Stop gun violence; don’t just regulate guns

There may be a reason that we cannot find a solution to the rash of mass killings that take place in the United States. Perhaps it is because we cannot take the conversation beyond the political debate over guns.

I am not a member of the National Rifle Association and I do not own a gun. I am open to suggestions as to how we can tweak our gun laws to make some improvements. In a past letter published in the Sun Sentinel, I stated my support for outlawing the bump stock. Some have suggested outlawing the large rifle clips. Others talk about closing what they describe as a “gun show loophole.”

While all these suggestions are pursued and promoted with great passion and even greater partisan acrimony, I am not sure that any of them will do a damn thing to curtail these heinous crimes.

Some suggest that doing anything is better than doing nothing. I disagree. If we pursue proposals that only assuage our anxiety or serve to gain political advantage without addressing the core problem, we will have lost opportunities to do something truly beneficial.

With more than 50 years in the arena of public policy, I have more than a casual understanding of the national debate over guns. It is the only situation in which the instrument of death is elevated to the causal level. We do not have a front-burner national debate about the materials to make bombs even though terrorists and others have used them. We know that it is not even possible to ban trucks which have become a more recent weapon of choice.

In 2016, a 26-year-old man used a knife to kill 19 people and wound another 25 in Japan. In Sweden a manic killed three and wounded others at a school with knife. Thirty-three were killed in China by a group of men using knives. Least we forget, the monumental tragedy of 9/11 was achieved with box cutters and airplanes.

I believe it is naïve and counterproductive to always focus on the gun. It solves nothing to have one side malign and mischaracterize the other as heartless and evil — accusing opposing politicians of being captives of the NRA. If NRA positions have power, it is not from the money. It is from the millions upon millions of Americans who share and vote those positions. Democrats tend to use the NRA like Republicans use Nancy Pelosi — as a scary political totem.

The cause of these insane mass killings will not be found in the barrel of a gun. They will be found in the mind of the perpetrator. We have more than enough evidence to know that murderers and lunatics will acquire illegally what they cannot acquire legally. My hometown of Chicago had a total ban on personal gun ownership and a reputation as being the murder capital of the nation.

While the shooting in Parkland is horrific, we should not loose sight of the fact that in places like Chicago, Baltimore and New York more people are killed every few weeks than the number killed in Parkland — mostly with illegal guns. It is enforcement that is the tragic failure. The truth be known, this slow motion mass slaughter in our cities gets little serious attention from the media and the folks in those city halls because the victims are mostly ghetto-ized minorities.

Switzerland has almost 100 percent gun ownership and almost zero gun violence. This strongly suggests that culture is more of an issue than the presence of guns.

Apart from international terrorists, why is it that schools are the current target of choice. This has not always been the case. I recall a time when the venues of senseless shootings were post office facilities. In fact, the term “going postal” became a reference for all workplace shootings. School shootings were almost non-existent.

Perhaps the media has made school shootings fashionable among the mentally impaired. In fact, some shooters have left behind communications indicating a motivation for public recognition. It is the reason many in the media now refuse to provide the name or photos of shooters — perhaps a small step in the right direction.

The best chance to end this era of mass murder is to interdict those who are likely to commit such crimes. In almost all cases, the killers have provided the clues that are so clearly seen in the aftermath. There are two avenues that may produce some results. One is to fine tune the symptoms of potential psychopathic behavior and the other is to educate parents, teachers, ministers and even student to recognize these traits in others and to bring them to the attention of those in authority. Though it was lost in the massive news reporting on Parkland, a grandmother in Washington State reported on her grandson’s threats to kill school mates. He was arrested and the deadly plan thwarted.

I say all this with great trepidation because we do not want to unleash witch hunts against those who are just “different.” After all, many young people who were different have grown to be among the greatest contributors of society.

If we do focus on the individual and the motivation, however, we have the potential of better results than to continue the destructive and fruitless national debate over guns. The increasing regulations of guns over many years has not produced any positive results. It may well be coincidental, but the more we have regulated guns the worse the gun-related death statistics have become. That should tell us something.

None of what I have written is a solution, but only a proposed path to one. Our main goal should be to stop the killing, not just regulate guns as a goal onto itself.