Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Gun Violence: The facts that will not be wished away.

Wafting away the emotionalism and vitriol from the gun violence debate, this writer discerns the following facts:
  1. It's very hard to stop someone killing scores of people if they are willing to die while doing it.
  2. You will never rid the country of all of the guns that could possibly cause mayhem such as Sandy Point or Aurora. The spectrum of guns that can accomplish this includes the entirety of all semi-automatic weapons. Indeed, one could use a few preloaded revolvers and kill several people. Such an expansive prohibition of firearms will not be tolerated by the overwhelming majority of law-abiding gun owners.
  3. Any feasible improvements in mental health screening will do no better than what is currently acheived in suicide prevention. Dedicated psychotics will find a way to get a firearm.
  4. Thus the threat of mass murder will ALWAYS exist, and the best provision to stop an attempt at mass murder is to disrupt the perpetrator's actions.
  5. The best way to stop the perpetrator is to incapacitate him or her in the act, which is best acheived by shooting them.
There is a great deal of misguided outrage in the NRA's "good guy" proposal. People do not like the idea of armed guards in schools, but it is where the culture of American life has arrived whether we like it or not (and why we are at that nadir is another conversation). Armed guards WILL immediately reduce the number and severity of gun violence in schools and public places.
Let us focus on effective solutions rather than false solutions that appeal to our political agendas and prejudices.