Blow still has not provided a single idea for stopping this gun violence. Moreover, he ridicules the honest attempts of others to stop it, i.e., arming teachers.
Let's suppose we get rid of the NRA as Blow wants. Let's also say we elect a Congress and an administration receptive to total, unfettered gun control.
Fine. Excellent. But what do we do next? There will still be an estimated 450 million guns privately owned in the U.S. What do we do to stop them. That is the real problem for Blow to think about, not just create a national atmosphere that is totally receptive ideas. What Blow suggests is only the half way mark. We still need ideas on how to do it.
Here's an idea. Stop the production of films and books and magazines that are built around gratuitous slaughter of human lives. Harsh? Yes, but we must abolish the gun culture, and the movies are the most important devices for starting trends. They tried it in Hollywood for ten years with the Hay s Office, when Hollywood finally grew too raunchy for the public to swallow. What? You don't like this idea? You don't think it can help? That's the Charles Blow approach: shoot down ideas before they are tried. All the same, the answer to our gun problem is CHANGE THE CULTURE - IMMEDIATELY AND DRASTICALLY. Declare war on the gun culture. And don't expect overnight results. It took years for the gun culture to mature, as in Chicago. It will take years to curb it and erase it.
3
Blow, seems like Campaign Finance Reform is the only thing you should be talking about. Despite the fact that Americans don't seem to understand it or its importance, I would think that you would. Wonder why Congress is beholden to the NRA? Wonder why they don't have this problem in Canada or Europe? Figure it out and use your pulpit to spread the word! PLEASE.
4
Enough already--we know all that! Simply writing about gun violence misses the realities. We know the saying about rats deserting a sinking ship. When industrialists and the rich moved their factories and wealth offshore they signaled a loss of confidence in and loyalty to the Republic. When a minority of voters elected Trump, they signaled a loss of respect for the Republic and declared for a variety of other loyalties, e.g., greed, white supremacy, and Vatican law. Behind all this, the Koch brothers and their ilk beaver away at dismantling the framework of the Republic. Early this year, 550 such people signed in for their fundraiser at $100,000 a head. A few dead kids here and there mean little to any of those people—about as much as the lives of black slaves or of the native tribes brutally moved into death zones, aka reservations. “Freedom” means more to them, particularly freedom from government taxes and regulations. When it comes to gun safety, Atlas isn’t the only one of them who shrugs.
4
When Reagan put Scalia on the Supreme Court the USA ceased being a nation of laws. The Bill of Rights makes perfectly clear the second amendment that conscientious objectors are exempt from military service. (article five passed by the House August 24 1789) the Republican Jurists knew and understood it was not about guns.
The Supreme Court rendered the constitution meaningless and now your country is hopelessly divided. There will never again be a UNITED States of America. I hope and pray you country can find a peaceful solution to your irreconcilable differences but looking to the courts which are now just another political body is impossible. The constitution which was your foundational document was rendered null and void.
3
Thank you, Mr Blow.
This needs to be said, and meant, daily by everyone who cares about their kids, or other people's kids, or their teachers; by anyone who cares about a sane future for this country.
We are an abberation in terms of the number of guns, the adoration of guns, the sales of guns.
The NRA began as a safety-minded organization. Who subverted that? Charlton Heston?
Indeed: Enough is enough. Too much is enough. Stop the madness and enact the kind of gun control that we need. As you so wisely point out, vote for the candidates who will do that.
3
The whole concept of active shooter incidents is ridiculous. 221 victims were killed by an active shooter in 2016-2017, so more than 22000 were killed in the same period by a non active shooter ?
Why only 1% of the gun-related homicides make national news?
1
This latest shooter used a Remington 870 pump action shotgun and a .38 caliber revolver. The revolver holds 6 rounds, the shotgun around the same amount and are considered "old technology". Yet I continue to hear calls for banning "assault rifles". Decades ago school shootings didn't occur. Why now? Answer that question and you'll find the answer. You won't find it in banning "assault rifles" and magazine size.
6
If I worked for the RNC, there are few things that would make me happier than the Democrats deciding to double-down on gun control in the upcoming elections.
Single issue voters on the right were a huge factor in Trump's election. Gun control efforts on the left likely motivated many of them.
3
We, collectively, are not facing reality. The reality is that , like the Black Death and smallpox, gun violence is a plague that kills the young and the healthy by the thousands.
In a plague, the Public Health Service takes control. It's job is to isolate the pathogen from the population. Guns are the pathogen in gun violence. The "hosts" are sociopathic and psychopathic individuals, who likewise must be identified and isolated.
To own a gun, one must be declared free of sociopathy and psychopathy and be of a mature age. To own a gun, one must obtain a license and pass tests periodically.
Only by treating gun violence as a lethal disease can we protect ourselves of it. It is far more lethal than ebola, but we just don't recognize it as a plague, which it is.
1
Enough is enough, but it looks like we are going to have to just take more and more....
It's the guns...
2
The advocates of gun control are politically ineffective because they are scattered in their opinions. The single most consistent factor in mass school shootings, i.e. more than 10 deaths at a time, is the presence of high-capacity magazines.I believe the best single issue for gun control applicants is to focus simply on banning the sale of high capacity magazines followed by a voluntary buyback of those remaining in the society. Admittedly hyper gun enthusiasts are not the ones doing the mass school shootings. But they, and gun owners like myself, should be willing to at least give up the opportunity to obtain a high-capacity magazine. The right too own high-capacity magazines is not worth the slaughter.
2
Too much money to be made in the gun industry. Just say it like it is.
2
Until some of America's billionaires pour their money into fighting the NRA's lying propaganda ("it's people, it's culture, it's the number of school entrances and exits, it's teachers not having guns ...") and targeting politicians for defeat who are creatures of the NRA, this won't change.
1
Enough is Enough. I cannot imagine being a high school or even middle school student today. I would have every egress mapped out, every hiding spot dully noted, and I'd have a heightened sense of hearing. I would also be more attuned to my peers body language and to those whom seemed to languish in anger or depression. I would essentially be in a state of PTSD before the PTSD event occurred. As a former teacher and Assistant Principal for the NYC BOE, I know what it is like to run soft lock down drills and hard lock down drills. I know the soft spots, as do the shooters. Everytime there is a mass shooting I wander what goes through the minds of elected Congressmen/women, as well as a Senators. Do they wipe their brow and think "at least it wasn't my child?" Are children and teenagers this dispensable? Is the money of the NRA worth any child's life? Who are the people who make up the NRA, do they sleep well at night? Has tragedy hit any of their families. There is something so deeply wrong with our moral compass and it shouldn't be a battle to fix it.
2
Gun control advocates say the age of legality for guns should be 21.
Why stop there?
The prefrontal cortex is not fully developed until about 25, and it is the seat of judgment. It is well known by scientists that people under 25 are more prone to making "poor" judgments, based on an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex, and a few have even come out to advocate making changes so that legal maturity comes later.
So I would support 25 as the age for guns.
Which leads me to suggest the age of 25 for military service, and for voting. Same basis.
Anything wrong with that?
4
"We have too many guns in this country, including too many based on combat weapons, and as a result we have too many shootings and deaths."
And that in a nutshell is the problem. Mr. Blow the so-called combat weapons are used in less than 1% of the crimes. Not even 10 AR rifles have been used in the last several years to commit crimes. The real culprits are handguns. And in that category mostly stolen or illegally obtained weapons. Furthermore the most widely used handgun is the lowly .22 caliber pistol.
If you focus solely on rifles that may or may not be categorized as military weapons then you will miss the real cause of 98% of the misery and slaughter where guns are used. The villain is not the gun. The villain, the real bad guy is the user of illicit weapons.
There are 300 million guns in America. More than 5 million are AR 15 type weapons.
Pursue criminals and illegal users of guns. Make it illegal for anyone under 25 to own, purchase or handle pistols of any type. And make age 21 the legal age for rifles. That would be a good start.
2
Enough is Enough ! I am tired of reading about how "Congress" was unable to pass gun control legislation. And how "legislators", and "lawmakers" and "politicians" were not able to agree on gun control legislation. Just print the names and political party of those voting against and those voting in favor of sensible gun control laws. The voters will then address the matter in the coming elections.
And "reasonable" guns laws would be? And would have prevented this shooting how?
2
Mr. Blow blames guns.
To blame guns for the violence is to blame the 'delivery device'. If we could just ban all guns, the problem would go away. Well, yes. It is said, if you could effectively ban all guns (doubtful), the problem of gun violence would go away. But does anyone really believe that gun violence is the problem? Really? Then explain this:
London has among the strictest gun control laws in the world. Almost no one has access to a gun, either the good guys or the bad guys. Yet, just last month London passed NYC in the number of homicides committed. The vast majority of these murders were committed with knives along with assorted strangulations and acid attacks here and there. The delivery devices changed but the result is the same. I call this the substitution theory.
And let's not forget the Santa Fe murderer planted IED's similar to the bombs used in the Boston Marathon attack. Are we to ban pressure cookers?
To blame senseless tragedies like Santa Fe on guns is not only lazy it's dangerous. It's dangerous because it anesthetizes us from thinking and rationally discussing the real problems:
Why are so many of our children killing each other?
3
“To blame senseless tragedies like Santa Fe on guns is not only lazy it's dangerous.”
Charles Blow has never been known to actually do the work of a real journalist! Just go back through the past two years of slop published under his name.
One can summarize his body of work simply: “Trump is bad, mean, deranged, blah, blah.... White people are bad, blah, blah.
1
I went to the International School of Makati in Manila Philippines in the early 1980s. Since it is crystal clear that the US will never make changes to their gun laws - how about implementing metal detectors on all High Schools (HS) entrances and bag searches... that's how my HS school in Manila dealt with it. There was one entrance and exit and we all went through a metal detector and has our back pack searched prior to entering the school - yes it took time but at least you knew you were safe since there was quite a bit of violence in Manila in those days during the Marcos era. It's not what I'd like to see here but we need to get practical while Washington is in gridlock and most politicians are in NRA's pocket... at least this would provide true protection if done well like it was done in the high school I attended in Manila.
1
And a school bus with 40 students would be protected how?
Oliver North, the new president of the NRA, blames the culture of violence for our problem with mass shootings ironically missing the contribution the NRA makes in promoting the unrestricted availability of guns.
1
Overturn citizens United. Get money out of politics. Stop electing politicians who are pro gun rights because of the nra,politicians who refuse to respond to their constituents demand for gun safety laws.
1
"We have too many guns in this country ..."
Exhibit 1 for the NRA.
Perhaps Mr. Blow can tell us exactly how many is too many.
Just so we are sure.
3
Once again, Charles, you've got it right.
The rest of the world watches in consternation as we accept our children being murdered by crazy people.
Yet our whore Congress, sucking on the nipple of the NRA (a fig leaf pasted on to protect the obscene profits of the gun industry) is so afraid to lose their jobs that they refuser pass the most reasonable legislation: stringent licensing requirements, ban millitary-style automatic weapons, and regulate sales at gun shows".
Just so you know who killed your child.
It never was about the Second Amendment, which our Founders felt necessary to defend our tiny, fragile new country from enemies foreign and domestic.
It is about money, Profits. By misleading the gullible and catering to the male equation of guns = sexual potency.
The below just happens to be the first in a score of drop-down links using neutral search terms like "gun industry earnings" or "gun industry profits".
https://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/02/americas-gun-business-by-the-numbers.html
Are those billions worth more than your child's life?
We need to ask why kids are doing these shootings.
It's not because guns are available- that's been true for decades. The rash of school shootings is a relatively recent problem. The real answer is that sensationalized, liberal media has made these crimes notorious, to suit it's own purpose of curtailing American rights as codified in the Constitution. So the liberal media clearly has blood on it's hands here, ever since Sandy Hook.
Charles Blow is outraged by the deaths of 10 school kids in Texas, but not by the deaths of over 5000 black men in America every year (by handgun).
Charles Blow's hypocrisy is glaringly obvious, and he's part of the problem creating these school shootings.
4
This summer I will turn 70. 50 years ago I was a Viet Nam war protestor and passionately believed that nothing in my life was more important than stopping our war over there. Now, my life is set. I have money, good health, Medicare, a loving wife; a good life. But I'm feeling passionate again, and this time it's about guns. I am a single issue voter now, and will be the rest of my life. Any politician who doesn't support a massive overhaul of our gun laws will not get my vote.
2
The really sad part is that Trump supporters will continue to support the NRA with all their might and they don't realize that the NRA is in business to protect and support the gun manufacturers. They, like Trump, could care less about protecting Americans. They are all about protecting their bankrolls. If Trump and his Republican congress really cared about Americans, they would do something immediately to fix this problem. The gun manufacturers are wealthy, they are big business and Trump is all about wealth and big business. This administration is brilliant at throwing up diversionary tactics to keep the American people from really focusing on the important issues. He will continue to try to divide the country by saying the left is trying to take away the 2nd amendment rights of gun owners and that is just more Trumpian lies. I think local government would do a much better job of trying to reach a common sense solution to this debate then waiting for Congress to do anything at all that might jeopardize their votes or their pocketbooks. Disgraceful!
The problem is not the 2nd Amendment
The problem is not even those who love guns.
The problem is the flow of money between the gun manufactures, the NRA, and bought politicians.
An A+ or A from the NRA = FAILURE
Whenever there is a problem, social control idealists offer a solution that applies to the entire Milky Way ... a once and for all thing. Let's just get it done, they say.
That's how we got communism in Russia. A few well-meaning naive zealots ... next thing you know, Stalin.
That's how we got the criminal mob. A few well-meaning naive zealots criminalize alcohol ... next thing you know, Al Capone.
Gun owners know this, and so they resist even small and reasonable attempts at rectification. They fear that people like Mr. Blow want to take their guns away. They perhaps do, so why take the chance.
If we could have a sane conversation about the multiple causes of HS shootings, to narrow the subject down, instead of "guns" or "crime", we could come up with sane solutions. The reasons for a drug dealer shooting another drug dealer, and a teenager killing his classmates, are completely different.
True, the common denominator is guns, no doubt. But the social control left needs to accept that guns will never disappear from America, not even as mainstream possessions. Guns are here to stay, 300 million+ and counting. Every time this type of article gets written gun sales go up.
So instead of fantasizing about pie-in-the-sky, feel-good, social engineering solutions that will never happen, why not focus on the issue at hand: safe schools.
Maybe the social left doesn't want that, though. Eliminates a political bashing point. Who is worse: them or the NRA?
3
"Furthermore, according to an April F.B.I. report: “The F.B.I. has designated 50 shootings in 2016 and 2017 as active shooter incidents. "
Does that include the increase in murder of policemen as advocated by Black Lives Matter?
1
It is easy to solve. Do what they did in Isreal with terrorists. If a school shooter shoots up a school. Destroy that shooters home, put the parents in jail and extract revenge in the form of payments from the family to the those killed. After this happens often enough, parents who own guns will get the message and keep guns out of the hands of their children or keep a better eye on what their children are into. Once they parents feel the need to make sure their kids do not behave in this way, then there will be less need for law enforcement. This will be gun control that does not need laws to enforce. And don't stop there. If someone sells a gun to another person, and that person commits a crime with it, then go after the seller. In this way it will be the responsibility of the sell to make sure who they are selling the gun to won't be the next shooter. Again, no gun control laws needed!
The NRA and its minions have managed to inflict terror in the USA and promote the murder of innocent Americans on a scale that terrorists could only dream of. This is the only remaining "exceptional" quality of the USA.
2
The idea that in a modern society you need a personal handgun to defend yourself is a purely American construct. Maybe this is cultural baggage left over from a frontier mentality. However the west is no longer wild, and the Native Americans have sadly been subdued. As a society we have rejected frontier justice, aka lynching, as a viable option. We now have police to defend us from crime and we have a military to defend us from invaders. The second amendment is no longer necessary, and should be repealed.
4
I spent 35 years in LE. If you knew what kind of people inhabit our society, escape from jail, are released from custody, max out their sentences, you would look at this differently. If you decide not to position yourself with a gun for self defense I respect that. But don't impose this restriction on others, we see things from another angle.
2
I have always owned guns, both long and short. But its obvious that the current system is not working. No other country on earth has school shootings on a regular basis, and its not because we have more criminals. The US is not exceptional. Other countries have gun control and it works. I'm willing to give up my guns for the common good. If you want to live in a war zone, the US military can provide you with many options.
I know countless people who own guns and I often practice with some of them. As with many of them I've been shooting for over 50 years and none of us has ever shot anyone or had an accident. And our neighborhoods have never been described as war zones (which I would recognize as having been in one in the army).
Now Saint McCain = Recipient of Most NRA $$ in Senate...
1
The parents of all murdered children is schools need to band together and start an action suit against the NRA and the gun industry as the institutions responsible for their children deaths. Promoting guns is worse than promoting cigarettes. Cigarette manufacturers were forced to pay billions in damages because of their deliberate denials and false advertisements.
1
The irony with this situation is that both the gun haters and the gun worshippers are right, but are also both wrong. The gun haters see the answer in banning guns or severely curtailing them, which besides being politically undoable, is also going to fail the 2nd amendment, and also takes away from those who legitimately hunt or use guns for sport (and for the record, I am not a gun owner).
The gun supporters, on the other hand, are extreme the other way, and among other things they refuse to recognize that gun ownership and gun rights come with responsibility (ironic given the right's obsession with individual responsibility). For example, in both Parkland and Santa Fe, a parent let the kid have access to guns that were used in the killing, yet they will not bear responsibility for that action, because both states refuse to do so. Many states refuse any kind of registration of guns, and have no rules requiring gun owners to report their weapons stolen or missing or sold, and the NRA and the gun supporters refuse to close the private sale loophole. As a result legal guns end up in the hands of criminals, and there is no accountability towards the legal purchaser. If we had requirements for background checks for private sales and reporting of lost or stolen guns, it would be a lot harder for criminals to get guns, pure and simple. Sadly, the gun supporters are as deluded as the granola heards, and both have left the NRA to promote its culture of profits over safety.
Require Congress to pursue its daily activities with the same level of security most schoolchildren have--that is, none.
3
I'm beginning to not recognize our country anymore. The America I grew up in did not accommodate the money interests over the lives of children. I was never afraid to go to a school dance, football game, basketball game, movie theater or any other outside function. In essence these poor children are having their most fun years stolen from them by these miscreants who hold money and power over human life. I can't wait until they become of age and can vote. Those kids can change history and I hope and pray that they do.
4
You say that the shootings are "a way to find voice through violence." Maybe it's time to treat shootings as speech and then regulate guns under the First Amendment, rather than futilely attempting to regulate them under the Second Amendment.
I would luv to know where the misdirection of the NRA being a major funder of politicians came from? The civilian gun industry is not large and the NRA doesn't work for them. All the buy the politician funds come from members and they have ten times more of them than the Human Rights Campaign which actually is an effective schill organization.
The good news is Catholic schools haven't been hit and urban schools have already been hardened hence they too are spared. This may take a moments thought but give it a shot- the only thing that will stop these shootings is a cessation of shootings. It's a matter of dynamic statistics. The only important thing these shootings have in common is that they are copy cats. If u get a year shooting free you can get two if u get two you will get five easier than the first one year. This isn't the only sociological phenomenon that play out like this. Americans are not bad people. This isn't happening cause we love guns more than kids. it is happening because it is happening and we are here because we are here.
The other option is teaching Christianity. I was bullied and humiliated throughout my school years including my 7th grade teacher throwing me against a wall. I didn't shoot anyone because they were human beings and I believed in god and though they were my tormentors they were also Catholic too. These kids believe in nothing, fear no one and are medicated. We're past gun control.
1
Remember this America, your birthrate is falling, immigration is too strict, refugees are being turned away. Protect the children that you do have, their lives are too precious to be squandered by those against gun control. Put an end to the gun culture.
