Unless you’re living under a rock, you’ve heard about the
horrific shooting in Aurora, CO.
Tragedies like this have an ability to suck us in—we find ourselves
watching hours and hours of coverage, seeing the same video over and over
again. Shortly thereafter we begin to
try to make sense of senseless tragedies as our hearts and minds and prayers go
out to those affected. We’ll donate
money or even hold a candle, but after a while life just of goes back to normal—and
nothing changes; we’ve done nothing to address the problems that led tragedy or
disaster in the first place.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was the first to speak
out and say that we’ve got to look at how horrible things like this
continue to happen in this country. Frankly I’m tired of reading about armed
madmen walking into a church or a school or a mall and killing innocent people.
I was in high school here in Colorado when the first large scale gun tragedy
shook this state. I played in a summer basketball
league with kids from Columbine. One of
my teammates tragically took his own life unexpectedly a year or so later. One of the best basketball players in the
state, he had hid in a closet during the whole ordeal. At my own high school, one of my teammate’s
mother committed suicide some time later—the Columbine tragedy weighing heavily
on her. My father and I went to the
memorial at the movie theater down the street from Columbine, so I’m not just
trying to exploit a tragedy to get my political agenda across.
I’m going to be holding a new-born baby any day now, and I’ve
got to wonder what kind of world she’s coming into. So when someone respectable and intelligent
suggests that we should revive the conversation about guns in our country, I
don’t think it’s outrageous. Of course
President Obama isn’t going to touch it with a ten foot pole when he’s in a
tight race for re-election as it is and Romney is already in bed with
right-wing gun owners so that leaves people like you and me to have an intelligent,
respectable conversation about it.
So here we go:
I’m sure you’ve heard the refrain before, that guns don’t
kill people, its people that kill other people.
It’s said that someone could use a car, a baseball bat, or a
sledgehammer to kill someone—but here’s the catch; none of those items are
designed to kill or maim human beings. A
car is designed for transportation, a baseball bat to hit a baseball, and a
sledgehammer for construction demolition. Can something be misused or perverted from its
purpose? But guess what most guns are designed for?
Another argument against tougher gun control laws is that
they will only impact the law-abiding citizens, since a criminal already
disregards law and order as it is. Ok,
but again, the alleged shooter was a law abiding citizen until he went out and
blew away 12 people in a horrific tragedy.
We’re all law-abiding citizens until we go out and break the law. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to ban a
high-powered rifle capable of doing irreparable harm to scores of people in
seconds or perhaps for local law enforcement just to check in when someone is suddenly
stockpiling guns.
And don’t tell me that more people there with
conceal-and-carry guns could have saved the day. In a dark movie theater, with hundreds of
panicked people running and screaming, and with a gunman geared up in a
bullet-proof vest and helmet is someone really going to be able to calmly stand
up and take out the assailant with a headshot amidst the chaos. Law enforcement professionals train for hours and
hours for such situations.
I’m not trying to trash on the 2nd Amendment
either, but when conservatives constantly cry that the founders didn’t envision
“equal protection under the law” applying to homosexual rights, I’ve got to
think they didn’t foresee semi-automatic rifles either, the guns back then were
one-shot and reload muskets. So if we’re
going to talk “Original Intent” in one area, shouldn’t we at least be
consistent?
So what can we do about this? The NRA doesn’t own the conversation. Can we at least start by being honest with
ourselves? Guns do kill people—because they are made to.
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