It is a classic dilemma. How to preserve the constitutional right to bear arms while still taking effective steps to quell gun violence in this country. It is time to look beyond the competing slogans into the reality of our culture today.
If we are being rational about this, the first thing to do is put aside the extreme views on both sides. Most people are aware that we are not able to make all gun ownership illegal. Most people are also aware that we cannot simply do nothing about this issue.
Is this just a mental health problem? Granted, outside of combat or law enforcement or self defense, anyone who shoots at another person has some mental deficiency. But who is going to report to what authority about someone who seems a bit unbalanced? Few of us, if any. So, while there definitely should be more availability of mental health treatment, we cannot evaluate and keep records of everyone who seems a little “off.”
In my opinion, we tend to go to an “all-or-nothing” attitude when it comes to many national problems, including gun violence. It is a complicated problem that is not likely to be solved easily. Instead, it will probably take many incremental steps and both sides of the issue will have to sacrifice some of their “sacred ground.”
First, it is essential to make it more difficult for damaged people to access guns. Admittedly, it will never be possible to prevent it 100% of the time. There will still be mass shootings, but we can reduce the number of them in the future by taking some actions now.
The person who purchases a gun must be held responsible for the acts of anyone who uses that gun. It should be the civic duty of any gun owner to make sure the gun is safely stored and/or disabled so no one else can use it without the owner’s supervision.
Next, no one under the age of 25 should be permitted to purchase a gun without permission of a parent or guardian who will remain responsible for the gun’s use.
Finally, so-called weapons of war like assault rifles, or guns made to look like assault rifles, should not be sold to the public. We do not permit sales of hand grenades, machine guns, bazookas, flame throwers, land mines and other combat weapons, for obvious reasons. We must enlarge this category to include assault rifles and high capacity ammo clips as well.
Is America prepared to admit that school shootings, movie theater shootings, house of worship shootings, mall shootings, concert shootings, grocery store shootings are simply the price we have to pay for our Second Amendment rights? I say that price is too high.
Of course, nothing we do now will bring an immediate end to all this violence, but surely it is time at least to begin to reverse the trend. Otherwise, the prophetic recent satirical headline in The Onion newspaper will prove true: No way to prevent this says only country in the world where this regularly happens.
John Sucke is a resident of Waimea.