2
Change the law passed in 2005 by the Republicans that makes it impossible to sue the gun manufacturers for strict liability. Open the floodgates to suits against the manufacturers, the sellers, and the others who put guns in the hands of these murderers.
Change the law that prohibits the CDC from studying the effect of guns on the health of the United States citizens.
Why do we allow a small, vocal, armed group of individuals to force us into a circumstance where our children are murdered in our schools.
It is time for write laws that demand that every gun owner be insured to own guns, and be held strictly liable if those guns fall into the hands of a murdered.
Our laws are lax on this issue and I am fed up!!!!
2
Follow the money. Its really that simple. Clear lists of those companies CEOs and individuals that belong to the NRA or are beholden to the NRA in some way should be fully divested from and boycotted.
I would welcome such a list from Charles Blow or other NY Times writers committed to a safer more equitable United States.
Just like we make people who supply alcohol at private parties liable for making sure their guests don't drive home drunk, so too must we make the owners of weapons responsible for shootings if the guns were not properly secured. I have yet to see an interview with the parents of this kid who shot up Santa Fe High School. I'm sure they've lawyered up, as they should, but to me they are equally guilty of this horrific crime.
3
Guns are good business. Invest your children.
Only when the Republican cowards in Congress are more afraid of their constituents than they are of the NRA will things change. VOTE THEM OUT...ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!
1
We cut drunk driving deaths way down with better laws and enforcement. We can do the same with school and other mass shootings, but only if we can convince lawmakers to legislate new laws that target sensible gun reform, including but not limited to, background checks on all owners, "red flag" laws, banning assault type weapons, and other obvious proposals.
Lawmakers, especially those who get significant contributions from the NRA, need to know that their jobs are on the line if they continue to do nothing more than shake their heads and "pray."
Prayer is great, but our children should not be prey for shooters.
2
The NRA has such a hold on the levers of power in America that the federal government has not even allowed the NIH of anyone else to study gun violence in the country. Don't expect change unless the $$$$$ used by the NRA and gun companies is shut off.
1
Please stop the nonsense. You play the same record over and over again, the politicians are cowards because they won't stand up to the NRA, well, the truth is they are just doing what the people who voted them in want them to do. You really think the people of Texas want their politicians to vote for gun control? Make it simple, put it to the voters directly, with a Plebiscite vote, a straight yes or no vote from the voters themselves, take the congress and Senate out of it. The truth is you wouldn't win one state not even the state of New York. It's not the politician its the people themselves. people use guns to protect themselves from other people and even more than that they don't trust the people who run the government. It's the distrust of other people, and that's the real shame of it.
1
As gun violence increases, it may assist the GOP in solving their immigration "problem". Soon no one will want to live in the United States.
I'm dealing with a mentally ill young adult right now... Let me tell you, it would be a lot easier to do something about the guns.
Unless they want treatment voluntarily, even getting treatment is an uphill battle. And only certain kinds of treatment would ever trigger something that would cause them to fail a background check or a legal order to take away weapons.
To paraphrase Ronald Regan - the rest of the world is screaming, "It's the guns, stupid." Only the US is too stupid to think that a gun violence crisis can be solved without doing anything about the guns.
1
Thank you, Charles, for solving this one, as you've solved so many others. Looking forward to your solution to the 105 people killed in auto accidents in the US daily. These school incidents need to be reported, but they are over reported, with constant emphasis on the name of the school, the name of the shooter, and how the death count stacks up against others. You, Charles, are part of the problem. Thinking that your time might be better spent guarding a school, and you can choose whether or not to be armed, that is, once you are properly trained. btw, there are very few people who aren't horrified when a shooting occurs at a school. Those likely to be inspired by such an event are psychopaths, not NRA members. PS: I am not a member of the NRA, nor have I ever been one, nor will I ever likely be one. I occasionally need to remind myself why I don't read your column.
3
I graduated High School in 2001. The Columbine High shooting happened my sophomore year. I never had an active shooter drill. I had fire drills. During the 3 years I went to school in West Michigan, we had 1 tornado drill. That was it. I never had to do an active shooter drill.
Give it a rest Charles- like the one you've been taking. Admit the obvious truth that "Firearms are not going to be taken away in the USA". With that in mind we need real action not liberal back lash- we've had quite enough of that and then some. We must take steps and advocate for things that will actually make a difference- not the liberal magic you have an affinity for. Some ideas that make the most sense:
Metal dectectors
Armed Teachers
An increase in School Guards
Some laws that make it wise to lock up your guns to keep them out of the hands of minors and mentally disturbed individuals.
All of these may help save some lives while more progressive rants like yours will not.
2
We need laws that allow bringing an action against gun manufacturers, gun sellers, and gun owners who allow their weapons to get into the hands of murderers. Why can you be sued if you allow someone to drive your car drunk and cause death but not be sued if you fail to keep your firearms safe and those firearms are used to murder innocents? We need laws that allow the CDC to study the insidious nature of gun violence in the United States. Why should every school in the country become a prison to protect themselves from gun owners who refuse to accept responsibility? You will insult and dismiss what I have written. You will call me names and degrade my opinion. If people object to the wholesale slaughter of the nation's children you call it a progressive rant. The rhetoric was quite different when an elderly white man put members of Congress in his sites. This is no place for hypocrisy. Guns kill and there are too many guns in the hands of people who are very badly motivated.
2
I would love it if every teacher from every school in every state would just say no, we're not coming back to school. Not until Congress passes some sane gun laws that would help us protect our students. It's my great fantasy: weeks without school for the whole nation. Short of that, are we ever going to have some peace for our kids?
2
In a nutshell, we have this consensus that people are fed up, and at the same time, not surprised anymore when there is a shooting. Two decades of inaction by our elected representatives has people shaking their heads with no expectations for change. How about this for change--elected officials who oppose restricting guns, especially the automatic, military type only designed for slaughter, be charged for accessory to murder? I'm serious. Who else needs those types of weapons, but someone intent on mass killing? Enough is Enough.
1
"We have too many guns in this country" This killer used a shotgun and a revolver. As I understand it he proffered them from his father. No AR15 in this case (I'm for banning these and other like weapons). Quite traditional weapons were used. The kind that I am sure the Supreme Court, based on the second Amendment, would be allowed to be possessed by law abiding citizens. So what now do we do short of confiscating all firearms which I am absolutely positive will not be allowed by the Supreme Court based on the second amendment. Like any other fight it has to be done case by case. In this case it seems to me that the killer should get the needle as he has proven that he has no concern for the life of others. The father was clearly criminally negligent because he failed to secure his firearms from his crazy son. He should be charged and tried by the State of Texas for criminal negligence. And the media should follow this case so everyone knows precisely what their liability is.
The government, as it is presently configured, has made it abundantly clear that they do not intend to do ANYTHING about Gun Control. The only way to get any legislation is to change the configuration of the government.
Concise advice, and will take time to accomplish safe schools, shopping centers, and work places. On the other hand, if perpetrators switch over to chemical attacks and bombs and drone delivery of some sort of arsenal, the public outcry could eventually supersede second amendment rights, and the issue would then be dealt with in a landslide of action, which would probably erase a lot of individual liberties if/when it happens. It might even be recorded in history as a very similar pivotal reaction to the St. Valentine's Day massacre. It is a dreadful thought, but this wholesale slaughter will get an overwhelming public response when it exceeds gun violence. In the mean time, these random shootings may indicate a ticking time bomb, counting down to that day of inevitable mega disaster doom. It is awful to see this measured out on a public scale of pain with a steady spirt of blood at random intervals, yet cannot be stopped, despite ongoing efforts to make public places safe again.
The horrible school violence will not abate with increased gun control. I know that many are grasping for an "obvious fix", but gun laws won't accomplish this. I support closing gun control loopholes and improving background checks, but I do not believe these will accomplish anything to stop the school violence. The U.S. has been awash in firearms for many decades, yet, we have not seen this tragic phenomenon until recently. Statistics showing increases in gun availability do not explain this awful trend. Societal problems are the root cause with our youth addicted to online everything, including violent films and video games. The mentally ill now have readily available access plus online communities where they find each other and various posts about violence. Add to this, 24 x 7 news, which now provides incredible 'publicity' opportunity for these mentally ill young people. Even if all guns in the U.S. were banned and confiscated, these would-be murderers would find another way, using knives, IEDs, automobiles mowing down crowds of kids on school property. There are endless ways to commit mayhem, and those with deep and dark views will find a way. I'm not opposed to more effective gun control, but the left, anti-gun crowd is going after the wrong "solution." It's expedient driving their political agenda, but isn't going to stop the epidemic of violence. The perpetrators are highly motivated, just like a potential suicide. The instruments of death are many.
3
It's interesting that you claim shootings have gone up exponentially since the Assault Weapons ban went away, and then go back to reciting the Party Line word for word.
And yes, an AR is an assault rifle whether it's semi-auto or full-auto.
You people really need to learn your guns.
1
Robert....not sure who you are replying to, as I did not mention a thing about assault rifles. In fact, this latest shooter was armed with a shot gun and hand gun, but, that is irrelevant to the point. If we were to take away all guns, this problem wouldn't go away, it would morph into something else. These despondent perpetrators use this violence as a release and to prove a point, or exact revenge from their twisted perspective. That rage is going to cause them to act with violence in one form or another. No gun, then an IED, or simple use of a car as a weapon.
No, Robert, you are confusing the assault rifle, which has specific military definition, with what is very loosely termed an assault weapon.
If we want to change anything in America, we need to start with changing the way elections are paid for.
We have reached this point because the NRA owns too much of our government.
Money isn't speech. Political campaigns should be government funded, and available to candidates from any party that received at least 1% of the vote in the most recent general election. "Issue" oriented advertising should be prohibited from referencing specific candidates (pro or con).
If we want to prevent our country from falling into tyranny, the only way to do it is to ensure that we have truly free and fair elections, and to stop electing candidates bought by special "interests."
1
When we have a party in control that has become financially corrupted top to bottom, there is only one way to remove them from office - vote them out. And then ram-rod the changes though - you know, channel our inner Mitch McConnell. But our election system is so flawed and corrupted and so many citizens have given up or don't care that it is iffy this will happen. This is what plutocracy looks like.
Do you not find it odd that many on the right who scream about abortion are OK with children being shot to death in their classrooms? These so-called adults are OK with the idea that children die for their unfettered ‘right’ to own a gun. Better a dead kid than paperwork, accountability, training or responsibility—even when there is evidence those things might help save a life. I could easily become a single issue voter.
5
Chicago and the country of Mexivo have truly strignent gun control laws. =But Mexico's muder rate is three times ours, and you know all about Chicago's reputation as the best place in the country to see a murder scene.
Obviously, the propblem was never the private ownership of guns. We have crazy people and a lot of inflamed young, angry men. Our culture is to blame.
Nearly EVERY mass shooting happens in a ''gun-free zone.''
19
Pray tell, what defines a "gun-free zone"? How is it enforced, and who does the enforcing?
10
You do know that two armed police officers were present at the school at the time of the shooting? So, no, not a gun-free zone.
21
Chicago’s gun laws are easily thwarted because the states around it have very lax laws.
That’s where the guns come from.
18
I really wish someone or some organization would find out if there is any kind of relationship between PTSD, or the mental condition of returning soldiers and gun ownership. I've been told that "once you've been shot at, you never feel safe without a gun nearby". This won't explain the school shootings, but if this is true, it would explain the proliferation of gun ownership and the easy access to guns.
In a simplistic sense, stop sending our young people to war to put a stop to gun violence. Of course, it's not that simple, but we need to know more about the reasons why some people have so many weapons.
To solve this problem we need more hardening of targets, mental health counseling and prayer: hardening of our defense of people like the clear-eyed students targets and public servant targets whole heartedly demanding change, mental health counseling for the politicians making the insanely wrong personal choice to abuse their power to the detriment of their constituents, and prayer that anyone somehow asleep to the steady tat tat tat of gunfire will wake up and perceive its origin.
1
Could any common sense gun control measures be any worse than what we have now? Isn't it worth it if even one life is saved?
1
While Mr. Blow can be applauded to bringing attention to the disgraceful inaction of our current Congress re gun violence against our children, he does the cause no favor with this statement: "But as politicians in Washington have made clear that they have no desire to address this issue, no desire to stand up to the N.R.A., no desire to stop treating these deaths as collateral damage, those seeking change must change tactics."
Let's be clear that there is absolutely no doubt about the statistics regarding NRA donations to Republicans in Congress: out of 95 congressmen and women who have recently received $millions from the NRA, 92 out of 95 were Republicans.
Does any thinking person believe that the 95 Republicans accepting "campaign donations" from the NRA will vote for legislation that will in any way curtail the purchase of guns, including AR 15s? Of course "they have no desire to address this issue"!
Blame for the inaction of Congress on behalf of our children must be placed with the Republicans, who offer only thoughts and prayers for the grief of all the parents who are dealing with the deaths of their children at the hands of mainly teenage gunmen. God forbid that they should go without NRA funding and develop the courage to do what's right.
4
My concern is the sickening prevalence of glorified (gun) violence in our culture whether it be in movies, TV, games, etc., and how we seemed to have become inured to its omnipresence.
2
Charles, sorry... when it comes to the gun lobby there is no such thing as enough carnage to justify limits on weapons. It's clear that this will never change as long as the NRA/GOP has its way.
1
I'm sorry Mr. Blow. Nothing new in what you have say. Enough is enough! Now let's count the number of times we've said that before? How many op-eds have we had about the mass shootings? All are empty words which do nothing for the people left behind with an emptiness, a hole, a wound which cannot be filled or healed.
1
Sorry, but nobody should become a "single-issue voter," on any issue. Our world is too complicated. Are school shootings of more concern than the threat of nuclear war? Of another Great Depression? Of irreversible environmental catastrophe? Arguably, every candidate will claim to be against all of these, just as they are all against school shootings. I don't want to have to choose my pet cause while leaving myself open to disasters from any number of other directions. How do I know that my anti-gun candidate won't be ignorant, wrong-headed, or downright crazy on other important issues? Bad advice from NYT on this one today.
3
Sorry, John, but many women have been “single issue voters” for decades vs anti-choice candidates. I will NEVER vote for a candidate (it’s usually an older white man)
who wants to abuse his or her power to control women’s bodies. Im lucky to live in a progressive state where we don’t have to worry too much about access to abortion.
I still resent the physician who performed my abortion (after a failed IUD) in the early 80s because he said (possibly assuming I was being lax about birth control) “Now, I don’t want to see you back here again.” His moralizing tone was not reassuring nor appropriate. I don’t regret the abortion for one second and have had a long, productive, compassionate, happy life.
4
Mr. Blow identifies the deeper problem in his first paragraph - people finding "voice through violence". In many important ways, violence is the native language of the USA. It is the stream flowing, deep, bloody, uninterrupted, and unacknowledged throughout our history. Until we learn, especially boys and men, a different language, this will not end.
Please someone should speculate on the why. Why are americans enthralled to gun ownership? Why do you need assault rifles and open carry. Why does everyone need a gun? They are primarily used to kill one another and friends, neighbors and family.
It is fear. But of what and who?
2
That is not their primary use. If it were, the US population would be considerably smaller. Try to imagine how a significant portion of the rest of the country lives. We don't see much of the county sheriffs in the rural area where I live, but we don't see much crime, other, especially compared to any of the nearby towns. I don't think it's coincidence that country people keep guns. It's what keeps me, a 60 year old, slightly built woman, from having to live in fear.
Enough is Enough when it means stop condemning the tools used and start condemning the tool users. 30,000 gun laws already and you call for more? That's like the definition of insanity as doing the same things over and over and expecting different outcomes.
The first clue as to the bankruptcy of more gun laws is the use of the term "COMMON SENSE". That's a code phrase invented by the DNC during the run up to Obama's reelection bid. It is meant to defuse responses from gun owners so they will acquiesce to whatever the antis want to propose.
"Common sense gun laws" in this instance forbids it's own use since stopping gun crime has little to do with guns. How many times do we have to remind those who wish to dismantle the 2nd Amendment that we tried banning alcohol and it amplified criminal behavior. We repealed that blunder and then began to announce that cars don't cause traffic deaths-drivers do. Wow, what a revelation! You meant we shouldn't ban cars?
The problem is we cannot apply lessons learned from traffic safety because in that case nobody was trying to ban vehicles. In the present case that is exactly what the antis have as an agenda i.e., the total banning and restriction of all firearms. It should be a step-by-step strategy, of course, each step more restrictive and sold as more "common sense".
Can we not someday come together and work to find effective solutions to all violent crime--including gun violence? We can only hope.
3
This just in: laws against drunk driving have radically cut drunk driving deaths and injuries, much as better regs, safety devices, and mandatory insurances have cut way back on car deaths.
Nobody sensible is demanding banning guns; we're demanding that our politicians stop pandering, that we use the sense of a gnat, and that some folks cut back a little on their weird fantasy life.
1
Yes, enough is enough. My sense - and hope - is that this becomes THE prominent issue in the upcoming elections.
My biggest issue is the culture of violence that we have in the US. Pouring guns into this culture has a detrimental impact on us all.
The NRA unfortunately has a seat at the table as we seek solutions. They are in a unique position to lead us to some meaningful policies to change the culture. But the leash they have is a short one, and I do not think they have it in them to come up with real answers. So far, all we get is push for less regulation, more open carry, arming teachers, etc. Folks, you better aim a bit better, and do it soon, or your hired hands in Congress will be former hired hands. And when others take their place, and you have no more influence, you surely will not like the solutions so much.
1
Politicians often use the phrase, "We must use all weapons at our disposal," when considering what to do about, for example, energy use, improving the cost and delivery of health care, or improving the economy. But, when it comes to dealing with too many deaths from guns, these same politicians immediately dismiss one "weapon": making it harder for civilians to have guns that, for most of our history, were supposed to be available to only the military and law enforcement personnel. At least some states are trying and succeeding and they are doing so well within the "protections" of the 2d amendment.
Republicans want to make sure everyone has the right to purchase and carry firearms, including the mentally ill. Teenaged boys are a perfect case in point in that puberty induces both physical and emotional changes that untether them during their adolescent years and make them more likely to act out, more susceptible to emotional hijacking, and less concerned with the potential consequences of their actions. Every man I know can share stories of their youthful indiscretions and their luck at not having their life totally derailed by the stupid things they did. These young people are still developing into mature adults and yet we insist they have the right to carry deadly weapons just like everyone else. Insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result. The present cycle of a mass killing, prayers, hand wringing, well intentioned but powerless advocacy and a return to the status quo ante is just that, insanity. If we really cared, we'd fix it. We don't, so accept that this is what it means to be an American.
1
Yes, this is not normal but surely insane. I went to school in the 50s. During hunting season, some kids with pickup trucks came to school on Fridays with stocked gun racks in their back windows, parked in the student parking lot and left early.
To go pheasant hunting with my older cousins, I had to take a safety course with the NRA to get certified. Guns were well respected. I bought a 22 rifle to go jack rabbit hunting with my friends. My older cousin died of a drug overdose, she was the only person I knew who took drugs. Some kids smoked and drank beer. We had clicks, bullies, gangs, those who were in, those who were out, loners, losers, hippies and surfers. But, we had safe schools.
Something has gone terribly wrong!
3
The second amendment is an anachronism, a peon to the slave states, and has been distorted by the NRA to mean something no one ever intended for it to mean. It's time to amend the constitution to eliminate the 2nd amendment and ban all semi-automatic weapons for personal ownership. America is exceptional, it's exceptionally stupid in allowing guns to permeate society in the way that it has.
1
Which response worked better?
After 9/11, the president acted immediately to prevent a repeat: He grounded all airplanes. Then, new, stricter laws were passed, tighter security was put in place, and we all went along because such measures could, and did, save lives, maybe our life. We could still fly anywhere afterwards, with just a little more inconvenience; life basically returned to normal.
After the many past gun massacres here, we sent thoughts and prayers, said it was too early to discuss action, but later did talk about it a little, and then moved on. We now live in fear and despair -- the new normal.
