Stop mass shootings? Gun bans aren’t the answer
Another school shooting. Another incomprehensible loss of life. Another round of misguided “solutions.”
I don’t know where to begin, but it’s not for lack of words. Quite the opposite. There are so many aspects to mass killings which need to be addressed — but aren’t — that it could fill volumes. So that’s exactly what this column will do in an ongoing series, as we delve into areas where many aren’t willing to tread. Let’s begin.
In the aftermath of a mass shooting, the timeline is set in stone. Right on cue, we first hear about candlelight vigils, protests, demands for “change,” and thoughts and prayers. Next, the hardcore anti-gun crowd takes to social media to excoriate any Republican who dares offer condolences, blaming them for the killings. Soon after, the victims and their families are relegated to the back burner as the tragedy becomes ultra-politicized. Despite reports of “new bipartisan efforts” to enact meaningful reforms, such an outcome seems unlikely. Finally, the country moves on, saddened (but increasingly desensitized) at yet another senseless massacre. And then the wait is on, as the nation subconsciously prepares for the next inevitable shooting — and the cycle repeats itself. First, those slamming “thoughts and prayers” as superficial are totally misguided. Keeping victims and the tragedy in our thoughts is the best way to chip away at why these killings are occurring, and what, if anything, can be done to help prevent them. Second, prayers are, above all, what this nation needs. America’s surge in violence and disrespect, combined with ever-waning empathy, corresponds to our drive toward secularism. These massacres almost never occurred when civility, packed churches and the lack of political correctness were the norms, yet are now commonplace as those values have all but disappeared. Coincidence? Not a chance.
But remember something about prayer. As the saying goes, “The Lord helps those who help themselves.” We can pray all day, but God isn’t going to magically solve this problem. That’s up to us, as rational human beings with the unique ability to think and reason. If we choose to ignore those gifts by taking the easy road, then, without a doubt, nothing will change. But one thing is certain: Blaming anyone but the shooter is, as this column has repeatedly stated, giving the perpetrator a free pass. Yet that’s exactly what some have (again) done. Calling Republicans “pro-murder” and accusing Second Amendment advocates, firearms manufacturers, elected officials and gun-rights groups of “pulling the trigger” is disgusting. They didn’t commit the unspeakable crimes. They didn’t extinguish innocent life. And they didn’t enable the shooters. All culpability lies with the person who decided to become a mass murderer. To state otherwise is a calculated red herring that deflects from asking the tough questions and looking in the mirror. To those folks: Put up genuine solutions, or keep quiet. Constructive dialogue has no place for those absolving shooters of total responsibility.
2) How sad that we pick and choose what mass shootings deserve our focus. In Philadelphia alone, there were 14 murders over Memorial Day weekend, with at least 40 shot. (And multiple teens have been shot over the last week). In Chicago, 10 were killed and 52 shot. Ditto for other cities. And no, not all of the victims were “just criminals and drug dealers killing each other.” Some were attending a funeral, and others were mere children. Unsurprisingly, many guns in such crimes are illegally obtained.
Every life lost is one too many. But in a purely quantitative sense, why are we not talking about the thousands killed each year in America’s cities, and instead giving the majority of attention to the relatively few random mass shootings — horrendous and gut-wrenching as they are? The focus should be equally on both, because many of the reasons for such violence are
the same.
3) The ongoing series will tackle guns specifically, but in brief, the call to ban any class of guns is naïve. No matter how you slice it, such a ban wouldn’t make a bit of difference, and the numbers back that up. Several points:
The clarion call is to “ban assault weapons.” Pay no attention to the fact that it is literally a madeup term, with some pols seeking to ban guns based on how they look. That bears repeating. Some actually believe that if certain weapons are banned based on aesthetics, then all will be well and mass shootings will stop. That misguided mindset, especially from those charged with making our laws, is mindboggling. Ask many of those protesting America’s gun laws what should be done, and they have absolutely no answer outside of tired cliches such as “ban assault weapons.” Why do that, this author has asked. “Because they kill people.” Well, then what about handguns? Don’t they also “kill people” — especially given the indisputable fact that handguns are used in the majority of mass shootings? So should we ban those, too? At that point, you are left with either a deerin-the-headlights stare, or the blanket “ban everything, only police should have guns” nonsense. End of rational discussion. And for obvious
reasons, the gun-ban crowd is also incapable of addressing the elephant in the room — that an assault weapon ban was in place when the first “big one” occurred: Columbine.
Here are the numbers: There are at least 20 million AR-15 style rifles in America. Take 1000th of 1 percent, and you still wouldn’t get down to the annual number of mass shootings by such a rifle. So in other words, we should penalize 19,999,995 law abiding citizens — peaceful people who have passed criminal background checks — by banning/confiscating their firearms because fewer than five people use the same type of rifle in a nefarious mass shooting? Of course, forgotten in the conversation is that the Sandy Hook killer didn’t even own an AR15, but murdered his mother and stole her gun to commit his massacre. On top of that, there are nearly 500 million firearms in America, almost all of which are used legally. Do we ban them, too, so that only the criminals have guns?
Under that rationale, should we ban sports cars that “have a certain look” and can exceed 100 mph, since excessive speed can kill? Better yet, let’s ban trucks, since they’ve been used so effectively in mass murder that truck massacres are actually in al-Qaeda’s playbook, referred to as “The Ultimate Mowing Machine.”
Several years, back, this author stood in the exact spot in Jerusalem where, just a short time later, four Israeli soldiers were run over and killed by a terrorist. What of the attack in Manhattan (2017) where a terrorist killed eight by mowing them down in his pickup? The truck attacks in London (multiple), Berlin, Barcelona, and Edmonton? And the vehicle attacks at the University of North Carolina (2006) and Ohio State (2016)? Worst was the 86 people killed and a staggering 485 injured when a terrorist plowed a truck through a crowd in Nice, France.
And lest we forget, the worst attacks on America were executed without firing a single bullet: 9/11, Oklahoma City, the Madison bombing, etc. The bottom line, hard as it is to grasp, is that when someone turns to the dark side, content to never see another sunrise by committing himself to mass murder, he is, save for fortuitous advance intelligence and luck, virtually impossible to stop. The key is identifying these people before their killing spree. But one thing is certain: bans won’t stop people who have gone over the edge, since people determined to kill are not deterred by rules.
It’s important not to pass laws based on emotion, since legislating in haste virtually never addresses the root cause of the problem. Banning firearms is no different. Guns haven’t changed. People and our culture have.
4) The lack of a quicker police response remains a burning question. It is unimaginable to lose a child, spouse or parent in a shooting, but living with the thought that
they may have survived had police acted differently is, without a doubt,
a nightmare from which there is no awakening. And that is something laws and bans cannot fix.
God bless the victims and their families.