by the arrival of people with guess what in their hands -- guns. If the people inside could carry, the delay in getting the SWAT team there would not be a problem. Remember the new motto of law enforcement -- "When seconds count, we will be there in minutes."
Lesson: government cannot address problems that government does not first create. The constant "guns are bad" tub-thumping coming out of Washington has led to students who do not know how to take care of themselves and are threatened with legal action if they do. They are thus left vulmerable to the sickos in our society that want whatever they want and are willing to kill a bunch of people to get it.
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