If we lived in a democracy instead of a bought-and-paid-for republic, we could take appropriate action. If only we had personal computers or cellphones, we could vote on such critical issues. But, nah! Too much trouble.
How bout them Warriors, huh?
2
I keep repeating this every time, but no one seems to listen:
On December 14, 2012, the same day of the shooting in Newtown, CT, there was another attack at a school, by another disturbed individual. The differences?
The attack took place in China, and the attacker did not have a gun.
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/world/asia/man-stabs-22-children-in-c...
26 dead to a gun, 0 dead to a knife. Don't tell me guns aren't the problem.
4
Yes, Mr. Blow, it is time, time to vote for candidates who may not, for example, support unfettered abortion rights as long as they also do not support unfettered Second Amendment rights; for candidates who accept some corporate welfare, if they also support making it harder for a disgruntled former employee to murder the owner of the business he used to work for and anyone else who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. At least for the next couple of years, those who want to save lives need to vote first and foremost to save lives, not to save money, not to save coal miners' jobs, not to reduce the deficit, not to impeach the president, and if push comes to shove, not even to maintain the same level of freedom to have an abortion procedure. (I'm thinking late-term abortions, for example.) The only issue I would put up on the same level is the environment, but I expect that the same candidates who will support restrictions on sales and ownership of lethal weapons would also support restrictions on the destruction of our living environment. Others may disagree, but those would be my litmus tests. I could stomach positions I disagree with on other issues if I had to; if necessary, I could stomach a boring candidate, a candidate who took gobs of dough for speeches to business groups. Sadly, it's time to focus on just one or two issues and vet every candidate on those issues, just like Republican interest groups do, and then get out and vote.
This just in: pretty much nobody ever had a late-term abortion unless the fetus is dead, testing shows that the fetus has some gawdawful and unfixable defect, or it's that or it's death.
"They do royal weddings, We do schoolkids' funerals".
Headline from your NY Daily News.
4
We all keep saying this, “Enough is Enough”, but apparently its not for some and as long as that continues to be the norm (if you can believe that) we must stand strong that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! It’s possible to allow simple gun ownership for civilized, mature, sane individuals and ask for background checks, age restrictions, waiting period purchase, mental health screenings, and gun and ammunition type restrictions (single shot only) and whatever else makes sense to control this insanity. Probably there will still be incidents but perhaps, in this process, there will also be some who are stopped from such actions. The government and the NRA have had their chance, now its our turn to stand up, be heard and above all, get this one done!
3
Where does this ideation come from of spraying bullets, shooting everyone possible that pops up?
Hollywood, movies & video games.
The young male mind is a pretty violent place, generally. Not a stable place to be handing out cases of bullets.
Firearm fanaticism is an addiction. Why & how it fascinate males from a young age is a topic itself.
But then come more adult addictions, like militarism & morphing of amendment 2 into cover for gun-nutism, doesn't help.
Add in American addictions of industrial consumerism, manufacturing compulsive demand for products, deadly addictive products, be they cigarettes, opioids, automobiles or firearms.
And then gel whole generations around the most addictive, adrenalized blockbusters packed with explicitly graphic lead-spraying, squib-splattering 'romance' of the 'lone man shoots everyone & everything in sight' revenge action.
There's layers driving this mass-spraying of unarmed innocents with flesh-shredding gunshots. All of them are in one way or another based in deadly addictions.
It's a bit late to try to recall all the guns. But until researchers can understand the interrelated aspects of this disease & how policy should be designed to address it, at Least control access to cases of live cartridges outside of shooting ranges.
Guns don't kill people, bullets kill people. Exactly why is bullet-control almost never discussed?
Let them cling to their guns with cold, dead hands for now, but control the ammo, urgently.
5
As a teacher since 1966, I have been confronted with threats of violence while going to or coming back from schools in many places. I've been robbed at gun point in Manhattan and, three years later, chased down subway stairs on my way to get to the "safety" of a train, only to be scolded by two police officers for running and yelling. But that was in the good old days when one only had to worry about knives and revolvers. Now the guns have gotten more lethal and easier to attain, and bad guys can easily get their hands on guns - big and small - that shoot 30 or more rounds a minute and do so for little money on the black market.
I have a suggestion. Cars and guns kill roughly the same number of people each year, so why aren't they treated the same. After you buy a car, you can't drive it home without a license, and you have to register , inspect, and insure that car, usually every year. That's a fair amount of money. Why are guns treated differently? If you buy a gun, it doesn't have to be inspected, registered or, most important, insured. Usually you don't even need to license your gun. Is it any wonder that many Americans have upwards of ten or more guns. Finally, we can't buy vehicles like tanks, which are for killing people, so why can we buy guns that are used by our military to kill people? Our politicians are tough when it comes to protecting us from cars, but more like pussycats when it comes to guns. Wake up, folks, and tell our politicians to wake up !
7
Many more US citizens die from homegrown homicides than from terrorist attacks.
Yet look at the expense of time and money and laws we invest into the latter - from airport shoe checks to surveillance to a ballooning budget item.
Could some sensible politicians take a step back and find a 21st century solution for a 18th century amendment?
5
Beyond reactionary measures - we need to do better at regulating guns and ammo sure. Sure, it can happen anywhere but to put a finer point on the problem - Red states need to pick up the pace.
The NRA is partly right, we need to actively address the cultural aspects at play in this Nation.
1. Americans cherish Violence. (follow the money)
2. Americans do not cherish Education. (show me the money)
3. Americans seem to happily delude themselves on both points.
6
Hmmm -- past 2 years: gun fatalities up, birth rate down.Perhaps Trump and his acolytes are the common denominator.
1
How about addressing the underlying issue, QUIT BULLYING. Literally every singe school shooting, the shooters have been the targets of bullying starting with Columbine and continuing to Santa Fe. Yes, access to weapons is an issue, but when they are stolen from mom/dad or purchased legally including a back ground check... who holds the kids who bully these kids accountable? smh
7
QUIT BULLYING. Sure, anything else....as if bullying ends in childhood.
While enhancing background checks, strengthening ways to keep guns out of the hands of the insane, and the myriad other gun control proposals are all necessary and good, we need to admit and recognize that these can only mitigate the possibility of these kinds of massacres, not eliminate them. There are more guns in American than citizens.
If our goal is "never again," we need a full repeal of the 2nd Amendment, and demand that the government send armed police and national guardsmen door-to-door to confiscate guns. Anything less is just about making minor adjustments to the status quo.
1
Support the 2nd Amendment... from a Founding Father's reality.
Make circa-1791-style muskets & flintlock pistols the ONLY firearms that can be legally owned, possessed, & carried by civilians. Muskets & flintlocks were the most common firearms in 1791, the year that the Bill of Rights was ratified.
Too harsh? O.K., I'm open to a little negotiation. Let's enact a law specifying that civilians can only own, possess, or carry handguns with maximum 6-shot capacity & maximum power of .22 Stinger- or Velocitor-style bullets, and/or hunting-style shotguns with minimum 18" barrel and & maximum 2-shell capacity, and/or hunting-style rifles with 3-shot maximum bullet capacity. Any alterations to specified firearms, whether by interior or exterior/accessory design, would be strictly prohibited.
Possession of any non-compliant firearm(s) should be classified as a felony with minimum sentencing requirements, such as $1,000 for each non-compliant firearm PLUS 366 days in federal prison/detention. Passing reasonable drug laws and humane immigration & asylum laws/procedures will create plenty of space for any firearms criminals.
Will this eliminate all gun violence (including injuries + homicides + suicides)? NO.
Will this significantly reduce such gun violence and practically eliminate mass shootings (incidents with 4/+ injuries or deaths, not counting the shooter)? YEP.
Will hunters and target-shooters still be able to have their fun? YEP.
1
You once wrote a piece some years ago about going shooting with your gun enthusiast brother. Might I suggest you take a refresher course from him and learn a little more about firearms in general.
Neither of the guns used in the Santa Fe shooting was ‘assault style.’ One was a revolver, the other, initially reported as a ‘sawed-off shotgun’ (which in itself would have been a federal felony; unlikely the shooter’s father, whose guns they were, would have done such a thing), was most likely a defensive pump shotgun with a short barrel. Both guns are as common as dirt.
The immediate need is to pass extraordinarly punitive laws about leaving guns unsecured to where a minors can get their hands on them. And the very idea of arming teachers is impractical, dangerous and magnificenlty stupid.
As a native Texan, I have been a gun owner since the age of 11. I am not a hunter, though I do enjoy target shooting. I was a member of the NRA back in the 70s when they were a helpful sport shooting and hunting organization.
How things have changed so horribly. Today they’re an extremist organization promoting their own brand of domestic terrorism through unrestricted gun sales. I’m certainly not the only gun owner who feels this way.
4
In my area, sadly, 2 or 3 little kids of sheriff deputies killed siblings while playing with unlocked pistols. Your note seems good, even with some of these poor suicidal folks .
Q: Why is the NRA so powerful? A: Money buys politicians. Q: Where does the NRA get its money from? American citizens who believe in this madness. Q: Why do the rest of us (the majority) have to put up with this? A: We don’t. Vote any NRA owned politician (ie Republican) out of office. Are they for or against us?
Conclusion: if we don’t vote them out, status quo. Thoughts and prayers.
2
Mr. Blow, your article fails to recognize that Congress (Dems and Reps) don't really want to regulate gun ownership. Many Dems represent constituents that like their guns; guns are not just a southern thing. When a tragedy strikes, the talk and sometimes put legislation together, but the last time this happened to a big degree was Sandy Hook, where Dems put in language that they knew would stop passage. Deliberate, calculated, and orchestrated. Pitiful.
1
I agree, but I wouldn't limit it to GOP types:
"Vote against any GOP member who receives donations from the NRA."
This implies it's OK to vote for a Democrat who receives donations from the NRA. Is that the case?
Nothing in this column provides any new thinking about how to address this violence. I would encourage every student in this country to refuse to go to school until the adults responsible for protecting them take meaningful action.
4
If I were a visitor from outer space, I would notice that earthlings, even though they are all of the same species, have segmented themselves into different countries, sometimes call nations. The inhabitants of each country regard themselves so different from the inhabitants of another country that they maintain armies to protect themselves. The armies are well armed and spend a significant part of the nation's tax revenue.
There is one nation, called the United States of America, where the inhabitants are so paranoid that they distrust even each other so much that each one wants to possess a gun in order to protect himself. Even school children get caught in this frenzy and several times a year some student decides to indiscriminately kill his fellow students.
Sure, if somebody has a gun, there is the temptation to use it. This temptation can be nipped in the bud by not possessing a gun in the first place.
2
Citing an FBI report on active shooter incidents, Charles Blow notes that “the state with the largest number of those active shooters — six — was, you guessed it, Texas.” However, the report cover only two years, 2016 through 2017. Texas, which is the second most populous state, had six incidents while California and Florida —the most populous state and the third most populous state—had five. The next two-year report could easily put California or Florida at the top of the list. The number of active shooter incidents is too small to be of statistical significance.
Texas easily ranks No. 1 in the number of registered guns. Texas has 588,696 registered gun while California has 344,622. If the number of guns were the most determinant factor, one would expect Texas to have nearly twice as many active shooter incidents than California, not just one more over a two-year period.
The gun murder per capital rate in Texas is 3.3, the same as in California. The gun murder rate for the United States is 3.85. Many states have higher gun murder rates than Texas or California. 3.85
https://www.thoughtco.com/gun-owners-percentage-of-state-populations-332...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States_by_state
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/10/06/555861898/gun-viole...
2
Here's an excellent example of a "waste of time" suggestion to curb gun violence:
"If your firearms are used to harm or kill anyone, you are financially liable for all medical bills, funeral expenses, and financial compensation to the families of the harmed or deceased."
If such a law were passed, it would be only a matter of hours, possibly minutes, before someone challenged it in court on Second Amendment grounds. And that challenger almost certainly would win.
People who want guns to hunt, or to place under their pillow because they fear home intruders, are almost all decent people. I've never owned a gun and doubt I ever will, but I don't believe a "Ban all guns!" approach is the right one. It won't work, and it shouldn't. Most hunters would agree to do without an AR-15 automatic rifle, and I doubt many people put an AR-15 under their pillow. But those hunters and pillow people hear the extreme "Ban all guns!" demands and naturally think that any agreement on their part will be to acquiesce in a government confiscation of their guns.
More virtue signaling and hoping for things that cannot and will not work. OK, pass a law. Outlaw the manufacture and sale of all semi- auto firearms. Will this save our children? If you are serious about safety, you mhst harden the targets. PERIOD. Otherwise you’re just spitting into the wind. The hundreds of millions of firearms already in circulation aren’t going anywhere ... so do what is necessary to protect the kids. Otherwise you are merely posturing.
1
"Active shooter drills." Whatever happened to plain old tornado drills? Do they even bother with those anymore, or are schools more likely to be the target of the NRA than they are of Mother Nature?
" there's really nothing we can do ". Says the " leaders " of the ONLY Country in which this is a regular occurrence. SAD.
Gun Control OR Dead Children. CHOOSE.
1
I'm taking this from a writer who pointed out the hierarchy of ideas here which is that gun-owners, or gun ownership, prevails over the safety of kids. Not only high school kids can be killed in the USA, but little ones in elementary school as in Sandy Hook.We argue over schoollunch, curricula, sports, grades, and teachers, but today we face a horror of our own making. Who do we fear that has brought us to this low point in our history? Along with the military industrial complex of which Eisenhower warned us, the rise in the volunteer army and the insertion of military into ordinary lives and times for the last x years have created a culture comfortable and perhaps proud of this military outlay of weaponry. In homes. At gun shows. In the hands of the wrong people too often. I worry as well of students who are outraged and become heroes thus filling in another vacuum adults should fix.
I’m still baffled, angry and dissllusioned about the fact that not much has been done regarding gun laws since Sandy Hook. I’m embarrassed for our country. My hope is that a concerned wealthy person will step up and match funds dollar-for-dollar with the NRA to counter every single political donation. Be it a young techie, successful retired boomer, or any concerned “trust-funder,” etc. We are countering only a small part of the electorate that is rabid, far right, “own-any-kind-of-gun” and “don’t change anything” mentality. Along with a vast majority of Americans who want to be safe from gun violence, a large number of NRA members reportedly (so I’ve read over the years) support sane gun laws/ownership. I fear that over time we as a society have slowly accepted school shootings as “just something that happens.” Depressing.
Imagine for a moment that all of these school murders were committed by Islamist fanatics as acts of deliberate terrorism. If that were the case, does anyone think the country wouldn't be into or approaching mass hysteria? Does anyone think Congress would sit on its thumbs as it's done for decades? No, the demand for action would be overwhelming. We would turn our minds to the problem with intensity and resolve. Answers would be sought and found. Imagine that.
I am anti-gun, but gun violence doesn't even rank in the top ten of issues that need to be dealt with in this country. Making this a one issue election ignores all the real problems this country faces. Just like abortion, gay rights, and immigration, it polarizes the intolerant who then amass enough momentum to vote AGAINST THEIR OWN REAL INTERESTS (and those of of who are sane) to protect the cause du jour.
The best way to end the gun carnage is for the media to stop publicizing it, and for social media to censor anything related. Why? Because it's become the thing to do to get notoriety. This country has reached the point where freedom of the press is becoming detrimental - and it's all due to social media, where there is no editorial constraint.
I am astonished that I actually read in print in this article "Most gun-related deaths — about two-thirds — in America are suicides". That leaves about 12,000 non-suicide deaths. Does anyone think that those 25,000 suicides wouldn't have found another way to accomplish their mission? Then subtract gang on gang murders, and how many do you come up with? Good luck finding those numbers. And the same with opioids. How many people were in such pain that they chose to OD rather than live? Yeah - try to find that number too. Start reporting on numbers of deaths that weren't self inflicted, and we can see the real magnitude of these problems.
More kids die driving to and from school than from shootings. Let's ban cars.
1
Nothing short of confiscation would have stopped Santa Fe. The attempt to confiscate would lead to something that this union would not survive. Would the police and military assist. Doubt it
1
I think I first noticed it during the W. Bush presidency. Both houses of our legislature consistently vote against what the majority of Americans want as policy. Yes, it is mostly the GOP, but not entirely. They are elected by us but they are doing the work of someone else, their corporate donors of course. And the NRA/Gun Manufacturers are getting their way on the gun issue all day, every day. When it might really look bad to vote against something or they don't have the votes, well it just never comes up for a vote.
Paul Ryan achieves the work of his donors through abject cowardice. Mitch McConnell does it through a self aggrandizing cynicism that knows no bounds.
If enough were enough, something would have been done. As nothing has been done, I'm sorry to say that we don't yet know when enough will be enough.
Enough is not enough even when children of gun advocates are perpetrators or victims (as in the Santa Fe shooting).
Enough is not enough when middle class white children are victims (the only constituency most of our elected representatives care about).
Maybe enough will be enough when children of Congressmen are victims.
There is so much that is truly frightening about our craven politicians. That they can bought off by the NRA for just a few thousand dollars is just one of those things, funding that could easily be replaced by a more sane and rational fund raising program. I mean, even the recipient of the NRA's largest contribution in 2016, Barbara Comstock (R-VA), received only $10,400. Wow, for 10 grand or less, Rep Comstock and her fellow travellers have allowed hundreds upon hundreds of school children and their teachers to die. Think about that. $10,000 for an A rating from the NRA.
All they have to do is ask their individual contributors to add a buck or two to their donations, and they could do the right thing and refuse NRA donations. But, no. In their world view, that $10,000 is more valuable than the lives of America's children and teachers. And that seems to be just fine with their supporters. Again, wow!
I couldn't agree more. The patently absurd has become the new "normal" in so many ways, and this latest incident (and the ensuing "battle for the control of the narrative") is reflective of just how insane things have become.
Let us not get to the point whereby cries for sanity sound as if they're being shouted by the insane.
Maybe it's time I get myself a loaded gun, to defend myself against angry shooters.
Maybe it's time you get yourself a loaded gun, in case I get angry.
Cause who doesn't get angry, it's human nature.
Our nation's gun-lust is a depraved culture of death. A culture that elevates the right to murder over the right to live. Gun control to save the lives of our children is a moral issue for me, over and above politics. And, I believe it is a fight for the soul of our nation.
As I write this, it is not lost upon me that my feelings and rhetoric mirror another group of single-issue voters, who view their vote as fighting for the lives of unborn children. Similarly, I, too, now view myself as a "single-issue voter" on gun control: I view my vote as fighting for the lives children.
But, unlike many pro-life voters (certainly all the male ones), this issue is not a abstraction. No. It is a personal one, and a practical one. Right now, my three kids sit in an elementary school (aka, a "soft target"), and I have to pray everyday that someone does not exercise their "constitutional rights" at their school and end their lives. This issue is personal to every voting parent, and will be personal to every young, voting adult who endured lock-down drills and news of slaughtered children, wondering if they will be next.
Status-quo politicians, NRA, we are coming for you, and we are fueled by our personal animus. If you think the pro-life lobby is strong in their concern for other people's babies, just wait to see our power when our own babies are in jeopardy. We are mama grizzly bears, and we are coming for you.
Each year the two major political parties seem to run further and further away from the center aisle.
“In 2016, there were more than 38,000 gun-related deaths in the U.S. — 4,000 more than 2015, the new C.D.C. report on preliminary mortality data shows. Most gun-related deaths — about two-thirds — in America are suicides, but an Associated Press analysis of F.B.I. data shows there were about 11,000 gun-related homicides in 2016, up from 9,600 in 2015. The increase in gun-related deaths follows a nearly 15-year period of relative stasis.”
Furthermore, according to an April F.B.I. report: “The F.B.I. has designated 50 shootings in 2016 and 2017 as active shooter incidents. Twenty incidents occurred in 2016, while 30 incidents occurred in 2017.” The state with the largest number of those active shooters — six — was, you guessed it, Texas.
