Gun Control, Mass Shooting, Murder, Politics and the Rest of the Story

The rush to pass gun control laws by politicians in response to the mass shooting in a Texas elementary school, is a knee-jerk reaction, short-sighted, and not well thought out. Laws and decisions should not be made based on an exception. We are a nation of 330 million plus population. The following conversation is to provide a basis to have constructive conversations leading to a rational resolution.

Death

In order to understand the impact of guns on death, a broader look at death due to violence is needed to put it in perspective. As a minimum, comparisons should be made by number of occurrences and percentages viewed within the total population. Compare the numbers for these categories:

Guns

Automatic

Rifles

Assault

Hunting

Pistols & hand guns

Shotguns

Single Shot

Revolvers

Rifles

Knives

Hunting

Kitchen

Illegal – blades over 4 inches, switchblades

Blunt force instruments

Baseball bats

Metal objects

Hammers

Etc.

From these, exclude suicides. The same metrics should be done a subset for law enforcement. Once these metrics are understood and compared and ranked greatest to lowest values, there will be a better understanding of the part guns play in death.

Bad Actors

Bad actors can be placed into groups:

Individual violent criminals acting alone or in a small group

Gang activity

Organized crime

Individual citizen who becomes a bad actor for ONE event

There is no prevention that be enacted that will prevent the individual from choosing to become a bad actor or what weapon he will use, or what demographic he is. There will always be choices made at the individual level for a free society.

Mass Shootings

Mass should be examined in detail taking into account time of fire arms used. The news media and politicians are playing on your conscience because of children and innocents being killed. Granted, these are heartfelt events touch most people, and some directly.

A study of all mass shootings should be made, compared and ranked to better understand the events

Access

Facility access should be reviewed as an overall safety measure, not limited to mass shooting. Any facility should do this review periodically. The responsibility initially lies with the facility owners and operators (schools, churches, homes, sporting venues, etc.). The standards (regulations & laws) can be set by city, county, and state governments. Access is not a federal responsibility. Access control procedures should not conflict with fire and safety policies. If they do, both sides sit down and come up with a consensus that works for the public, not for the single bad actor.

Assault and Automatic Weapons

For the law-abiding citizen, there is no defendable reason to own any assault or automatic weapon. These weapons are designed to kill humans. Having said that, there is a certain sensation in sense of power it gives one to shoot them. Hear is a conversation to consider:

Ban assault and automatic weapons from the general population, except to federally licensed and monitored gun range owners. This eliminates unsupervised use of these weapons (Full accountability of guns, clips and ammo) by the public

Restrict assault and automatic weapons to law enforcement and military

Gun Control

Keep in mind that control laws impact only the law-abiding citizen. It has no impact on bad actors (rogue citizens, organized crime, and gangs). The reason the public has the right to bear arms is to protect the country (citizens) from the federal government (president with military) to declaring a new government and canceling the constitution.

If the citizens of Venezuela had the right to bear arms, there would be no Maduro and his totalitarian regime, and the population oppressed. That is the difference the 2nd amendment makes – freedom.

Ancillary Impacts Influencing Bad Actors

During the 1950’s you could leave your keys in your car with doors unlocked and the windows of your home open and the doors unlocked without fear. Today that is not realistic or permitted. Children were polite, listened to their parents. Adults were courteous and had puritan values. A large percentage of the population attended church.

Then in the 1960s, society changed. Since “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”, women have been a big part of the work force. The mother being home with the kids slowly vanished. The hippy movement attacked courtesy, accountability, and parental guidance.

Now, society has social media and bias news and talk shows. Politicians at all levels of government, seem to be focused on keeping power and increasing their personal wealth. Very little of what comes out of government benefits the majority of the citizens.

There is also the doxing, fanatic viral social media posts that do only harm. Canceling does only harm. Wokeness does not represent the nation, only a small sliver, but with a loud megaphone.

Then we have video games, big tech bias, and cell phone cameras. CRT serves no good.

Last Thoughts

So, I leave you with these thoughts:

To understand what caused a good citizen to become a bad actor (mass shooter), how did society go from the 1950s mentality to the existing? Clearly, gun control is not a solution.