[ back ]
Gun violence shoots down reason
(by Barbara Christian - January 26, 2011)
WINDOW ON MAIN STREET, BY BARBARA CHRISTIAN
Gun violence shoots down reason
What can be said about gun violence that hasn't already been said about gun violence? Especially after the past few weeks, since Tucson and the flood of words and tears that flowed from that horror.
Seems we go through this sad exercise every few years, always after a gun massacre. We are so numbed to death by gun we barely bat an eye when the nightly news leads with a story of someone being shot and killed.
So why bother to write about the subject at all? After all, what can a small-town columnist on a weekly newspaper say that will not be derivative of everything else that has already been said. What new light can be shed on the subject or make a difference? Enter Lori O'Neill, of South Russell.
A gun owner herself, Lori has been fighting the good fight for minimal changes in our gun laws since 1994. This, in her own words, "makes me an abject failure." But she says she is convinced gun laws can be edited, if for no reason than the simple cause of public safety.
Note, Lori did not say we should ban guns or take them away from honest and rightful owners. She and the groups she works with, like Chagrin Falls Patriots of Change, just want consideration of common-sense rules.
Here are suggestions Lori says will protect the greater good and the Second Amendment. None of them are new revelations. All bear repeating.
Preventing the mentally ill from buying and thus using guns is something we should all be able to agree upon. To that end, mental-health workers should be encouraged to advocate not solely for their clients but for public safety. They can do that by alerting authorities to those who suffer from issues like uncontrolled rage and who could self-medicate with a gun they should not have.
How about laws that call for a paper trail of gun ownership -- the same exercise we are required to do when we sell a car. And while we are on the car analogy, what about bare-minimum testing and licensing of firearms? Or making it illegal to traffic guns across state lines, tighter rules on gun "shows," background checks and a waiting period? This would not cause the end of the world or gut the Second Amendment.
Lori is not so idealistic as to think change can happen simply by asking, even after Tucson, Virginia Tech, Columbine, etc., and even though the new Congress declared gun-regulation hearings are off the table.
Instead of giving up and remaining silent until the all-too-predictable next gun massacre, Lori suggests that those who support gun-law changes should be tenacious. That means writing, calling and visiting your legislators. Do it not just once or twice but repeatedly. Be the proverbial squeaky wheel; create a wall of noise on the subject of gun violence that is impossible to tune out. Naive? Maybe. But you won't know until you try.
OK, now brace yourself, because the no-holds-barred gun advocates have their talking points too. They will tell you that more gun regulation won't help because ... all together now ... "People who shouldn't have guns will always get guns," and, "Guns don't kill people; people kill people."
So why is Lori O'Neill so adamant in the face of insurmountable odds and the gun lobby? She says it's because those who are dedicated to the cause of slowing gun violence are good Americans -- no matter what the gun lobby says. And good Americans always try, and good Americans never give up.
[ back ]