___
Correlation or causation?
These young [male] minds trying to process the chaotic political tension in every facet of all our lives has the potential to drive those who don't have that "peer group" to talk about issues can very easily 'snap'.
If the 2nd Amendment were repealed and guns were no longer allowed to be sold the situation would only get much worse. Did prohibition work?
The two sides of the abyss need to work VERY hard on this issue to make it a narrow aisle.
2
If it were possible to prohibit the ownership of guns in the US rest assured the same cartels that are smuggling drugs into our country will then enter the gun business too. The real problem there is they will not be smuggling semiautomatic rifles. Instead they'll be smuggling in automatic rifles mostly AK 47s which are the most common rifles used all over the world.
Every month The Metropolitan Police in London confiscate 400-500 guns. So much for prohibiting ownership. A while back they were sent to break up a riot when they were fired upon by some in the crowd. The armed department of the police came in and six persons were found to have not only guns but grenades. I'm sure the cartels wouldn't mind selling those too.
1
Banning the sale of guns moving forward solves nothing; there are enough existing guns to go around and wreak havoc.
THIS 17-year old teen TOOK his father's legally purchased guns. Confiscating the existing guns would be an insurmountable task.
I would like to see the President hold a televised round table with both partys to see what can be done to limit these horrible acts without stomping of the rights of those that have done nothing wrong. If you believe in the repeal of the 2nd be honest about that and run on that platform.
1
In the US, it is estimated that 3% of citizens own most of the guns. In Switzerland, there are fewer guns, but rate of ownership is higher. They aren't experiencing school shootings. So we have an example where more homes per hundred have guns, but not mass school shootings. The gun laws are more liberal than ours. In regions of the US where gun control is strongest, murder rates are high. We are a statistical anomaly. We have mas shootings no matter the controls in place. We may need to face the evidence. We are more cold-blooded than others, and if we are to really look at it, our young people are more cold-blooded. We talk about guns, but we should be ashamed of the youth sub-culture we have created. Blame guns, video, and other inanimate objects, if you choose. We have raised too many cold-blooded killers and that is what we should be concerned about.
The NRA is not the whole problem but they are certainly a big part of it. Plain and simple, their viewpoint is extreme. What we need to do as voters is to never vote again for any candidate that accepts money from the NRA. That’s what I plan to do.
I voted for Trump but never again. I was disgusted when he spoke before the NRA convention recently.
1
We need a constitutional convention to re-write the Second Amendment with more specificity. Yes, that would be a monumental controversy but could it be worse that the controversy that plagues us now and dominates every election? This issue and also abortion rights needs to be settled in the Constitution. Both are ripping the country apart and rendering all our elections single-issue plebiscites, which leaves elected representatives in the dark about their constituents' wishes on other vital issues like healthcare, economic policy, war and peace.
I will repeat this again: tax bullets 1000%.
1
As a first step to controlling gun violence let's have
1) a federal law that requires insurance coverage for everyone who owns a gun. There should be increasing costs to those who own assault weapons & high capacity magazines.
2) We also need a bullet tax that should be used for victims of gun violence.
3) Complete background checks with a requirement that each state report their data bases to a federal data base.
4) Allow the manufacturers of guns to be sued similar to the tobacco industry
5) Close the gun show loopholes. All sales of guns no matter private or not need a federal background check.
6) Lastly & most importantly, get the $$$ out of politics. Reverse the 2010 Citizens United decision. The root of all our problems is dark money that flows into our political system. Also, there should be instant reporting of donations to PACS & SUPERPACS.
This list doesn't seem so hard to me. Just common sense stuff. #voteblue2018 Vote these guys OUT!!!
3
If you really want things to change, you don’t write like this, “We have too many guns in this country, including too many based on combat weapons, and as a result we have too many shootings and deaths.”
Think about it, for once. There are over 300 million guns in this country. The passage I quoted implies that we are going to go into homes across this country and confiscate guns. Nobody in America trusts the government that much. Go change your heart and figure out a better way.
Mark Kelly is as effective as he is because he begins by stating that he is an enthusiastic gun owner and shooter himself. Pp-eds like this impede the efforts of advocates like Kelly.
Or you can argue with my points here ... endlessly.
2
It's unfortunate that gun-control supporters feel the need to make mental health a "tangential issue" as Mr. Blow states here. Yes, it is sometimes used by pro-gun advocates as an excuse for inaction. But our mental health "system" has collapsed in the US. Anyone who's had a friend or loved one in need of health for a serious mental health condition can testify to that. Effective interventions could deter attacks. It's simply not credible to state otherwise. The solution is not either-or -- gun control vs. mental health. It's both.
Students here in Canada do not worry about gun violence or being killed in their schools.
Students in other westernized countries also do not think about being killed within the classrooms and hallways of their schools
Only n American do students and their families have to wonder as they leave for school in the morning will they return home at night
The difference of course is America’s insane love for guns which appears more important than your love for your children
3
Charles, I wish the title of your article was "Any Gun Death in America is More Than Enough".
In fact that's what our illegitimate president Trump and his Republican buddies in the congress should be saying.
But horribly but not in any unexpected manner what Trump and his criminal cohorts in the Capitol are talking about is "Why two F.B.I. agents were sent to Trump's campaign to tag along with 2 of his campaign staffers who were not talking to the Russian counter-intelligence service members at that time."
In the process Trump and his Republican leeches in the house like David Nunes etc are trying to do is distract our nation's attention from a terrible disease which the autopsy reports of each of those persons dying are called, "Homicide, due to the discharge of a gun."
But for Trump talking about deaths of young children in their schools due to mass shootings will take away lot of his time which he wants to utilize to clear his name from the Russia inquiry.
For the same reason alone, he's now engaged in a parrot like monologue like "This Russia investigation is nothing but a witch hunt orchestrated by the Democrats in the Justice Dept for the loss of their candidate,Hillary."
But by trying to clear his name and his campaign staffers from perjury,Trump is ignoring the fact that everyone on the top level who're investigating him are Republicans.
No wonder Trump is trying to replace the real massacres in our schools with a "Saturday Night Massacre' from Nixon's time.
I’m a one issue voter.
If you’re a republican, you don’t get my vote.
1
All of these "something must be done" articles are just nibbling around the periphery of this issue, the crux being that a very large segment of American society - enough to elect a Trump and/or all the Congresspeople who are cowards when it comes to facing the issue - has a very warped, not to say moronic, perception of what constitutes patriotism. I have yet to see an op-ed article that addresses the American people somewhat as follows: "You have done this; you are the ones who have elected these people" who, in a manner of speaking, are simply following your instructions, albeit with substantial help from the NRA. No intelligent assessment can conclude that Article 2 says what you think it says. Perhaps one way of driving the message home is to show on primetime television every night a video of a shot person writhing on the ground as death sets in as a result of a gratuitous shooting.
1
Liberals are really showing their true colors after this massacre. The common refrain has always been "No one is trying to take your guns, we just want common sense regulations like a ban on 'assault weapons' and universal background checks." In this case, the shooter used a regular 12-gauge shotgun and a 6-shot revolver. These are both guns that don't fall into any of the lists of guns liberals have said should be banned. Further, the father passed the NICS check after buying the guns at an FFL. So what "reasonable" and "common sense" regulation would have prevented this shooting? You can say "mandatory gun safes." For one, we don't know that the father didn't have one and that the shooter didn't find his way into it. Second, these types of laws are impossible to enforce until AFTER something happens. They sound good in theory, and all responsible gun owners already lock their guns up, but this solution will make very little difference, if any. Mandatory insurance is also a canard. Insurance policies never cover intentional torts, so these policies would only cover accidents. They'd have no effect whatsoever on spree shootings.
The only conclusion here is that liberals really want a full repeal of the 2nd Amendment and a full ban on all privately owned firearms, INCLUDING shotguns and revolvers. Of course, that would mean that the previous sentiment "No one wants to take your guns" was a lie. Were you lying then, or are you lying now?
4
Cowering under your school desk as part of nuclear war preparations in the 1950-60s was not normal behavior either, but a whole generation did it. Why? Because of the 'red scare', an American phenomenon--born and bred. The shooting war that never came.
Today, the war is here, against American-made guns, sold to true blood Americans, by red-white-and-blue spewing Americans, without a care from other Americans.
May we soon lose this one skill learned in school: sheltering in place.
2
I gave up on finding a viable solution for curbing tragic gun related violence three school shootings ago.
It's most telling that the NRA bans guns at it's events.
Actions speak louder than words yet again.
1
"It's most telling that the NRA bans guns at it's events."
The NRA doesn't ban guns at our conventions. The venues we hold them at do.
This year's convention had a ban at the request of the Secret Service because the President and Vice-President were going to be there.
1
So the strategy must be: "We have to stop waiting for politicians to display courage and instead start to instill fear in them."
Agreed, but by agreeing to this we tacitly accept that our elected officials really are cowards. They will not stand up to the gun lobby bullying: they are wimps; they should be motivated by a greater fear of voters for common sense gun measures than fear of knee-jerk gun rights radicals.
The bad guys with guns really are not so much the actual shooters themselves but the armed fanatics clinging to their sacred Second Amendment who refuse the smallest iota of compromise.
" the armed fanatics clinging to their sacred Second Amendment who refuse the smallest iota of compromise."
Compromise takes place when at least two parties agree to give up prerogatives for the sake of an agreement.
What are the gun banners offering as part of the compromise with gun owners? Their idea of compromise seems to have the gun owners giving up prerogatives while the gun banners offer up nothing.
It's sad when children see school shootings as just a part of school, like homecoming or prom.
I think looking for solutions in Washington is futile. However, if we concentrate on gun control in Sacramento, Albany, Boston, Salem OR, ... there can be progress. Why not just start with the Blue states.
Let the NRA states just do their thing. Their children are their problem. If they don't want to protect them, its their call.
This makes me want to scream. The solution is so easy. Establish a Gofundme account with $1 billion. Then announce: "Any legislator who votes for a sensible gun control law and loses his/her next election will receive an award of $10 million for courageous public service."
It's not a bribe (we don't know who will qualify to receive the award) and it's not an illegal campaign contribution (the recipient will have already been voted out of office).
Members of Congress will be praying that the NRA opposes their reelection so they can accept the $10 million and be set for life.
It's time for gun control advocates to stop being professional whiners. This is so easy. Just do it!
Only one flaw: these folks don't think $10 million is enough to "set them up for life." They would also very much miss being a big shot in Washington.
This is a pattern, congress will not address any hard issue and I must blame the GOP as they control all of it. Guns are just one, do not forget immigration, health care, education, infrastructure and the list goes on. The reason is they want to protect their members from having to vote yes or no on any issue. Yes, we need to become single issue voters, get rid of the GOP!!!
2
Here's an idea for graduating seniors: The 18-year old committed to changing the world, especially those from the Santa Fe's, Parkland's, etc, should take a gap year to integrate themselves into the political campaigns of candidates who support gun control.
1
Watching the Royal wedding the other day, it occurred to me that I am witnessing English society at its best. Meanwhile, back home, American society, with constant gun violence and horrible School shootings, is at its worst.
Something is wrong. Something is very wrong.
1
It makes me really mad my grandkids have to go to school being scared, everyday, maybe even terrified they will be shot or murdered in a place they should be entirely safe. My youngest grandchild is 10 years old. I despise being forced to think of her, with her pretty long hair, laying dead or suffering on the floor, in a pool of blood, lifeless or mangled, in the place she goes every day, for what, just to learn something!
This Congress and every elected leader that is paid to keep us safe, who denies doing something about common sense gun laws, should be suffering like the parents and families that suffer every day of life because these leaders refuse to do anything to help the safety of this country’s youth.
Shame, shame, shame. Cannot wait to vote them out of government leadership! They don’t deserve to be paid one penny of constituent money.
3
I've got a simple solution. Time for the left to start advocating for guns of the House and Senate floor and in the gallery. if I have to worry about sending my five-year-old to school because she's going to get shot that these people can deal with the fear as well.
2
The solution -- at least the start of the solution -- is to reject the Republican Party at every level of government. America is held captive by an extreme, right wing sect that truly believes that guns are as much of a human appendage as a leg.
Only control of the Congress by the Democrats can begin to resolve this cancer -- a super majority that can overcome any of Trump's vetoes, which are sure to come from the cowardly grifter in in the blue suit.
Will that happen, fellow commenters? We can decide this if we want.
1
We have to do everything short of the c-word (confiscation).
Many ideas have been talked about. A simple one is to pass a law that if a relative, like your child, uses your gun in a crime, because it was not adequately locked up, you too committed a
crime. The father of one recent shooter had given his son back his guns just days before ashooting.
A second law would allow survivors and relatives of the victims to sue relatives of the shooter who did not prevent the shooter from using the relative’s gun. the
America is eating its young.
If this were any other country, countries in the world would be issuing travel alerts due to gun violence in the streets.
3
What is the NRA but its members and those who run it? The point is, it's people that are the problem, not three capitalized letters of the alphabet. People, who are simply unwilling to turn away from violence, regardless of the fact that their clinging to their guns, as Obama correctly said, predictably results in the death of children. In truth, these people collectively are responsible for the deaths of these kids. We do have a word for such people. Maybe it's time to start using it.
1
Enough will be insufficient until the NRA, its Republican allies, and Fox propaganda see profits declining because a large number of gun owners finally become disgusted with the carnage in our schools. Meanwhile, the bloodbath continues.
1
After oath-breaker McConnell weaponized the Garland SC nomination, the space created by the term "single issue voter" is not for me. I have to consider that candidates may be liars or lack capabilities, or both, like Trump.
Every candidate needs that overall "smell test". And, giving your MOST ADAMANT support to the candidate that champions THE PRIMACY of common sense gun reform - is each voter's prerogative.
Many will vet this issue in terms of "red flags" to avoid or, even better, to attach this "qualifier" to a particular candidate qualified in many issues. Both mindsets will contribute to the greater good: officeholders to enact common sense measures.
But, let's recognize that, in the coming months, more and more people are going to gravitate to THE SPIRIT of this fight. And INTENSE FOCUS upon the political control wielded by the NRA - must be brought to this fight.
No group has succeeded like Our Students. SELFLESS and TIRELESS efforts from Columbine students, parents of Sandy Hook, all the way to Parkland students organizing nationwide marches. Now, everyone grieves for the suffering in Santa Fe.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed legislation to introduce "campus carry" in state universities and tweeted (28 Oct 2015) that he was "embarrassed" that Texas wasn't Number 1 in gun sales. It is a fight; pick a side.
1
Start of a solution - Do not vote for any politician who gets money from a foreign government, a racist organization, a tobacco company or the NRA.
2
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is one big hypocrite. Earlier this month he was at the National Rifle Association convention, soaking up the applause and sharing the stage with Donald Trump and their Second Amendment cronies. Days later, he’s standing in front of news media and his fellow Texans, saying that he’s tired of these mass shootings. He did the same thing after another mass shooting in Texas, at a church. Beastly!
3
I keep thinking we have reached the tipping point but then another mass shooting shows up on our doorstep. The solution is so easy Gun Control. I'd love to see a gun solution like what they have in Israel where you need to register with the Police and have to fill out a form explaining why you need a gun. If you do get issued a gun they give you a hand gun with 50 rounds of bullets. What more do you need.
2
Is that enough now? No, it is now too late to say enough now. You Americans have gone too far on the road you started fifty years ago with the murders of M.L. King and R.F. Kennedy. To change course, you have to make another revolution after the independence one. This time, however, this revolution must not be against an external enemy, but against yourself, because you yourselves are the true enemies of America today. Remember what Abraham Lincoln once said? "America will never be destroyed from outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we have destroyed ourselves". God bless America? This time like never before. Best regards from Padua EU.
1
As long as you have politicians like the Governor of Texas who states that the problem is less doors than guns...you have a major problem.
1
For every ten minutes of TV coverage on grieving families and loved ones, let’s have TEN TIMES that amount on reporters shoving a microphone at EVERY member of congress, the White House, and EVERY political candidate asking, “WHAT are you going to do about this?”
2
It is really so simple, there are too many guns out in American society and it is a recipe for disaster. I read recently that there is a terrible problem with 'hunters' in Washington state going out and slaughtering elk for the sheer fun of killing them. They don't take the meat, they just kill them and leave them to rot because they have rifles and like the sport of shooting live things. This is a very dangerous road we are on. Mass shootings are now so common I don't even bother to read the reports any more. What for, what is going to change? Nothing it would seem.
1
"These preparations — sheltering in place, ducking for cover, running for your life — have become a routine part of our children’s educational experience. This is not normal and must never be accepted as such. Neither are these shootings normal. This is all insanity."
When I was in grammar school in NYC, we used to have air raid drills to teach us what to do in the event there was a nuclear holocaust. As if hiding under your desk was going to prevent your skin from melting off if the Russians attacked. It did nothing to protect and everything to create fear. In those days, whether the threat was real or not, we could do little to prevent an attack. However, today for my grandchildren, there is much this weak-willed, gun-happy country could do. But it doesn't. Republicans continue to hide behind an amendment designed for very different times. That's what can and should change. And it should and can change now.
3
I'm through with debating what should happen. We all know what should happen. Sensible gun control measures should be passed by Congress. Gun control should have never become a partisan issue. Instead, it should have been seen as any sane person would view it, as a public safety issue.
But this country will not pass legislation for gun control, at least not while angry whites drive the agenda. Gun control is just one aspect of their hatred of the rest of us. I've seen this firsthand with the white "militias" who drive around in their open Jeeps in the desert Southwest, brandishing their weapons. Their intent is clear -- they mean to intimidate the rest of us. And their gun narrative is part and parcel of their support of the mentally unfit, disgusting bigot who sits in the Oval Office.
Race is the only thing driving the majority of white voters, and the power of their vote -- on any issue, gun control or otherwise -- will not end any time soon. When a person of color commits a murder with a gun, he is a terrorist or simply a common criminal. When a white man does so, he has "mental health" problems. It's really that simple to them. They believe this to their very core.
When white are no longer a majority in this country, perhaps we will see sensible gun control measures enacted, but certainly not before then.
1
Gun advocates only see increased militarization as the solution, a return to the wild west, where only the best shooters survive (preferably white, mind you) and the rest hope for the best.
2
Rome wasn't built or destroyed in a day. Neither was America, but our country is being destroyed by the Republican Party's demented belief that the second amendment is absolute, that the N.R.A. rules! The deaths by guns of kids in their schools is the new normal of our country. President Trump promised to end "the carnage" in America. Some promise. The hypocritical "thoughts and prayers" offered up by the champions of Death by Guns (our cultural ethos) mean diddly, zip. And as far as "single issue voting" -- which you espouse, Charles Blow -- that won't make any difference in the outcome of the Mid-Term elections 5 months from now. The 45th president of America will continue strangling our democracy, and the N.R.A. and the Second Amendment will continue to abet his carnage against his own people. A strange kind of genocide in our homeland. Woe is us, as Pogo said in the 1950s.
3
Voting single-issue gun regulation is an idea whose time is at hand...NOT!
Politicians lie, they promise what you want to hear but as soon as they're in office they launch their next campaign, looking for donors, big bucks, big NRA bucks abundantly welcome. Lesson: never vote for an incumbent he's/she's sold her/his soul to stay in the game,
1
Enough Is Enough: School shootings, presidential lies, Fox News obfuscation, Republican tribalism? It is sad to say (remind) that it was the parents of deceased children among others, who have elected leaders who have made all of the above possible.
This reminds me of the old story about the fellow who's car wouldn't start. He changed the spark plugs, put in new ignition cables, replaced the battery, tweaked the starter motor, tried his other ignition key, then threw up his hands in frustration and said "This is hopeless, it can't be fixed, there's nothing I can do about this!"
There was no fuel in the tank.
Sometimes the most obvious solution is the one that no one wants to consider.
