Solution needed

Friday, Jun. 24, 2016

First a disclaimer: I don’t have the answers to stopping the mass shootings that have claimed the lives of so many Americans over the past decades. Apparently, no one else does, either, but what infuriates me is that our elected officials would rather point fingers in blame rather than find a solution.

While I don’t have the answer, one proposal that has been made over and over again to stop the shootings is some form of gun control.

For those of you who are drawing breath to defend your Second Amendment rights, please hold that breath until you read the next five paragraphs.

The fact that people are so ready to dismiss anything anyone says before the argument is even presented is one reason, I think, why we have such rancor in this country. We no longer have discussions, we have personal attacks, vitriol and blame games. In this hate-filled atmosphere, how can we possibly find solutions?

The argument that more stringent background checks and licensing requirements for gun ownership would lead to banning all private gun ownership is what is known as a slippery-slope fallacy – it’s erroneous to conclude that the one would lead to the other.

I have the perfect example to prove it: In 1919 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that certain restrictions to the freedom of speech – guaranteed by the First Amendment – were acceptable. As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in his famous opinion: “The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing panic. …”

Here it is 100 years later and we still have freedom of speech in this country, so I don’t understand why similar logic can’t be applied to the Second Amendment, in particular to ownership of assault rifles, which can fire hundreds of bullets in one minute.

To me, this presents a “clear and present danger,” to once more use Holmes’ words, and if having more stringent gun control will alleviate that danger, then I for one am all for it.

On the other hand, if you have a solution that doesn’t involve gun control to the problem of young men carrying automatic weapons into public places, opening fire and killing dozens of innocent people, then I’d love to hear it. 

I don’t understand why, rather than trying to solve this problem that causes so much death, fear and distress, our elected governmental leaders are blaming everyone except themselves. Not even when one of their own, Gabrielle Giffords, was shot and critically injured in an incident that also killed six others and injured 13 did our elected officials do anything except bemoan the violence.  

Why aren’t they trying to determine what causes these terrible acts, and find a way to prevent them? If it’s because they believe we voters have an attitude of grim resignation, where we gasp in horror, say a few prayers, fail at finding a scapegoat and then shrug and go on with our daily lives, then we need to change their minds. We can’t simply accept this state of affairs. It has to change, and our elected officials are the ones who must find the way to do it. Today, tomorrow, next week, next month and next year, we need to ask them and ask them and ask them and keep asking what they are doing to protect us from this violence. 

Prayer may be an answer, but I hope to God it’s not the only one, and until these shootings stop, any candidate for federal office who wants my vote for will need to have a plan to work toward keeping America safe from the violence.