despair

I Don’t Know What To Do

There’s been yet another school rampage shooting, and I don’t know what to do except weep. Best I can tell, nobody else does either.

Oh, there’s a lot of noise and a ton of blame being thrown, and I’ve heard the phrase “common sense gun control” more times than I can count. It’s a meaningless string of words; if there were any effective way to stop rampage shooters with a simple, common sense approach, we’d have done it by now.

Whenever I say that, there are two responses:
– “Well, at least do something!”
and
– “Just ban guns! Ban them all!”

(more…)

TRIGGERED: Common Sense Gun Control

This is not being written in response to any particular event.  There was probably one today or yesterday or last week, and CNN no doubt covered it with their usual attention to detail and mechanical concern.  I’m probably pretty sad about it myself.  This is why I’m writing this article on a day when the headlines are about something else.  It’s important to keep perspective.  You can’t create effective policy and solve social problems when you’re too busy yelling or sobbing or both.

Trouble is, I’m furious.  Even today, I can’t help but be furious (more…)

Gun Control: What’s The Problem?

The United States is one of the most heavily armed places on Earth, measured per capita.  There are places that have been in civil war for long enough that all noncombatants have fled; they are less heavily armed than we.  And we see the results on the news on a daily basis, it seems; just the other night there was another mass shooting, an apparent ambush at a backyard barbecue.

So gun control appears to be a logical necessity.  Why is there even debate on the subject?

I’ve examined some statistics that may give us an answer, as well as a possible course going forward.  I’ll warn you now, though:  The answers I arrived at are vastly different than the ones I at first expected. (more…)