GUNS!

Another school shooting, another 17 people dead.  The question that never gets addressed or answered is this:  Why does the U.S. have so many of these shootings and other developed nations do not?

Let’s see, what is different about the U.S.?  Is it the fact that we have too much violence on TV, video games and movies?  No, other nations have that too.  Is it that we have a wide variety of ethnic groups, religions and races?  No, other countries have very diverse populations as well.  Is it that we have fallen out of favor with God because we are less religious and don’t pray in our schools anymore?  Well, no, actually we are more religious than every other developed nation.

So what could it possibly be?  Is this really a difficult puzzle to solve?

Hardly!  There is a simple answer that sits staring us in the face:  GUNS!

We are awash in guns.  Our culture celebrates and obsesses on guns like no other.  One might even say we worship guns.  There are more guns in the U.S. than all of the other developed nations combined – over 300 million by most estimates.  The rest of the developed world is incredulous over our stubborn embrace of gun mania and we are a laughing stock for our vain refusal to see the obvious.

We spend trillions of dollars protecting ourselves against terrorists.  Yet the number of people killed in non-terrorist attacks by guns dwarfs the number who die at the hands of terrorists – an annual average of over 11,000 versus 31.  More people died between 1960 and today from firearms in the U.S. than have died in all of our wars from the War of Independence to Iraq (1.4 million versus 1.2 million – politifact)!

Both the United Kingdom and Australia took aggressive steps after mass killings to eliminate all assault weapons and strictly control gun ownership.  Those programs have been a great success.  The rate of gun deaths in the U.S. is over 30 times the rate in the U.K. and neither the U.K. nor Australia has had another domestic mass killing since these programs were implemented.

Our politicians are either cowards or brainwashed puppets of the NRA.  The idea put forth by many that we need MORE guns in the hands of so-called ‘good guys’ is an absurd fallacy that is an insult to the intelligence of the American people.

When automobiles began killing large numbers of people in the 20’s, laws were enacted that required registration, annual inspections and licensing.  The rate of automobile deaths today is a small fraction of what it was before these measures were taken.  It defies comprehension that we do not have at least this much control over guns.

Some will say that the genie is out of the bottle on guns in the U.S., that there are already too many to control.  After World War II, there were an incredible number of guns in Europe.  A large cleanup effort was made to eliminate guns except for hunting or target shooting in most European countries.  Europeans who own guns must comply with many regulations and must become certified in their use.

The only effective way for the U.S. to combat the horrific litany of mass shootings is to take radical steps to eliminate assault weapons and large magazines, and tightly control gun ownership.  There should be heavy fines and even jail sentences for those caught with a weapon that is not registered and every gun owner should be required to have their weapons in a locked cabinet when they are not in use.

Until we are willing to concede that the U.S. is no longer a wild frontier or the wild west we will continue to lose our citizens in senseless, heinous shootings.  It is time to grow up.