As a nation, we must deal with gun problem

A mature society, like a mature individual, must face its problems and find a way to deal with them.

A functioning government does not declare the difficult problems before it as too difficult to deal with. That applies whether the problem is drinking water, lead, ISIS, street gangs, or immigration.

President Trump gave a straight-forward and restrained response to the tragedy Monday. But, ultimately, the government must respond to the death of more than 50 people and the wounding of 500 more, in Las Vegas Sunday night, with policy.

America must come to grips with the anger and hatred now afoot in our culture.

And it must, in practical and constitutional ways, come to terms with gun violence.

With no other problem in modern times, from unsafe autos to terrorist states, have Americans readily accepted the proposition that, really, nothing can be done.

Imagine if medicine approached disease the way America approaches gun violence.

Our culture of violence has many sources, from hate speech on the Internet to violence in our films and pop music. But there are three great wells of this violence: a spiritual and moral crisis that has produced individual desolation and nihilism for millions of people; a mental health crisis that has released thousands of sick people to the streets; and a governmental crisis in which, local, state, and federal authorities have failed to protect public safety in instances both spectacular and repeated.

The third may seem the most intractable problem. It may seem a matter of “influence,” and lobbying power. But actually that part of the crisis would disappear if Americans believed in the efficacy of democratic government and the inherent integrity of their own lives.

We must deal with our country’s gun problem, our anger problem, and our incompetence in dealing with the mentally ill, so that we can deal with our democracy, and our reality, and our God and man problems.

Read the full editorial from the Toledo Blade at bit. ly/2fLsfEH