1
The young woman college student who carried an Ak-47 to campus in order to be provocative is now the small minority. Her peers, I believe, will soon be voting (and hopeuflly running for office) and will likely have a huge impact in making positive changes to the laws and cultural norms as the NRA slowly dies off.
2
This is a ridiculous supposition, Charles,
Students like Paige should DEFINITELY assume that one day a fellow student will show up with a gun and an appetite for death, and that there is nothing Washington is willing to do to prevent it.
Period.
The USA is generally unable to come to grips with its problems.
4
Blow’s sentiments are fair enough but Kristof’s solutions are the only ones that might actually work.
1
Perhaps one counter to the NRA's influence would be to adopt a symbol that slowly enters the mainstream and subliminally tilts thinking about gun control. My suggestion is a metal plaque on every seat nearest the door of each schoolroom with the words "NRA seat" carved thereon.
1
Texas governor Greg Abbott thinks there was one too few deaths at Sante Fe HS - he wanted eleven deaths, not ten. He trolled the 17 student-shooter, saying he was a coward for not committing suicide. That's the leadership Texas has addressing gun violence, two thirds of which is suicide.
1
It is time to begin thinking of the NRA as a terrorist organization. Its policies and insidious stranglehold on politicians have been responsible for more deaths than any group presently classified as terrorist. Surely the Founding Fathers in writing the Second Amendment did not have in mind protecting the mass murder of children. To those who think we must have guns as a last resort against oppressive government, I would say "get over your little boy, GI Joe fantasies and grow up." To those who think they need guns to defend against criminals, the statistics clearly show that gun is far more likely to end up being used against you or some other innocent person. Gun ownership needs to be severely reduced and carefully monitored or the memorial role of our dead children will grow longer and longer. It will never stop growing as long as policy is dictated by a selfish minority that values an insane armory of killing devices over children's lives. To the politicians I say, "take your 'thoughts and prayers' and stuff them. They are useless. Have the courage to take real action for once."
1
Ok so how about this as a potential compromise on the gun issue: Congress crafts legislation requiring guns to have fingerprint/palmprint/radiofrequency ID locks on all guns manufactured hereforth. To be truly effective, some funding for research and development in this area should be approved.Then a phase in period to have all guns except those deemed true collectors pieces (which could be complied by experts) would be required to be fitted with the tech and eventually fines would exist if you had a gun not meeting requirements/could be held liable if your not protected gun is then used in a crime. Here is why everyone comes out ahead
1) Gun manufacturers: if guns are now personalized and can’t be shared/resold because they are tied to an individual then gun sales from the primary gun manufacture will increase.
2) Jobs: increased focus on development and innovation of this technology
3) Militias/gun aficionados: can still have as many guns as they want
4) Healthcare: no more toddlers accidentally killing others
5) Gun control advocates: limits under-aged or those who are not allowed to buy guns legally from using the guns of others for suicide or crimes
6) Congress: you walk a fine line appeasing almost everybody while also taking an actual significant legislative step that has true impact.
7) Police: If a gun is used in a crime they have a starting point to trace it back based on who the gun was tied to as being the person capable of unlocking it
1
If the Constitution is the genetic map of our legal system and society, the Second Amendment is a genetic defect that has made us maladaptive. It doesn't matter how many airtight arguments are made about the dangers of too many guns in too many hands, our political system simply cannot make the changes that would improve our safety.
1
Gun control has many faces. And repeating "enough is enough" has lost it's force, given that republicans in congress fear the N.R.A., and losing their miserable seats, as their primary reason to remain passive instead of doing something courageous to stop the gun carnage. No other country on this Earth is so complacent in watching the intermittent flow of innocent blood into the coffers of the N.R.A. and it's contribution into politicians' pockets. And it is not even legal, let alone moral, given that the vast majority of the people is opposed to the unrestricted availability of weapons. Even if the young voters go this November expel the miscreants co-responsible of the killings, who is to tell the next batch of politicians won't be bought so the shooting may go 'as usual'? We need sensible laws to stop all this stupidity, aside from neutering the irresponsible thugs devaluing the N.R.A. (meant to teach gun users safety rules, not be the political arm 'a la Fox Noise' for the republican party).
72
Yes, the NRA started out as a gun safety organization, but it has morphed into a shill for gun manufacturers. With it's political arm, it should not be allowed to be considered a non-profit in terms of taxes. More importantly, it should go back to safety and teach sanity, rather than the insanity of "you can't take our guns away."
3
Good, direct writing. I think nationwide the kids should just not return to school until the adults get the message. Overturn the second amendment.
1
Well said. Vote this November, remove those from office that shut a blind eye to gun violence.
2
The Trump election was based on ginning up fears that H. Clinton was going to take guns away from people. The vast conspiracy of big gov't taking away American freedom. That was a major part of Trump's "turn up the hate" campaign.
The craving for notoriety that seems to move these assailants to take up arms and pointlessly murder kids at school drives is easily abetted by the ease with which these weapons can be gotten.
Trump's truly stupid comment that the French could have avoided a major terror attack if they allowed people to easily find weapons like in the US. The NRA and their congressional allies are responsible for the intractableness of this issue.
3
One immediate thou comes to when dealing with this tragic phenomenon:
1 — Mandatory national service. In my day, we men knew we would have to face the draft, no two ways about it. Therefore, you gear your life to serving your country and that life-altering reality.Today’s young teens, especially teen boys, feel so alienated, hopeless and out of touch with their peers that they’ll decide to end everyone else’s lives....But not their own. Give them something to look forward to, serving others and their country. I would make national service mandatory for females as well. It does not have to be the military… There are many other socially need it afterwards and infrastructure building that we as a nation desperately require.
2
Wonder how many people who are Pro Gun - Pro NRA - are also - Pro Life people?
4
"Enough is enough"
Exactly. When is this madness going to end?
I've said it before. I guess I'll hear myself saying it forever: GUNS KILL! IT'S WHAT THEY ARE DESIGNED FOR!
4
Kids always suffer the failures of adults most acutely. Now they're being made responsible for their safety via "active shooter" drills in school. Look out for yourselves, kids; your Republican representatives are too busy counting their NRA bribes to notice you. If you're killed, they have vials of crocodile tears in their pockets for your family. If you're maimed for life, you'll never see them in your hospital room or nursing home. There will be no NRA bribe money available to pay for your therapy.
3
Congress refuses to do the right thing. Perhaps it's time for the people to do the people's business. Well said Mr. Blow. Enough is enough.
2
And now, 74-year old Oliver North, the new NRA CEO, is heading a campaign to increase NRA membership.
3
Decades of stupidity leave the feckless USA with a legacy comprising an arsenal of weaponry such as the world has never seen before - nor would wish to see again.
2
Dear Mr. Blow,
I wish you would stop using facts and other statistical information in your columns.
It confuses those who watch and listen to propoganda on a daily basis.
Someone's head might explode from cognitive dissonance.
Let's just pray about it and bring God back in school.
Problem solved!
2
Once again, thank you Mister Blow. Since the advent of the Trump Plague you have been at the vanguard of speaking truth to power. Your refusal to sit in on Trump's PR move, when he came to meet with the Times Editorial Board, was the right thing to do. You and I, a native New Yorker, have known Trump for decades. In all that time, this self-centered, selfish, blowhard had been pulling scams on those gullible or unknowing of his dastardly ways. He has never done a darn thing for anyone, anything. He has dodged service to his country, though he reaped its rewards. He played both sides against the middle, once declaring himself a Democrat, now he disguises himself as a hard right conservative. Balderdash and Horseradish. Trump will morphed into any creature that gets him what he wants. He will sell his soul (if one exists) for the almighty dollar. He doesn't care one iota about guns. He's never had to. Trump gauges (pun intended) what will get his base riled up and acts accordingly. Like the hack TV producer he is, Trump only cares about his numbers, his ratings, how many votes he's garnered, and the size of his fortune and parts of his anatomy. With Trump, size matters. What this country must do, with your continued opposition, is cut this paper tiger down to size, exposing Trump for the small, petty person he is. Oh Trump, the Horror...the Horror...
DD
Manhattan
4
Dear DD… Please continue to speak truth to power yourself. I fear we are in for a tough, tough times as a nation. More than ever, we need patriots!
1
Right. Because single-issue voting has turned out such great results in the past (abortion?). Fundamentalism is stupid and evil no matter what direction it comes from.
Thoughtful words, Mr. Blow. Just Tweeted this important message.
2
Enough is enough, unless it happens in a red state where guns are gods.
Then it’s the norm.
GOP/NRA
VOTE THEM OUT
3
Very coward to use the mass murder of children by children to blame the sitting president.
Ban all guns. Period. ENOUGH!!!! Recreational guns held under lock and key at designated gun ranges/parks. People cannot be trusted with guns. Police retrained to be community helpers rather than para-military. Stop the violence and deaths! Especially of women and children. Ban guns once and for all!!! VOTE!! Resist!!!
1
Are you sure that all the thugs and gangsters and wannabe killers and gun nuts and other criminal types would kindly give up their guns for the love of humanity? Are you willing to live with the National Guard patrolling our streets, doing random searches, arresting at will? Are you comfortable with a potential Civil War?
Since Columbine, the NY Times has consistently failed to make a major issue of either the mental illness of the shooters or the plethora of cases when antidepressants and anti-anxiety Medications were prescribed.
Guns, knives, and cars don't kill people, but catatonic drugged-out psychos do.
Just more pablum for the sheeple.
I appreciate the sentiment, but Mr. Blow offers a rather empty argument and weak analysis. I understand that Mr. Blow has made criticizing Trump his raison d'être, but the most damning numbers he cites occurred on Obama's watch: "an Associated Press analysis of F.B.I. data shows there were about 11,000 gun-related homicides in 2016, up from 9,600 in 2015."
Mr. Blow's feeble call to arms? ". . . vote consistently for candidates who are committed to reviewing the issue and advancing smart, effective policy." Will that even fit on a sign or banner?
Look, the root of the problem is the Second Amendment, period. State and/or Federal legislators can repeal it. Write all of yours. Tell them to repeal the Second Amendment and replace it with one that gives Congress alone the power to regulate the ownership, possession, and use of firearms. I have. You should too.
1
After Gabby Giffords was shot and Congress did nothing even though it was one of their own who was nearly killed, this reader realized that it's not about the gun at all. It's about the NRA, getting its endorsement, and ignoring reality. The same goes for Sandy Hook and the innocents murdered there. It's not about our citizens. It's about money, greed, and power.
4
I agree with your sentiment. But the reason this has become an"American Motif" is that in spite of the fact that the probability of being a victim of a mass shooter is extremely low it is much more common in the USA than other countries. The reason it will not become a single issue voter issue is that it has not effected large numbers of people in absolute terms. We are frightening our children based on a very low probability incidence. I think that is a bad idea. What we should tell them is that although they live in a country that has the highest number of mass shootings it is not going to happen to them. Same reason we continue to drive and get on airplanes.
Why does reducing gun violence have to be,as Charles calls it, " a long game?" Changes to Florida gun laws were made in under a month after Parkland. States like Connecticut which banned assault weapons and instituted strong background checks have seen their homocide by gun rate drop in half.
Why not make this a short game? Vote against any GOP member who receives donations from the NRA. Start hounding your member of congress on everything from the second amendment to curbing the lobbying industry's payoffs.
If I were an American with children, I would seriously consider
moving out of the country. We always hear about American exceptionalism. Bull. You can't even protect children. A shameful excuse for a country.
207
Susan, you make great points. It is a shame that we have lost the ability to protect kids in our society due to the insane priority of placing guns over lives in our culture. However, Charles is correct when he says we have to play the long game because there are over 300 million guns in circulation in America and we are not going to confiscate them so, even with the implementation of gun control measures, it will take decades to reduce gun violence here.
14
It should not take decades. First, take immediate plans for legislation to ban automatic guns. An amnesty program for people to turn in any illegal guns that they own. Raise the gun ownership to 21 years of age. It will be done once the US elects a sane congress and senate. I hope it will be done this November.
No gun regulation could have prevented the Texas shooting. The perp used a shotgun and a revolver, neither would be subject to any ban. Both were legally obtained by his father. I'm in favor of stricter gun regulation, but that won't fix the school shooting problem. What our society should do is rethink the way we're raising our children. We have always had guns, but our kids didn't always kill each other. (When I was a child, I believed I would burn in hell if I hurt someone else.) We've gone wrong somewhere, tragically wrong.
I disagree. Where did he get these guns? From his parents? Were they vetted for knowing how to secure the guns from their disturbed child? That should be part of the equation as well.
Also, by the way, Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, Parkland and many more could have been prevented by banning certain types of guns. Are those cases not sufficient for you?
If it's one thing we know for certain it's that one should never stand between a Congressman and a campaign donor. Only severe bodily injury can result. The mostly cowardly crew that fill the U.S. Capitol are beholding to no one but their donors. The public be damned. Charles, you're right. Much like the one issue "pro-life" crowd (I have not been able to quite get that name. Isn't everyone pro-life?), we do need to narrow our focus at the polling place and send this crowd back to the holes they climbed out of along with their carper bags full of money. That's all that will work with this "thoughts and prayers" crowd.
Why do we have to just focus on one reason and one solution? Guns are a big part of the problem and gun safety regulation has to be part of the solution. But we should look at everything - video games, mental health, etc. Trying to argue about the "sole" cause is a waste of time. Most complex problems don't have a single cause or a single solution. We are a sophisticated enough population that we can focus on more than one at a time.
As long as enough politicians are more interested in receiving a perfect grade from the NRA in terms of supporting gun ownership America will continue to see school shootings, public gun shootings, and other senseless shootings like what happened to Trayvon Martin and others.
We've added and amended the Constitution. Why the second amendment has reached the status of the 10 commandments is beyond reasoning. We are now in more danger of destroying ourselves from within than we are from outside invaders or influence. Electing Trump and the rest of the GOP proves that. Guns do not ensure the survival of a country like ours. A stronger social safety net would help. So would a better educational system and a health care system that works for us.
We don't need to give the richest corporations, families, and individuals tax breaks. We don't need to allow people to carry guns in public. We need a government that works for us rather than for its rich donors. The real undoing of our republic is going to be the Citizens United decision and what it's created: a government by, for, and of the ultra rich.
3
Gun regulation is important to me. I want real reform- with teeth.
Apply strict criminal liability on gun owners who do not maintain control over their weapons. If their gun is used in a crime charge them with the same crime.
Require all gun owners to carry liability insurance- for each weapon.
Ban any weapon that can hold more than 6 bullets (or one).
Ban all private sales.
But if I had to be a one issue voter I think the environment, and global warming, has to be the most important issue.
Some of us are being killed by guns. All of us- ALL OF US- are at risk because of climate change. We need zero population growth- now.
That is my issue. And I will vote for whomever does anything to deal with that catastrophe.
1
Given the record of the last ten years, I can't imagine a shooting that would cause Congress to really address the problem of too many guns, too easily obtained. They. Do. Not. Care. And the NRA owns them. The cost to the NRA is cheap compared to the results they get. 2017 was a peak expense year for NRA lobbying and they only spent $5.1 million
Gun violence is unacceptable to gun owners and to those who don’t own guns. The problem is not being characterized rationally because the views of gun owners and of those who have no use for guns see the problem from their own perspectives. Nearly all gun owners are decent and considerate people and owning guns does not mean that they are not. Nearly all who never owned guns really see no necessity for most others to own them, either. Neither group feels responsible for gun violence and neither really are except that they do not work together to reduce it as they must to do it.
Nobody with any desire to live peacefully and safely wants to follow the good guy with a gun policy to oppose the violence. Guns are very dangerous and everyone knows this. They cannot be made safe. Only safe handling by people who are not going to harm others keep them from doing harm. We need to focus upon keeping guns from those likely to do harm with them. It is not feasible to just eliminate guns as many seem to think is possible. We must learn to trust those who view guns differently from ourselves to be people deserving of our trust.
Though I appreciate the sentiment, articles like this are as impact as thoughts and prayers. Voting seems to be the only real mechanism to improve laws.
The kids are not all right.
There have always been school bullies, and there have always been the girl, that girl you dream about who wants nothing to do with you. Those are the proverbial growing pains of life. But only now, right now, are the bullied and spurned deciding to commit a type of public suicide and mass murder in combination. Blaming guns is classic American psychology, taking the easy way out. Blaming guns means that really is nothing wrong with American children, when obviously there is. American children are taking guns to school , and killing their classmates, this is not happening in any other country but ours. what do guns have to do with American schoolchildren murdering . The Guns are what they use, guns insure a higher kill count, and allow for a successful murder spree but they are not the reason. I repeat they are not the reason. School has always been rough, and the teenage years are usually miserable, especially for the unloved, the picked on, there is a dehumanizing process that goes on, and people continue to be cruel, even the young. yet only now, and only here is this happening, homicidal children, who cross some line in the sand where anger turns to a cool calculated killing, like a professional killer in a movie, killing with an expressionless face and unfeeling heart. So blame the media for making stars out of killers, violent movies that desensitize, shooter video games and a thousand other things but stop looking for easy solutions.
1
We allow a loud, angry MINORITY in this country to set an agenda and buy up politicians to do it......We are responsible gun owners and we know many others who also are..They are all FORMER members of the NRA. When a lobbyist start preaching a violent agenda, decent people head for the exits.
I have watched this country descend into a darkness of spirit and real angry hatred.
The only way we will ever defeat that is at the polls and in our own communities with our voices being loud, PROUD, and defending what is both decent and smart...This "minority" bullying needs to be put on a permanent "time out". To abandon our children to this kind of violence is pure impotence. WE must make it stop.
1
There is one political party that is the handmaiden of the Murder Industrial Complex and that is the republican party. It was republicans who let the assault weapon ban die; it is republicans who have control of congress and refuse to budge an inch; it is republicans and their so called president who make the pilgrimage to nra conventions vowing to stop any common sense restriction on the insanity that is our gun culture.
The single issue voter that I have become will vote only for candidates with a D after their name.
They can be trained to do the will of We the People.
2
Guns have become, to a great number of Americans, an extension of their "selfhood." I recall an 18-year-old female college freshman I taught a few years ago, who, while we were discussing this very gun control issue, stood up from the last row of seats and exclaimed, "No one is going to take my gun away!"
It was as if, simply by discussing the aspects of-and possible solutions to-our very cultural American dilemma, her reality as a human being, her significant claim to existence on this planet, in this place with its promise of a future was threatened. It was as if she shouted: "You cannot disembowel me, rip out my heart, strip me of my limbs, my brain, my breath. My gun is my life! I have a right to it as I have a right to live!"
In our 200+year history we have raised our young to worship this "sacred scripture" of our 2nd Amendment to the Constitution, to chant its lines like a psalm, to defend their interpretation of it no matter its relevance in today's culture. It is the young whom we must reach with a new message for this present culture if we are ever to do anything significant about saving American lives within the borders of the United States. We must convince the young that we are a different people now who do not live by guns but who are compassionate, forgiving and just. We must show them that we are a new people whose selfhood lies in our gifts of reconciliation and inclusion, that we are evolving. Aren't we?
of
2
Nonsense.
While the number of mass shootings are growing only a tiny minority are killed in those events. While 2/3rds of the 33, 000 Americans who die from gunshot every year are suicides. And about 80% are white men who tend to use handguns. Unless and until 'enough is enough' regarding that reality then this one -issue voting prescription is all a deceptive dubious and duplicitous distraction.
Moreover, no local nor state nor federal gun 'reform' can trump the 2nd Amendment.
Until Congress grows a spine and stops encouraging crazy splinter groups that help maintain their power base nothing will change.
When the children of congress persons starting being brutally murdered in their classrooms we'll see change. Until then these kids are just so much collateral damage on the path to power.
We've been killing people for 10 years in a war that will never end just to ensure the riches keep flowing up to the 1%. Why would a little carnage in America bother any of these people?
