Guns Don't Kill People, People Kill People...With Guns

(Credit where credit is due.  I got that from my youngest daughter who got it from a YouTube video.)

I don't know if any of you big fans of mine saw my last share from The Onion about how the Colorado shootings will lead to a debate on gun control which will quickly grow incendiary and be forgotten.

This is my small attempt to start a conversation.  I'm aiming this (pun intended?) at people who feel differently than me on this issue.  (Tony, I'm calling you out!)

This is a response to your facebook post, the meme of Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka asking if guns cause violence why we don't hear of more rampages at shooting ranges.  I thought about it and, you know what?  I agree.  Because I do not think guns cause violence.  Mental illness, rage, and brutish human nature cause violence.  I feel, however, that guns make that violence more lethal.

I'm not really anti-gun.  I personally just don't like them.  I'm incredibly afraid of sudden loud noises, for one thing.  And in the final cost/benefit analysis I find them potentially more risky than helpful.  But if you want your own personal handgun that is registered and that you have been trained to use, I'm cool with that.  I have never felt a desire to go hunting but I know plenty of people who do, so if you have registered rifles that you have been trained to use I'm cool with that, too.  I just would prefer not to have them in my house, school, or church.  Is that really too much to ask?  (Come to think of it, I don't really like the idea of anyone packing in a bar, but I'll compromise.)

The closest I every came to carrying a firearm was 20+ years ago while I was working at the domestic violence shelter.  I was helping a woman retrieve some of her belongings from her home and she took her husband's rifle.  She (understandably, I think) didn't want him to have it.  I forgot she had taken it and it stayed in my car trunk all weekend. (!)  As soon as I discovered I had it I turned it over to the police.  They returned it to the husband.

Why do we need automatic pistols and assault rifles?  The closest I've heard to a defense of them is that they're fun to shoot.  Fine.  Let's set-up firing ranges where they can be shot to heart's content but the guns and the ammo stay there.  People would be required to register or show ID and the weapons and ammo would be accounted for every time someone left.

These sort of weapons don't cause violence, but someone with an automatic weapon can inflict a lot more damage and faster than someone without one.  It's so easy, I've heard, even a child can do it.  In fact, many children do manage to kill themselves or someone they love when they find an unsecured loaded weapon.

Will we stop the murderous among us?  No.  But we can stop making it so damn easy for them.  Your right to bear arms ends where my right to go out safely in public begins.  I don't think that automatic weapons need to be illegal, but they are deadly and should be tightly controlled.  Alarm bells should be going off when someone starts buying large amounts of ammunition which serves no purpose but piercing Kevlar and human flesh.  Outlaws will still be able to purchase automatic weapons, I'm not naive, but then we can go after the source of them, legally, before the next shooting.  Where the weapon came from becomes as much a part of the equation as who did the killing.  Or maiming.

Why do I want personal guns registered?  So we can account for them, especially if they go missing.  And so having an unregistered or falsely registered weapon can be a crime before anyone gets hurt.  And if someone does get hurt or killed with a registered gun, the registered owner of said weapon will have some explaining to do. 

Why do I want gun owners to be licensed?  Because if you're going to carry it you better damn well know how to use it.  And, most especially, when not to use it.  (I'm looking at you, Mr. Zimmerman) Like in crowds.  Or when angry.

I am interested to know why this level of control is too extreme.  I do get the "slippery slope" theory, that once we assert any level of gun control we're one step closer to a ban, but as a society we have to set standards of control all the time.  Like we do with drugs, liquor, automobiles.  If something is deemed dangerous we try to limit the damage.  I feel that is all I'm trying to do.

This is an open invitation for anyone who disagrees with me to respond, and my preference would be that it be well-reasoned and insightful.  If not that, at least amusing!

Let's make the unstable among us really have to work at it.  It's my understanding that this latest Colorado guy was pretty brilliant, and did manage to hatch other horrifying schemes like booby-trapping his apartment.  He probably had the ingenuity to find or rig illegal weapons.  But he should have had to break laws to even break the law by killing people.  It gives us a bit more of a chance to stop it. 

At least that's what I think.  You?