http://www.stonekettle.com/2015/06/bang-bang-sanity.html?m=1
I said then nothing will change, that nothing can change because we Americans will not change it. We can’t even have a civil conversation about it. Guns are an obsession in our country, a lunatic insanity, the mere mention of which makes us bang bang crazy.
I said that the slaughter will continue, and it has with terrible regularity.
I said liberals will blame conservatives, and they do.
I said conservatives will blame liberals, and they do.
I said the same old argument will continue. And so it has, repetitious and as predictable as clockwork, bang, bang, bang.
And nothing changed.
Fully half of Americans apparently believe gun violence can somehow be brought under control with the addition of yet more gun violence – which is a lot like saying drunk driving can be cured if we just put more drunk people behind the wheel. They might be right, in an evolutionary sense, but it’s small comfort to those killed and maimed in the resulting blood bath.
The simple truth of the matter is that gun violence isn’t the exception in America, it’s who we are.
And so what do we do about it?
As a firearms expert and as a gun owner, and I am both, I’ll say to you in all candor: more guns are not the solution. Having people armed in schools and churches is not the solution. Carrying your mini-14 in a tactical harness to the grocery store isn’t the solution. Living in an armed camp isn’t the goddamned solution.
You can’t fight drunk driving with more drunk drivers.
So what then? More laws?
Maybe, if they’re the right laws.
But what both the anti-gun lobby and the pro-gun lobby get wrong is this: While it’s often true laws don’t stop criminals, that is not the law’s purpose.
Laws don’t stop crime. It would be nice if they did, but laws don’t stop crime. Instead laws give society legal recourse when its members engage in antisocial behavior.
Saying new gun laws won’t end gun violence is a non sequitur. Of course guns laws won’t end gun violence.
Laws don’t stop crime, however what well written laws do is to put responsibility where it belongs – on the criminal.
Well written laws are about pragmatism.
For example, we all know that laws against drinking and driving won’t stop drunk driving, but they weren’t intended to. We know it’s going to happen. People are going to drink and drive and kill themselves and each other. We know we can’t eliminate it completely. That’s the pragmatism part.
Instead, drunk driving laws were intended to do two things, 1) give us legal recourse as a society, 2) make us responsible for our antisocial behavior – which in turn leads over time to a change in culture.
And that change significantly, measurably, reduced drinking and driving and provably saved lives and made American roads a safer place for all of us.
But, and this is important so pay attention, here’s what those laws didn’t do: they didn’t keep those of us who take responsibility for our own actions from 1) drinking, or 2) driving (note the operative word here is or).
And that’s the answer.
We need gun laws that give society legal recourse by making each gun owner/user personally accountable for their own actions.
Those laws should be designed to change our gun culture over time in order to make gun violence less likely. And, of course, those laws should not keep those of us who take responsibility for our own actions from exercising our Second Amendment rights.
Now, what exactly does such a law look like?
Well, it looks like the NRA.
He then goes on to a brilliant idea. The NRA has suggested rules for gun safety. Make them the law of the land. How can the NRA oppose their own gun safety rules? Make gun owners criminally responsible for proper gun safety and managment.
- Always assume the gun is loaded, unless you personally have verified that it is unloaded.
- Always point the gun in a safe direction.
- Know how to use the gun safely.
- Never use alcohol or over-the-counter, prescription or other drugs before or while shooting.
- Store guns so they are not accessible to unauthorized persons.
(he does add a non-NRA addition to this rule of "Never provide a gun to someone not authorized to have it"
Over time, just like with the drunk driving laws, enforcing the NRA’s own rules, the same basic common sense rules that are used in the military, in law enforcement, on civilian gun ranges, and were taught to most of us by our fathers, will change our culture from one of gun fetishists to one of responsible gun owners. And that will reduce gun violence, just as the same approach has significantly reduced drinking and driving.
It will also restart the conversation and at least some action; it has to be an improvement of our current complete lack of action.