2
It isn't just schools where people need to worry that it could happen to them at any time. Anywhere in America it can happen to YOU at any time. There are over 300 million guns in America, enough to take out each one of us.
2
Seems disingenuous to chastise politicians for not offering gun death remedies without offering any oneself. The need, obviously, is to outlaw all guns in private hands, and its about time our political pundits began to say so.
The U.S. population is likely to double within a century. Does Charles Blow really think that by then people will still be allowed to shoot birds and animals for the fun of it?
NM -If I could amend. . . . "The solution is not a fantastical idea of good guys with guns miraculously being at the right place at the right moment, but who are also excellent marksman, and if going to a movie theater, take along their night vision glasses."
Of course, Charles fails to enlighten us as to what "common sense gun control" not already on the books in TX would have prevented this shooter from accessing his father's legally purchased weapons.
1
Face facts, America is in love with guns. I have always believed that even putting play guns in our little boys hands was dangerous. My belief was so strong that when my son, (now50) was a little boy I refused to let him play with toy guns. My father in law grew angry with me when I wouldn't allow my son to keep toy guns. I tried to explain that if as children boys or girls get used to "shooting people dead" even in play they run the risk of growing up to believe that it's ok to have real guns and shoot. I understand about teaching gun safety and the 2nd amendment, but, unless you are a devout hunter, you don't need guns. AND, people really don't need assault weapons intended for military use. People. wake up...this adoration of guns is killing our children and many adults. Why???
2
Sorry. But at this point, I don't know if it will ever be enough.
And not only that, I'm ashamed to say I've lost count of how many times the same thing has happened.
It's very clear that this NRA-sponsored president and this knee-jerk narcoleptic Congress is going to do absolutely nothing about enacting stricter Gun Control legislation, so it looks like we can just expect the body-count to keep on rising.
That's why it's up to We, the PEOPLE to come out in force to march, to protest -- but more importantly, to VOTE!
Nothing less than our lives depend on it.
2
What if, for every mass shooting, the rest of us file an immediate class action lawsuit? Seriously, all the millions of people who want our children to be safe, hire a lawyer and file suit against the gun owner, the gun seller, the parents of the shooter... anyone and everyone who had a hand in the shooter having access to these weapons.
These people need to be sued, constantly and aggressively, until everyone who owns a gun understands they are 100 percent responsible for any damage caused by that gun.
1
The American pro-gun and anti-gun factions are entrenched and unbudging.
The pro-gun faction is well-organized, financially sustainable, and generally popular. The anti-gun faction is disorganized, shrilly vocal, and lacks a coherent position on gun control.
Guns are truly needed for hunting and sport, self-protection, and impulsive murder and suicide. Hunting, real or pretended, is the primary male-bonding activity of non-urban American boys and men. The gun as a necessary accessory to criminal activity and as effective self-protection for the vulnerable is a popular and enduring American myth. Garden-variety murder and suicide are ingrained in our violent American society.
The weapon of choice for mass killing is a military assault rifle with pistol grip and exchangeable magazine. Wielding such a weapon evokes the action hero fantasies that boys/men acquire from childhood play, movies, and video games. Acquisition and possession of such weapons should be limited to the police and to vetted, mature gun collectors.
Control of military-style assault rifles and a blacklist of ineligible gun owners are the practical measures that will reduce the incidents of mass killings. Additional gun control measures to reform the careless and violent nature of American society are impractical to implement and impossible to legislate. Live with it!
1
How quickly the Santa Fe student killings left the media cycle. Is it that these events are becoming so commonplace they don't demand sustained media attention? If the media does not keep a focus on these events and those working to prevent them, the public will surely move on.
2
It's the Republican Party refusing sane measures to reduce gun violence, not "legislators" or "politicians." "Republicans" was missing also from Kristof's article on guns, is this some kind of polite political correctness? We must assign accountability where it is due and cease the "both sides are equally to blame" nonsense.
3
There's a new term, "incel," for the "involuntarily celibate," as if that were not a normal condition of adult life, like being hungry, that occurs frequently in most lifetimes –– sometimes even permanently. We are grasping at straws, as reporters quote "romantic rejection" by a young high school student who refused to be wooed by the mass murderer, as a potential contributor to his stress. The question I would like to ask is: Are American high school students not being 100% clued in to the reality that other human beings, including those they see in their own hallways and on campuses, have certain inalienable rights? The right to grow up at their own pace? The right to not engage in any activity they don't wish to engage in? The right to be left in peace to focus on their studies? The right to not join in a conversation? How does anyone go from the state of "I'm mad because I'm not getting what I demand" to "I am now going to kill and maim a bunch of people" overnight? What is not being taught along the way, that was certainly being taught when I was attending US public schools, from 1965-1975?
1
Our culture is doing this to our young men. You cannot take religion and the social order out of our culture without sufffering the consequences.
Sorry to say the guns are out there and very few options to remove them from the publics hands. Its just the way it is. From what I can say the best option at this point is to limit, restrict or monitor ammunition sales so that obtaining bullets is next to impossible for the average person. Eventually then no matter how many weapons someone owns they will become useless paperweights as there will be no ammo to load in them.
2
In the 20th century three U.S. experts in psychology demonstrated chilling examples of the manipulative power of perceived leaders and accepted authorities to provoke people to act against their own best interests or moral inhibitions.
Edward Bernays made a fortune with his mass perception mangement techniques that he openly labeled "Propaganda". He first succeeded in reversing women's socially dominant refusal to smoke cigarettes in public and greatly increased tobacco company profits. His skills soon attracted the attention of many more corporations and politicians.
Then doctors Stanley Milgram (Yale) and Philip Zimbardo (Stanford) conducted clinical experiments that revealed how readily a shocking number of "normal" people would comply with a perceived authority's instructions to commit - or submit to - acts of brutality upon anonymous strangers.
Articles in Wikipedia and numerous other websites cover these developments in further detail and provide considerable insight on the dynamics that are enabling the dissolution of U.S. culture. With respect to the phenomena of mass murder in our schools, it reads like the Pied Piper of Hamlin.
This statement, " Enough is Enough" has become a cliche. It been repeated endlessly after every mass shooting in the country with almost no action on the part of leadership, and little action on the part of the citizenry other than prayer.
The second amendment, ironically, has come to be interpreted in such an extreme way that it will very possibly destroy this nation. In a civilized nation why does everyone need to own a gun? Over and over we see statistics that show a direct correlation between gun deaths and the number of guns. The citizens of this country need to reevaluate this perverse romance that we have with guns and alter this culture of unlimited unfettered access to firearms. Who are we so afraid of? Each other: because we all have a gun....
Enough with the cliche's. Do something as an individual.
This morning in the wake of the Sante Fe High School shooting, the news was that we need to await the autopsies to determine whether any, and most likely how many, of the victims were actually shot by the sheriffs in this 40 minute shoot out.
Meanwhile the Texas politicians have already upped the ante: their thoughts? What would be better than one armed teacher confronting the next shooter? Of course, "four good guys with guns"....
So shootouts in confined spaces with sheet rocked walls and students packed in, sheltering in place... with five guns blazing that sounds like a solution, right? How about full body armor for our kids?
Sensible and uniform federal gun laws: no ownership of guns until you are 21 without special permits for target shooting and hunting, trigger locks and gun safes required with mandatory inspections in the homes and businesses and $500 fines for first offenses when found with an unsecured gun, no assault rifles, no extended ammo clips, legal culpability by gun owners for guns used in crimes, etc.
Our kids will never get these sensible laws. American schools will never be safe. Too many guns, too much access, too much mental illness, and too much money involved. Follow the money.
2
The notion that we are stuck with the second because it was written down a long time ago isn’t far from the notion that the Bible is true because it was written down a long time ago. If you can change man’s law that is uncomfortably close to changing god’s law.
Really? Why is this even an issue. All human life matters especially children's lives. We have a responsibility to ensure their safety. If you truly care about protecting your children then vote those who don't support gun control out.
1
How about this for an idea, rather than trying to ban guns which is something we can never do, we instead ban school bullying, which is something that can actually be done.
There was another quote from a student that was pretty revealing. He talked about how he'd narrowly escaped death and was asked whether he thought something should be done about the availability of guns. His answer was words to the effect that "you can't be controlling people's guns" (this is not an exact quote - it appeared in the NY Times coverage). My point is that we've been capitulating to the extreme right for so long that a generation has been brainwashed, and not just about guns. That kid was almost killed and he knew it, but he lives in Texas and he firmly believes that the deranged NRA interpretation of the 2nd Amendment is more important than his life.
2
The way the 2nd Amendment is written seems to separate the " militia " from the " right to keep and bear ". This leaves us " infringed ". In my humble opinion we should be able to require registration of guns as long as the statute instituting registration does not involve the right to ownership but only that all guns be registered. Insurance is the best way to get the ball rolling on pushing for safety. If we can start using the costs of liability to reduce the loose use of guns we may get to a point where other options may become open. We can`t insure without registration. We can also criminalize the possession of a unregistered gun and criminalize the possession of a gun not registered to the carrier. Next up would be to make the gun only operable by the registered owner, we have that technology today. We can also control the ammunition both in amount and the power. But none of this is going to happen until we get enough lawmakers in place who are not bought by the NRA. This whole 2nd Amendment thing is just some delusional Rambo fantasy that they are going to save our country from invaders. Our country is not going to be overrun by hordes of Chinese, it will be overrun by Chinese Money. The Russians are not going to infiltrate our country by way of the Bering Straits, it will and already is infiltrating our cyber systems of voting, of security and obtaining trustworthy reporting.
111
You have some great ideas but you misunderstand the Rambo fantasy. These people do not intend to save the country from foreign invaders. They intend to fight the central government itself, especially as it perceived to be controlled by liberal urban interests. They are really just insurrectionists masquerading as patriots.
26
I agree TH but I ran out of space. When you google militia-noun the second definition is rebel or terrorist. I was going to get into the " lone wolf crusader " but I ran out of space.
the idea of insurance is especially compelling and I wish that I'd have thought of that.
The fetish with guns was established so long ago it'll never go away. Fifty years ago, guns were the main feature of the old westerns. Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Have Gun Will Travel...no other country ties its past to guns like the US. Every episode had shootings and gunfights. The US has been infected with a germ for which there is no cure, not with hundreds of millions of guns on the loose.
1
When I was a young child, we used to have air raid drills in school, in the event that nuclear armed missile or bomber attack was imminent. I used to lie in bed at nights listening for the sound of “incomings” or air raid sirens. What we have now with lock downs in schools is another type of terror to which our children are subjected to because of the stupidity of the adult population. The solution to gun violence is so simple— get rid of the guns. We are the only developed country in the world with this problem. Getting rid of the guns may take years, but if it saves a million lives, which are the number of gun deaths in this country since 1980, then surely it will have been worth the effort. All it takes is political will and voters who are truly pro life.
1
As long as the NRA owns the thrown and all its working parts nothing will change for the better in this country in regard to mass murder of innocents. Our lawmakers and president very clearly believe that money is more important than human life. While they all claim a higher morality the reality is that they are morally bankrupt.
I personally have grown tired and weary of this endless game of avoidance of responsibility. Until those responsible for taking the necessary steps to address this matter are willing to do so there really is no longer any point in discussing the matter. Decades of discussion have achieved absolutely nothing but a whole lot of grief and funerals. Why bother?
Maybe it is time to just roll over, keep our mouths shut and accept that we are a violent society who values money over life.
2
Are theses school shootings a symptom of an even larger problem? As tragic as they are could our cultural norms be
changing?
The economic necessity of a two wage family is depriving our youth of a homelife that instills values. With education standards falling and the entertainment industry hawking all types of violence, and depravity it is no wonder we have violent society.
Add to that a country that glorifies militarism and unilateral action and you have a recipe for disaster.
1
Our spineless representatives in Congress refuse to act to stop this madness. When will too much be enough.
We need to repeal the Second Amendment, take away guns from criminals, and prevent the sale of dangerous weapons. We need a program that will allow people to turn in their guns to the local authorities, just as has been done in some other countries.
Thoughts and prayers won’t do it.
very simple solution.
If a gun is taken (by a child or criminal) because it was unsecured in your home, and it is used in a crime, the owner is tried for the crime fir which it was used, At least as an accessory before the fact.
let's start jailing those that provide the weapons. Maybe the sale of gun safes will sky rocket
1
I don't think our kids should be subjected to more anxiety just because they go to school.
Nobody in government wants to touch the hot potato of gun control. Many receive financial benefits from the NRA. The NRA president is now Oliver North, a felon, who believes the shooters
had too much ritalin. It's very sad the excuses they blame on anything but themselves. It's also a fact that men feel more powerful holding a gun.
According to a Harvard School of Public Health analysis of U.N. data, the U.S. represents 4.4 % of the world's population. Yet, U.S. private citizens own almost 1/2 the world's civilian guns. A recent American Journal of Medicine article listed the U.S. as having a death rate by gun violence as over 3 times greater than the next highest rate of 22 similar developed countries. See a pattern? ? ?
3
Enough is never enough for the NRA. According to them, guns have NOTHING to do with mass shootings. The Lt. Governor of Texas says that too many school doors killed those 10 people. Unarmed teachers led to that 10 people being shot and killed. Ollie North agrees that violent video games killed them. Abortion led to these killings. A culture of violence killed them. But guns? Guns had nothing to do with it.
I wonder if the Lt. Gov. thinks there were too many doors at that hotel in Las Vegas? And that hotel room full of guns? That had nothing to do with those 65-70 people he shot like fish in a barrel.
An average of 49 people are murdered every day in the U.S., 17,500 people per year. This particular incident made that day's homicide number slightly above average.
Gun control is fine with me. The media might also stop telling the murderer's story and plastering his picture all over the internet, which is exactly what he wants.
Gun owners should be afraid of the overreaction that comes with out of control anger. By blocking all restrictions to prevent gun violence they leave the door open for overreach when we finally reach a tipping point and we will reach a tipping point. People are tired of mourning children who should have been safe at school but were instead gunned down by someone who shouldn't have had easy access to a gun.
I say the the same thing every time.
We need to immediately mandate that all gun owners carry liability insurance. Why? The reasons are many, some obvious, some subtle. Here are a few points.
1. "guns don't kill people; people do" is something gun rights advocates are fond of saying. They are correct..sort of. More accurately, it is the combination of weapons and people that produce death. "Should people be allowed to own semi automatic weapons?" is not the right question. The question is "who should be allowed? and at what premium level?"
2. Congress does not have the capacity to assess risk of different classes of weapons. Insurance companies would be motivated by profit not only to assess the risk of certain weapons but even more precisely assess those risks in combination with the mental health and criminal history of the owner.
3. Demand curves slope down. The higher the price of anything, the lower the demand. The demand for mass killing is no different. Raising the price on particularly deadly combinations of people with dubious mental health evaluations and weapons would decrease the demand. Looking back at every mass killing we've witnessed since Columbine, the price demanded by insurance companies would have either been prohibitive or would have resulted in the individual only being able to afford a less effective weapon.
Yes. enforcement is a challenge, but quite possible. One idea: proof of insurance required for all ammunition purchases.
1
Today, I can barely sit in my class room without crying or being sick to my stomach. How many of us have to die until Congress will act?
2
“Enough is enough” ... the mantra after every mass shooting. No doubt it will be repeated after the next school mass shooting, likely later in the year.
I just finished the NYT article about attitudes to guns in Texas. They blame Satan. And the governor is still running online contests to win free guns. There really isn’t any rational response to that. The entire country is mad, and in the grip of a powerful collective death wish.
2
If I were a principal of large high school, anywhere in the US, I would be wracking my brain for "what to do" to prevent this in my school. I might do this. I would start a local "go fund me" campaign to make my school safe. I would replace all first floor windows with two-way glass, looking out only. I would reinforce every classroom door - no window, like an airplane cockpit door - that could be "locked" and unlocked by a teacher or from central office remotely. I would redesign the school entrance with levels of entry that would unobtrusively screen every person entering the building, and during school hours that would be the only entrance point for the school. I would "camera up" the whole school. I would hire one trained professional, at least, with a high level of firearm training and emergency response training on site at all times whose major responsibility is to oversee entry and exit from the school. Treat schools like airplanes - only more so. Until guns designed to kill people are eradicate from our towns, such measures are needed, at a minimum.
Sadly, we barely have money for textbooks, pencils, and paper. I highly doubt any school can afford the safety measures you propose.
Geo -- yeap. But the loons on the left want to use school shootings as a lever to increase gun control -- which isn't going to work. As we've seen in multiple shootings in various locations (schools, theaters) you don't need an assault rifle to kill a lot of people. Background checks and more gun control laws wouldn't have caught most shooters and neither would psych screening. so the only thing that has a chance of stopping the next loon is making the target harder to get to. Most corporations do a lot of this stuff. At my place in NYC they have barriers to prevent trucks or cars with bombs from getting close enough to do damage. There is one entrance for 1000s of employees. There are armed guards. They search bags and briefcases. And employees have to have an ID which will electronically open doors to upper floors. There are some one time expenses involved and the ongoing cost of security --- but I'm pretty certain the cost per student for a school district in a mid sized city wouldn't be so great that a one time tax hike or shifting some funds (maybe the mayor's slush fund to dole out construction and consulting projects to his friends) would do the trick.
Or you can put on your holier than thou suit, excoriate Repubs, gun owners, the NRA, white people, etc. but the 2nd amendment will not be repealed and guns will not be confiscated. So people need to be pragmatic and quit using these tragedies to push an anti-gun agenda (I'm not NRA, don't own a gun).
I've run out of ideas because enough is enough.
I don't want my guns used in a crime.
When I leave the house all my guns are locked in a 500 lb safe which is also secured to the floor.
Let's pass a simple set of laws. If a gun is stolen or taken while unsecured in the home - the owners faces charges of (at least) accessory before the fact.
If there is a known "problematic person" in the home, and the gun is taken by that person, the owner should be tried as a participant in the crimes committed with the gun.
These laws would not effect ownership, they would effect behaviors that lead to shootings
1
Regrettably the article contains only the usual polemics for gun control as a solution for societal problems that cry for a holistic approach concentrated on the malaise in our younger generation that is the source of the will to violence.
1
As a retired school administrator, I have tried to envision what I’d recommend to address the issue. As I review every scenario, I find the flaws and cancel that idea. Nothing is more powerful than the guns. Either we value the lives of our children or we value fire power. Unfortunately, those who could save lives prefer to save guns.
2
The singular issue should be campaign finance reform--as in no politician should be allowed to take a donation from anyone and, as a result, do their bidding.
It's not the guns; it's the money.
1
Perhaps the problem is “freedom”. Many people are angered by any restraints on their “freedom”.
Too many people feel hampered even by politeness, consideration of the feelings of others, and especially laws with which they disagree.
How do we bring them back into the community when they refuse to abide by rules that are necessary for living in a “community”?
1
I am at my wits end. I have been voting on this single issue for nearly two decades now and it still just seems to get worse. Still we can't give up. But we also need to face the serious political loss. And right now the Gun "rights" propaganda campaign is winning, sadly. So. Maybe we could be introducing Media Literacy courses earlier on in school, say, 9th grade. We could teach our students about the power of propaganda as told through traditional channels like political action groups and lobbying groups (and through newer media like YouTube videos, social media, memes and chatrooms. We can teach our children the difference between fiction (fantasy, movies, video games, music) and propaganda - which might try to use these existing fantasies to influence our minds.
2
Nothing will change, guns rule the USA.
1
It's become apparent for some time that this country loves their guns more than they love their children. What a pathetic nation we have become...
4
It is impossible to control some 300 million guns. But we should be able to attenuate the damage by making mandatory that guns be kept under lock and key, that ownership require liability insurance and that large capacity magazines and bump stocks be outlawed.
5
Enough is enough is right, Blow, especially the oratories, like yours, that have little or nothing to do with enough. Washington can't fix this. They can't fix anything. The gun control issues can't fix it. There are too many guns already. A pundit like you can't fix it, either. There are too many like you who fail to see the "fix", if there is one, lies in finding these puerile perps before they explode. Bring the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in to help out. They have stopped terrorists here since 9/11. Maybe these new teams could stop the student killers before they kill. Look first to the cyberbullies and bullied. That's often where it starts.
3
"Enough" for sure Charles; and, yes, the NRA and it's ilk, must be taken on: first by the voting mass at large, chaffing out office holders unable/unwilling to address the incredible and seemingly endless violence, and , secondly, if the NRA can't 'step up' and itself positively address gun violence as an issue, then membership in that organization should start making noise... from the inside.
Given the size of NRA membership and in other firearm related interest groups, there must, statistically, be noteworthy numbers who do not agree with the larger base or the Board of Directors on the stonewalling position taken. I had an uncle, now deceased, who was a life long member of the NRA... a good man in the best sense of the word. I know he would not have stood silent on this issue. jra
1
The Republican/NRA war on our children has got to stop.
4
Can't wait until November. I'll offer THEM " thoughts and prayers ". To LOSE. Bigly.
2
Until capitalism is understood by a large majority of voters we will continue down this idiotic path.
1
Unfortunately, I believe this is not going to be the last time you use this headline for a column.
1
Another school shooting and another empty column. Grownups are having a hard time coming up with substance let alone being real.
2
We need to stop referring to them as guns and start calling them "people killers," the same way we call machines that cut grass lawnmowers.
So when people repeat absurd and nonsensical slogans, they will sound as stupid as they are:
"People killers don't kill people; people kill people."
"We need to arm teachers with people (child) killers."
"The only way to stop a bad guy with a people killer is a good guy with a people killer."
1
"People seeking common sense gun control must become single-issue voters on gun control."
So, if the choice is between the 2nd Amendment candidate and the Klan candidate, you'll be voting for the Klan candidate?
I love how something is always common sense when you elitists want it.
Don't be afraid of Texas. Come on down. Dinner is on me.
Those politicians endorsed by the NRA consistently support the Republican party line for other single issue voters such as abortion, immigration and tinkle-down economics. So voting Against the NRA generally means voting against these other issues.
2
Change in Texas? I'm sure devout believers know that after death the departed are in a better place. And Mommy and Daddy can still hunt. It's a win-win. What's to change?
Mr. Blow, The other thing that struck me in the interview with Paige Curry is that when he asked that asinine question, when she laughed in his face, was the only time she looked at him while they were talking. Look at the student in the center of this photo with glasses on. These students have been through so much they have a wisdom that will manifest a better society someday.
Great article today Charles. Your message of playing the "long game" is very correct, but not only with this issue. But other issues do revolve around the topic of gun violence. No need to point out the obvious idea that right wing politicians have blocked the concept of gun control. Yes, I also know that some moderates and even a few more liberal members of Congress are afraid to do much speaking out against the gun lobby. Supporting the 2nd amendment remains the first part of any plea to the public for voters to take action.
Well in today's world the vote message draws more apathy than excitement. What gets missed in all this is that under the current totally non-effective curbs on firearms and the availability of these weapons of mass destructions is the underlying cause: Anarchy. It's complete and utter anarchy on the streets of anytown USA.
So getting back to the way to create change is the vote. It's said that poor people, young people, and those who feel that their vote won't count need constant reminding that all politicians pay attention to those people who vote. Not voting is gifting your one power over all this away to the lobbies you don't like. Put another way, no one pays attention to poor people because they don't vote. It's the same for young people, the middle class the most vulnerable amongst us. No vote. No representation. This rule is constant through the ages.
2
While this column is primarily about guns, there is a tangent to this issue that I believe is pertinent.
It appears that the young man involved in this latest school shooting targeted a young woman who turned down his advances. Parents and society must begin to instruct, train, and mentor young men that while they may be attracted to a woman, that does not mean they will be successful. That is a woman's right. How men handle that rejection is vital.
How many readers here were ever told by their parents that the 'facts of life' also includes the fact that your affections might not be reciprocated, what that means, and how to reconcile those feelings?
Feeling entitled, joining the 'INCELs' and grabbing a gun is the most unacceptable of answers.
1
The problem is progressives are unable to join forces necessary to accomplish anything. The best examples of that are the 2000 and 2016 elections. Even after the election of trump DEMS are split going into the fall midterms. Republicans have this down to a science. They march in lockstep on critical conservative issues whether it’s the right thing to do or not. We have to figure out how to convince all the disparate groups to come together on key issues. Will gun control trump the many? I doubt it.
Republicans have it easy to focus together and join forces with little interference. They are a party with simple messages and everyone knows their coded language. They also happen to largely be a homogeneous, Caucasian group willing to vote in unison unlike the Democrats in all these same categories.
It's also much easier to punch holes into ideas, social programs, and diplomatic efforts to resolve conflicts to name a few areas that Democrats continuously strive to achieve. Republicans basically keep going on the single talking path of less taxes( mainly for billionaires), law and order(mainly target African Americans), building up the military(diplomacy be damned), give as little money as possible to social programs(criticize anyone who use them), and generally represent the great hostilities towards anything forward looking(rights of women, minorities, LGBT, and quality medical care, public schools, environment, public lands rights, and many others).
And finally the greatest divide that weakens the Democrats is this false equivalence notion of "both parties are to blame." One can easily see how difficult it is to hold the center of all the different racial, ethnic, and religious groups in enough agreement all the time.
So yes, we Democrats will fail from time to time. But we are the ultimate future for restoring America to the great ideals of our founders. Did I mention "Unions?" Let's hold that for another time.
Sadly, there is a cross section of this nation who believe their guns should have more freedom than children. Until it happens to their own, possibly, things might change. Until then, they will keep that NRA sticker on their truck and see the rest of the nation as the enemy
The political process is broken in much of the country due to many factors particularly gerrymandered congressional and state legislative districts which provide the Republican party with an edge beyond the public's alliance and loyalty. This rigged system is energized by the pit bull tactics of Dana Loesch and Oliver North backed by the always reliable Fox News and its 24/7 propaganda machine. Democrats playing nice with a vanilla game plan won't do much to change things. The young people of Parkland, using Dr. King's playbook, have to date been more effective than elected officials. Democrats can find tougher candidates who are morally grounded and unafraid of the NRA. Obviously, America needs them.
1
The answer is simple the problem is guns, republicans, and their benefactor the NRA.
1
I'll go you one better, Charles: Advocate for repealing the Second Amendment. It's a deadly anachronism originally passed to give slave owners cover. Time for it to go before hundreds more of our kids do.
1
I am trying my best to hold on to the belief there is [still] something good and redeeming about America: The rope is slipping from my hands.
1
I am Américain. I have been living in France for over 30 years. I have been looking for the words that best qualify Américains and their relationship with guns. Insanity rings true to me. Not all thé guns in the US are vworth one of thé lives of any of thé students killed recently. What à sad pitiful state of affairs. Poor USA. The most powerful nation in the World but so far away from being thé best.
3
"This is all insanity." The USA is spiritually sick. It needs spiritual triage.
1
I did that with illegal immigration. Now look what we have.
Repeal the PLCAA and everything would change.
Forgetaboutit - nothing will change
1
More wishful thinking on the left. Most intelligent people realize that with over 300 million guns in circulation more gun "control" will do nothing more than ensure that only criminals have guns. We had far less gun control 50 years ago and we did not have the carnage we have now. Unless you are a blindly partisan hack it doesn't take a genius to see that gun control is not the answer. There is something far more wrong with this country when people have no regard for human life. If not a gun, then a bomb or a car or a knife. The outrage here is not a lack of action by Congress on more gun control but the left's fetish with it to the detriment of having a conversation on the real issues and how to address them. Shame on you all.
3
There was a typo in the second Amendment. It should have read that "people have the right to arm bears." (Our founding fathers were in a hurry!)
Some people shouldn't have guns. If you don't accept that, you've failed gun safety 101, which should have been the first thing your learn when you joined the NRA.
2
Charles is back. Do for guns what you did for Trump? No thanks.
2
School shootings are now as American as apple pie. Another triumph for Donald J. Swamp.
1
When are we going to stop the NRA/Republican war on our children's lives?
1
Vote against any politician who received money from the NRA.
1
Previously submitted late night, May 20th...(???)
Gun violence, whether suicide or murder, is an expression of a sick America. Not just the shooter, our society. The current president is an expression of how sick America is. America is sick. Six of ten eligible voters did not vote in 2016. Of those who did vote, a third voted for moral rot. Those who sat out the election actually voted in absentia for moral rot. America is sick. The small deplorable bloc which voted for Trump, demands more guns, more powerful guns, gun ownership free of background checks, guns in schools, open carry of guns, concealed carry of gun, guns everywhere. And larger capacity magazines. America is sick. Six of ten eligible voters did not vote because the GOP suppresses voting; supporters of the Trump campaign used social media to suppress voting; red states also underfund education with an explicit objective of limiting critical thinking skills, eliminating civics and history from the curriculum. America is sick. The GOP is a paid subcontractor of the NRA. Never before in history have so few sold out so many for so little. Republicans are cheap prostitutes. America is sick. America is a fake-democratic republic. The reality is America is run by the wealthy for the wealthy. Guns, Trump, race, illegal immigrants, religion, abortion are all distractions to keep people divided, keep people from voting in the interests of The People, including sensible gun regulations. America is very sick.
2
Enough is enough. Now stop with your gun control. It won't happen.
Parents across the country should refuse to send their children back to the danger zones our schools have become until something is done. Children should refuse to return to such an unsafe environment. Is it really so unreasonable for the people to demand that their kids be educated without living in constant fear that they might be slaughtered by a lunatic with a gun?
How is this even a conversation? This should be a DEMAND. Call your congressional representatives! People should take to the streets! March on D.C.! March of every NRA rally!
Change only happens when the demands of the people can no longer be ignored.
2
Your solution is lame. Something stronger must be done. For example, people can stop sending their kids to school. The risk isn't worth it.
1
Right, then they can get home schooled where they avoid exposure and discussion about controversial topics and the scientific method is something to be ignored.
No amendment is absolute. Controls on all the others have been accepted. The 2nd has no unique exemption from controls.
1
Isn’t our electorate dumb enough already? Let’s leave it up to uneducated parents to home school their kids. We are already an Idiocracy, in many parts of the country.
"My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.".....President Trump, 2/14/18 after a 19-year-old gunman in Parkland, Florida, killed 17 people in the deadliest high school shooting in American history.
"Our hearts are with the entire community of Marshall County...," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, asking for thoughts and prayers for his home state on January 22nd after a shooting at a high school in southwestern Kentucky left two dead and 18 others injured.
Time for another Tweet, Trump....."My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Texas shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school."
Time for another speech, McConnell.....""Our hearts are with the entire community of Galveston County..."
..... ....Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah ............
1
This column is mostly well-written and makes a sound argument on political strategy. But using the same incredibly worn cliche for both the headline and the conclusion greatly diminishes the column's power. It's cringe-inducingly amateurish -- if I had done it in my high-school newspaper my fellow students would have laughed at me.
What a lame opinion! Same old nonanswer: Support politicians and vote for candidates who say they will do something about guns. They all lie to get into office or find that the gun control issue is an immovable obstacle. This situation is not going to change. You don't get it! Guns don't kill people. People kill people. Make guns illegal! Do it. This makes illegal unregistered guns go underground and drive the cost up. I have unregistered 3 handguns one with a 15 round clip and two shotguns. I ain’t giving them up. They are not going to disappear. People will horde guns to protect themselves or use them in case they are angry.
Angry people will still find guns, or bombs or knives and kill people by the scores. The guns are not the problem people are!
1
Know your enemy.
The NRA wants nothing less than unlimited guns on demand with open carry 24/7, from the schools to the beaches.
It will not compromise, even when children die.
If you can't control the guns you make laws to control the people with guns
Many of these kids get their weapons from home, from their parents. Gun owners, who's guns are not secured and are either taken by a family member or thief, should be charged as an accessory and tried along with the "shooter"
It's very simple - they either they become responsible gun owners or do time.
All guns go unaddressed, and that's fine, a gun can't go anywhere if it's locked up
1
33% are NRA supporters
67% are NOT
I want a complete repeal of the Second Amendment. It’s irrelevant in today’s world.
Nothing less.
Our right to life trumps anyone’s right to take a life.
1
Enough is enough is enough is enough...when will it be enough??
A Republican congressman was shot at a softball game and he still votes pro-gun. We are dealing with absolute lunatics.
Further, how do we vote against guns when many Democrats are also beholden to the NRA (Kirsten Gillibrand, Tim Walz, Joe Manchen, etc.) These are dangerous people...wolves in sheep's clothing.
It is time that Liberals take back the "Pro-life" mantra and stop nominating people who do not meet our litmus test on guns.
Conservatives view life starting at conception and ending at birth. Liberals view life starting sometime after conception and ending at death--preferably in old age. We are the Pro-life party, so let's start by taking that term back. And let's make sure that Republicans are viewed as the Pro-death party.
American is looking more like the Middle-east caricature of TV and movies with wonton violence, except our destruction is being perpetrated by an inside terrorist group (the NRA).
We can do our part by voting against any pro-gun/pro-death candidates. Just be very careful who you are voting for lest we wind up moving backward on this issue.
1
You used the right term for today's politicians with no moral compass - lunatics.
The root of the USA’s plague of gun violence is obvious - it is your national culture.
You are The Nation of the Gun.
From the moment the Minutemen took up arms against the British, your very existence as a nation has been defined by your belief in the necessity and your right, individually and as a nation, to use guns against your “enemies”.
This core belief has played out nationally in the unending series of domestic and international wars - nearly one per generation - throughout your history. The Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Indian Wars, the Spanish -American War, WWI, WWII, the Korean War, the Cold War, Vietnam, Panama, Grenada, Afghanistan, Iraq, now Syria.
It’s expressed clearly in the folk heroes and romanticized villains of your mythology and popular culture, real and fictional - Davey Crockett, Wyatt Earp, Jesse James, Annie Oakley, John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, the Lone Ranger, William S. Hart, Roy Rogers, Matt Dillon, the Rifleman, Paladine - the seemingly endless parade of gunmen, sharpshooters, and murderers who have framed the US vision of justice, independence, and self-assertion.
Is it any wonder then that individuals (almost always men) who are emotionally unstable and who feel demeaned, devalued, ostracized, or disrespected pick up guns to “protect themselves” from or take revenge on those they perceive as “enemies”?
You are your own worst enemies - until that changes, nothing else will.
Unfortunately, this violence has been in the USA's DNA from day one.
Stealing and murder do not make for a good beginning.
We will get thoughts and prayers, moments of silence
which are useless. Worse we get nonsense like
there are too many doors in schools.
The remedy is at the ballot box. vote the NRA
fellatists out of office.
A modest proposal.. make gun owners strictly
liable if gun is usd in a crime or murder. In Santa Fe
the kid stole his father's guns and settled score
with young girl who rejected his advances. For good
measure he killed many others.
Don't get mad. VOTE
If you don't vote, you don't count
Erastus Corning
1
Correct. Gun control should the single litmus test driving voter approval today. What else could be more important to the safety of our children and grandchildren? No more responses to stupid questions like “are you better or worse off” etc. Every candidate for public office should be asked to take a specific stand on gun control measures. And rejected for failure to protect us from the plague of guns in our society.
1
Enough is MORE than enough. Our government is supposed to protect the people. Not only is it not doing that it has put a target on our backs.
Life has become cheap in America —like other third world countries.
1
In America today guns Trump human lives. The NRA is in charge and Trump is totally beholden to this arrogant organization. In a democracy candidates must emerge who will give the the voters a clear choice : Guns or human lives?
2
Each time another GOP-NRA voter or supporter says, “thoughts and prayers” after another shooting, they should be taxed and have to put that tax into a fund to support the victims and their families.
You need to tighten up the second amendment. It’s to general and unclear. Otherwise just scrap it!
Because the United States is so full of itself, so special, so self-centered, how dare we should even THINK of following countries like Canada, England,Australia, France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, and many others in their well implemented gun control laws .
3
PREACH, Brother. I've been saying exactly this, for Years. And especially for Women : This is on US. Too many Men have testosterone poisoning, and equate any type of Gun Control with castration. If you Vote for any GOP/NRA Candidate, you are placing your child or grandchild into never ending, accelerating peril. It's that simple. Gun Control OR Dead Children.
CHOOSE.
1
These are the phrases I am tried of hearing:
It is a mental health issue (Did you know every country has a share of mentally disturbed people? )
The Culture of violence is a problem (Shh! Don’t you dare say the culture of Guns !)
Arm teachers, harden the targets!
( You must mean turning teachers into professional snipers, for I imagine it requires professional skills to take out and unlock a safely stored gun, detect where the gunman is, and shoot him(maybe not her, though that’s also possible), over freeing or hiding students. All within seconds.)
Politicians who say these things are willing to resort to any logical gymnastics to blame anything other than guns and NRA. Look at their desire to (politically) survive, even at the expense of precious young lives.
1
America is being destroyed by the Republican Party's demented belief that the Second Amendment is absolute, that the N.R.A. rules! The deaths by guns of kids in their schools is the new normal of our country. President Trump promised to end "the carnage" in America. Some promise. The platitudes -- "thoughts and prayers" -- offered up by the champions of Death by Guns (our cultural ethos) mean squat. And as far as "single issue voting" -- which you espouse, Charles Blow -- that won't make any difference in the outcome of the Mid-Term elections 5 months from now. The 45th president of America will continue strangling our democracy, and the N.R.A. and the Second Amendment will continue to abet his carnage against his own people. A strange kind of genocide in our homeland. Woe is us.
It absolutely blows my mind that kids today have to worry about being shot at school. And, actually when 20 six and seven years were slaughtered in Newtown, I thought evil incarnate had descended upon that town. I think gun love and accessibility is a plague upon this nation. To some, guns and violence are a way to exact revenge upon an unaware society; to others, an exercise of power. Whatever...gun ownership needs to be regulated; and the cult of gun worship disempowered....yesterday.
1
So, Mr. Blow is suggesting that he would vote for a KKK member as long as he supported 'sensible gun regulations"?
Single issue voting is never a logical response. It is the gestalt of a candidate's opinions on all issues which is what makes him or her viable, since the office holder will have to respond to many issues besides the single issue one picks.
2
To reverse "Joe the Plumber's" maxim, my kid's right to go to school, church, the mall, wherever, without being mowed down trumps your oh-so-precious gun rights. I'd melt down every gun in America to save my kid's life.
1
These are the phrases I am tried of hearing:
It is a mental health issue (Did you know every country has a share of mentally disturbed people? )
The Culture of violence is a problem (Shh! Don’t you dare say the culture of Guns !)
Arm teachers, harden the targets!
( You must mean turning teachers into professional snipers, for I imagine it requires professional skills to take out and unlock a safely stored gun, detect where the gunman is, and shoot him(maybe not her, though that’s also possible), over freeing or hiding students. All within seconds.)
Politicians who say these things are willing to resort to any logical gymnastics to blame anything other than guns and NRA. Look at their desire to (politically) survive, even at the expense of precious young lives.
1
The active shooter incident (ASI) statistics Charles Blow cites are from an FBI report titled “Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2016 and 2017.” There were 50 active ASIs during the two-year period, only 20 of which met the FBI definition of mass shootings. The report shows that 21 states had ASIs, which means that 29 states had none. Active shooting incidents aren’t “happening everywhere.”
Seven of the 50 ASIs occurred in K-12 schools. So, each year about two or three K-12 schools have ASIs. The United States has about 98,200 K-12 schools. So more than 99.99 percent of K-12 schools have no ASIs in a typical year. At the rate of seven school shootings every two years, there will be 42 ASI during the 12 years a typical student spends in the 12-K system. This means that 99.96 percent of K-12 schools will have no ASO during a student’s K-12 academic career. School shootings aren’t “happing everywhere.”
https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/active-shooter-incidents-us-2016-201...
2
What "common sense gun control" would have stopped the Santa Fe shooting?
The shooter, who should not have been named by any media outlet, including the New York Times, used a shotgun and a revolver he took from his father.
Again, what law would have stopped this? I am not saying I am against law, I'm saying before passing laws, you should ask what they will do.
2
Regulate guns like Jesus would do, and when some gun owners protest, offer them your thoughts and prayers.
1
So our kids go to school and among the things they are supposed to learn is how not to get murdered. This, thanks to the NRA and it's chokehold on Congress.
We live in a very, very sick country.
1
Our disgraceful educational system has had a poor record of educating our kids for decades. Now add to that the constant fear of being shot while trying to learn in school and we will have a nation of frozen brains. The GOP loves frozen brains because those are the people that vote for them. People don't matter. Guns do.
2
Follow the money! If politicians no longer accept money from the NRA, gun laws will be changed. That cam only happen if we don't vote Republican.
Vote in Democrats and gun laws will change.
2
I have said it over and over again.
Every where in the world you’ll find troubled kids and adults. Only in America the easy access to (semi automatic) guns allows these troubled minds to murder many innocent kids and people.
Your gun-loving-religion kills school kids. It’s not criminals nor muslims, immigrants or soldiers.
It’s your average neighbourhood school boy grabbing the easiest means to mass-murder from his parents closet shooting up his fellow school kids because he felt invisible, unappreciated or slighted.
This happens only in America because of the abundant availability of guns.
So get real. You just don’t care about kids’ lives as much as you care for your guns and often just because of an imaginary threat from your government.
The only ones that have every reason to fear the government are black (school) kids and adults being threatened and murdered on a daily basis. And these kids and majority of people don’t even have guns themselves.
Civilians don’t need (semi automatic) guns. Ever.
Outside America every one knows and understands this and kids have not have to be afraid they might be murdered at school.
Face it. Guns kill kids. Ban guns.
322
Fortunately, our Constitutional rights aren't subject to your determination of our "need." I personally don't think any woman "needs" an abortion nor does any anyone "need" a gay marriage, but that isn't up to me, nor anyone else.
5
Thank you! I whole heartedly agree!
5
When the choices are gun rights are absolute and inviolable no matter what vs. ban all guns, nobody wins. Fortunately, we have a range models from more than a hundred other countries on how to allow gun ownership and have much reduced rates of gun violence. All of the nations with reduced gun violence have some restrictions on how guns are allowed. If we want gun violence as found in Columbia, Venezuela, and Honduras, we can follow their models which don't include rule of law. Not changing what we are doing is monstrous; eliminating gun ownership is unnecessary. We can find a middle ground.
When I was in high school, 1978 - '82, we didn't shoot each other.
Lots of cars and trucks in the parking lot contained guns. I even took a shotgun to school once as a speech class assignment. It was stored that day, unloaded, in my locker.
Something has changed in our society and it's not the availability of guns. Until we identify it and address it, curtailing our constitutional rights won't help.
Remember, the Santa Fe shooter also built a variety of bombs.
2
I consider myself liberal, I have never owned guns and never plan to. BUT, the idea that we can somehow control guns when there are already 300 million of them out there is just magical thinking. Guns are in america, and they are going nowhere.
So, what can we do. we can do research that allows us to make laws and suggestions that will increase gun safety, as in whether magazines with fewer bullets will save lives.. We can actively discourage the gun "culture" that reveres the lonely hero who takes a gun and fixes the ills that have befallen him or society. But the gun supporters will never allow any of that until they understand that "taking their guns" is off the table, the dog whistle the gun manufacturers use to gin up business and maintain their cash flow.
The gun control approach has taken us nowhere. It is time for a little fresh thinking, someway to get all americans , especially gun owners, on the same side of trying to make our country safer for its citizens.
2
What has changed?
I have been an educator for 20 years, and in multiple states. I recall Columbine...I was in a classroom, and it shocked us. Am I shocked today? Sadly, I am not.
What has changed?
The vast majority of school shooting are in American High Schools, adolescents turing on adolescents. The problems of adolescents have always been the same, fitting in, gaining acceptance,dealing with treachery and rejection. Yet today, adolescents deal with their set-backs with fire power. We hear comments about inclusion and being more accepting. Today's classrooms and hallways are far more accepting than they ever were in the past. More can be done.
What has changed?
Could it be the parenting. Why don't the parents of these kids see the signs? Is every child a prodigy, is every child the best that ever lived? Tough standards to live up too. Oh, I know, taboo to point at the parenting because that is personal, but pointing at a school and its student-body is institutional, so it is okay to do. But just maybe, we parents need to be more reflective in our part in this. Our children need grit and resiliency and if they don't have it, then parents need to help find a way to get it for our kids. We need to talk to our kids about these events, ask how they feel, listen to them, hear how they feel. Disappointment and set-back should not equal shooting people, rejection should not equal shooting people. Parenting is a job that never ends.
What has changed?
4
Social media.
2
"It's only a matter of time" is how I feel going to work every day as a teacher in a public school.
Every teach I know has a plan in place for the inevitable. The way our rooms are decorated and organized, what little baubles are on my desk, what footwear we put on every day is done with the thought of a school shooting in the back of our minds.
The other day maintenance was doing some work down the hall. There was a loud bang. All of the students looked up, one student started to cry, and I thought, "this is it; it's finally happening" before we realized what was going on.
But I guess this is the price we all pay so my neighbors can stockpile their arsenals.
9
I know this will not entirely stop the school shootings but what would be wrong about legally requiring gun owners - especially gun owners with children - to keep these weapons under lock and key?
Surely the Second Amendment does not prohibit this level of gun control.
4
The number of guns in America directly relates to the number of gun incidents. That is an indisputable fact. The more guns, the more violence.
Also, the number of guns in this country equals the number of people. But only one third of people have guns. Why this concentration?
The only solution is to reduce the number of guns. Nothing else matters. The less guns there are, the less violence there is.
The NRA is despicable in their propaganda campaigns, but they aren't the entire problem. Only 10 percent of gun owners belong to the NRA. The problem is the culture of guns in America, where so many people believe they have a divine right to own guns. That is false. The second amendment does not provide that right. The Supreme Court has been consistently wrong about individual gun ownership. The Heller and McDonald decisions have been widely misinterpreted to mean individuals should be able to own guns anywhere. That is not the case.
Part of the problem is that many states have very loose gun laws. So the flow of illegal handguns from Virginia, for example, to NYC is very high. What needs to happen is that gun laws need to be defined at the federal level, not the state level, so that there is consistency of laws across the country. Only then can the number of guns be cut, and cut significantly.
And the only way this can happen is when people vote in new politicians who will actually reduce the number of guns in America. Today's politicians won't do that.
6
The only "propaganda" is the idea that the 2nd Amendment protects a "collective right," when EVERY other Amendment protects an individual right.
"This is all insanity." Indeed, Mr. Blow, this describes the US. It is insanity that the candidate receiving the most votes loses the election, which has happend twice out of the past five elections. It is insanity that the majority party in the senate can hold a Supreme Court seat open for over an year on the chance it may put a toady on the bench. It is insanity that lobbyists/donors have more influence on congress people than do their constituents. It is insanity that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is denied to so many young people, while the right to bear arms is interpreted in the most generous manner. "This is all insanity."
17
The single most effective legislative action that Congress could take to begin to tackle the tragedy of gun violence in this country would be to repeal the "Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act" passed in 2005 and signed into law by George W. Bush, which shields firearms manufacturers and merchants from liability for damages caused by their products. No other industry in the U.S. is permitted to shift financial responsibility for its negligence onto the victims, their families and communities. Not only does this shield remove the incentive to improve the safety of their products and to take all reasonable precautions to keep their products out of the "wrong hands", it frees the industry to spend money that should be used to pay insurance premiums (to compensate victims) on lobbying and campaign contributions that have allowed the industry to defeat public safety initiatives that have overwhelming public support (including many supported by a majority of NRA members.) Under the slogan, "Repeal the Shield", I urge the students leading the movement against gun violence to ask each candidate for Congress in 2018 to go on record as to whether or not they will vote to repeal the 2005 Act, and I urge Mr. Blow and other opinion leaders to help the students educate the public on why the repeal is so important.
10
Don't you people ever tire of lying? Gun stores and manufacturers are NOT shielded for the negligence. They are shielded against nuisance suits for the intentional acts of third parties which were intended solely to bankrupt them with legal costs. In fact, negligence is explicitly carved out of the statute (see 15 USC 7903).
Jon--
Thank you for providing a citation to the definitions in the shield law; I encourage anyone confused by your characterization of the statute to read it--contrary to your allegation, there is no mention in the statute of "nuisance suits . . . intended solely to bankrupt [gun stores and manufacturers]." While there is a carve-out allowing lawsuits for "negligent entrustment or negligence per se", there is no carve-out for simple, garden-variety negligence, and the definition of negligent entrustment limits the application of the carve-out to cases where the seller knows or should know that the person to whom the product is supplied is likely to, and does, use the product in a manner involving unreasonable risk of physical injury. Thus, as long as the person to whom the firearm is transferred is not the person who causes the harm, the seller is shielded, even if the seller knew or should have known that the transferee intended to permit its use by a third party (either by resale, gift or temporary loan). Likewise, by deeming any "volitional act that constituted a criminal offense . . . the sole proximate cause of any resulting death . . .", manufacturers and sellers are shielded from liability even in cases where a victim or her family could prove that a design defect (e.g., the failure to include any of a host of available safety features that could have prevented a firearm from being fired by anyone other than its owner) contributed to the injury.
I am a high school teacher and unfortunately the new norm is monthly drills practicing different scenarios of lock-downs, shelter in place, active shooter, evacuations, weapons of mass destruction etc.
While myself, co-workers and students practice and practice for what seems the inevitable, Congress has again failed us. I'm glad to have read at least states are taking action.
5
In addition to the tragic deaths, so much taxpayer money is being spent for school security, while many students lack the basic essentials for actual education: well-paid teachers, up-to-date books, buildings that are not crumbling, etc.
8
There is a connection between the number of guns and their use. And the NRA is ready again to offer their ridiculous solution that is more guns So I propose that we first concentrate on making current gun owners and ourselves safer.
Let's make locks mandatory on all hand guns. Make the locks free at all gun stores. Then make gun safes mandatory for all long guns. Make all gun purchases be made through licensed dealers, just as car sales must be handled through a licensed dealer. Taxes to be collected.
Claims of guns being stolen must be re[ported within 24 hours of its happening. If not reported the legal owner remains responsibility of the weapon.
Crimes committed by guns that were not locked by owner or reported stolen would result in fines of registered owner.
We all must take responsibility for gun deaths byh our inaction.
10
"just as car sales must be handled through a licensed dealer."
I do not know how things are in Pennsylvania, but here in New York I can sell you may car without any dealer license. If I own something legal and you want it, I should and do have the right to sell it to you.
"Claims of guns being stolen must be re[ported within 24 hours of its happening. If not reported the legal owner remains responsibility of the weapon"
That sounds good in theory, but what if the owner is not aware of the theft? All robberies are not obvious, and the loss of a gun or anything else may not be known until it is looked for.
All guns are already sold with trigger locks. As for taxes, sorry, but no. If a $5 photo ID to vote is an unreasonable burden on the poor, then no taxes should be allowed on any guns or ammunition.
2
These common sense suggestions would finally enable us to begin enforcing the entire Second Amendment, including the phrase "well regulated".
Paige also softly said, I wasn’t surprised (about gun violence in her school), I was just scared.
4
This is going to be a generation-long battle. I'm a gun owner and I hunt, but I'm sick of the NRA and the brainwashing I encounter.
We who want stronger laws for background checks, mandated training, or magazine capacity need to understand the counterargument: that any restriction is one step toward universal confiscation and door-to-door sweeps by a tyrannical government.
That's the "logic." If you support any restrictions at all, you are a Socialist, a Commie. States are either labeld "Communist" or "Free States" by the gun fetishists. Guns should be carried at all times and in all places because of The Second.
Folks of good will and the willingness to compromise, know that. That is what you face and it's not a tiny fringe saying it. I joined Gabby Giffords' and Mark Kelly's group because it seems a reasonable, not shrieking, alternative between disarming and guns everywhere.
250
We accept the lousy government we get as an excuse for the gun madness.
48
In 1994 there were over 1.5 million “assault rifles” in America. Currently, estimates start at ten million. In 2012 we had over 300 million guns, not including unreported or illegal sales and transfers, or underground dealers, militias, secret stashes, and arsenals, and every call for restrictions has been met by national purchasing surges that emptied gun shops and added millions more guns, parts, loading devices and supplies, and billions of rounds of ammo,
There are still no suitable, adequate systems in place for preventing most shootings. Even if there were, they’d depend upon fortunate coincidences supported by thus far absent and unusual efforts, and even then, we’d have to wait for countless people to be identified, analyzed, entered in systems, and then for that info to be available, in the right way, at the right time because no system works with undocumented people or weapons.
If we do manage to implement any new restrictions, they’ll be undone by the next swing of the political pendulum, as with the assault weapons ban.
It’s often said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results; still, the insanity continues, both sides playing their parts, helplessly, maybe hopelessly, locked in a descending spiral.
We have a political system, and it can work, but it requires honest, respectful dialogue. We’ve lost that.
15
Yes, but since the ultimate solution to firearms death is, logically, the banning of all guns, would you be willing to give up yours for the greater good?
That's what has worked in other countries. If your answer is "no," then you are still part of the problem.
9
How to handle the gun issue?
I went to prep school(along with Joe Biden), then to Ivy League. I knew few ppl interested in guns. Then, to work in the metal fab industry. Everyone on the shop floor owned and loved guns. They talk of defending their guns to the last round. Bragadosio?...I don't know.
Does anyone really believe that this issue will submit to a political solution?...not I.
Unless maybe we break the USA into 2 parts: no guns here, but yes, guns over there.
37
I don't know .... is the "no guns here" side going to contract out their national defense to the "guns here" side?
1
Mike S, it will do that when the "Guns" side contracts its national defense to the gun lovers and abolishes its standing army.
Possibly before that, the "Guns" side will have torn itself apart in civil war and be begging for re-admission to the other side. Just contemplating the possibility.
Enough is enough. I am ready to make this my single issue. I stand with the kids at MSD and Santa Fe, and everywhere else. Political intransigence, particularly Republican political intransigence (goodness, they are so easily bought!) on gun regulation is killing the children of all.
9
Perhaps before we start giving away the rights of others (you know, the 99.99% of gun-owners who never cause trouble), we should inquire as to the parents of these kids.
As I recall, numerous school shootings were done with dad’s guns. Perhaps dad should be responsible for what a minor does with an insecurely-stores weapon?
For that matter, instead of regulating the free expression of video game makers, parents should actually use their think-boxes to ponder the wisdom of giving an 11 year old call of duty VII: the shootening.
3
Of course this slaughter will continue— because our desire for violence, weapons is insatiable. Television has inured us to any sense of guilt or responsibility for such events. Our notion of community has become so vastly competitive that in many instances only a gun and killing can end our alienation and ultimate loneliness...
5
The voters in this country want change. Even in Texas, a deeply red state, the tide is turning: “According to an October poll by the University of Texas and The Texas Tribune, more than half of the registered voters surveyed said gun control laws should be stricter. Only 13 percent said the laws should be less strict than they are now, and 31 percent would prefer to leave current gun laws unchanged.” (NYT)
Our cowardly legislators, afraid of the NRA, are standing in the way of reform. VOTE THEM OUT!
10
There is a world of difference in the danger presented by real military automatic weapons and the everyday rifles containing some of the military features. For Charles to equate the two is dishonest.
The one-shot-per-trigger-pull weapons include pistons and many shotguns - but no AR-15s were used this week in Santa Fe, Texas. Oh, the Times hasn't made that clear to you? Are we seeing bias yet?
Mexico has TOUGHER gun laws than we do YET they have three times the murdr rate that we do. The problem isn't the guns - it is how drastically the culture is now affecting young males.
For media bleeters to just ignore that is the most dishonest handling of the gun issue of all.
3
Sorry, but you can't use Mexico as your scapegoat.
Mexico's murders are overwhelmingly related to the drug cartels, and the great majority of the victims are cartel members.
Murders of ordinary people are rare, and rarely with guns, which are almost impossible for people on the street to get.
Anyway, it's absurd to compare the United States with Mexico, whose government and law enforcement agencies are many times more corrupt than those in the United States.
Enough was already enough years ago. But the killing goes on due to the built in political blockage to any remedy.
Politics beholden to NRA? Of course, painfully obvious. But you don’t go far enough. This is part of the whole problem of corporate special interest mega donors financing American elections.
Enough is enough of big money setting limits to our lawmaking on all issues. The media laments the gun scourge but not the big money scourge that entrenches it.
A past NYT op ed by Richard Painter “The NRA Protection Racket” sums up the corporate protection racket directing our laws.
Quote: “The message to Republicans (both parties) is clear: “We’ll help you get elected and protect your seat from Democrats.
We’ll spend millions on ads that make your opponent look worse than the average holdup man robbing a liquor store.
In return, we expect you to oppose any laws that regulate guns….gun registration, meaningful background checks, limiting the right to carry concealed, limiting access to semiautomatic weapons or anything else that would diminish the firepower available to anybody who wants it.
If you don’t comply, we’ll load our weapons and direct everything in our arsenal at you in the next primary.
For decades politicians have gone along with this racket, some willingly, others since they know resisting would be pointless.”
Charles, now take aim at our whole big money election system that ends up cheapening human life, and poisoning US democracy.
9
"...common sense gun control..."
Nice to see the phrase spoken truthfully. However, gun owners in fly over country call that "hate speech".
.
Some of these murderers commit a felony by simply using what is available. Then, goes to wherever, to kill whomever he wants. Gun free zone? Meh.
.
What I believe will work, now.
Schools can have single point entry. (Like where I work.) Only one way in. Exit doors are locked and alarmed. (Like where I work.) Give each student an ID badge, that has to be swiped to enter the building. (Like where I work.) Add an additional alarm to schools, different from a fire alarm, it would warn of an active shooter. Arm the teachers.
.
In large organizations, it sometimes seems there is more training that is "quality of life" centric, than job centric. We need to like those that are different, than us. We need to be kind to the Earth and reduce our carbon foot print. And, all of the other stuff that used to be taught in church.
.
Maybe we could have more bully training in school. What it looks like. Why it happens. And, how the bullied respond. And, what happens to the bullied after they they act on their frustrations.
.
What won't work.
Collect all of the guns. Including those of would be murders. If they agree. If you threaten some kind of gun control, that just drives up sales. Ask the NRA salesman of the year, 8 years in a row, Obama. (Insert smile and wave, here.)
99% of the gun deaths in the US are not in schools or by mass murderers.
They are individual shootings by handguns.
The only real solution is to get rid of all the guns. All of them.
The same story. Basically, our country is sick. We all know it. We just don't have the courage to face it. And, the answer is guns. No one should own any gun without a license, and only genuine sporting licenses should be allowed (old fashioned hunting, not target ranges). Applications based on "self-defense" should not be allowed. Anyone disagree? I am sorry to admit that what I say here is impossible given our obsession with guns, self-defense, Second Amendment nonsense, etc. It's circular. That's why we’re sick.
2
The real answer will be to eventually ban and or very strictly regulate all firearms in this country. Second amendment overturned and something else put it in its place. The level of gun violence in this country and the glorification of gun culture in our society will eventually demand an extreme solution. When will that be? Maybe never.
2
Sadly, enough is apparently never enough, in the U.S.
3
Only money talks in these United States.
Dead kids do not vote.
You — we — can all do one other thing in addition to voting for politicians who pledge to vote for sane gun control.
We can use the power of our wallets, as individuals, and as members of professional and investment groups.
BOYCOTT states with bad state gun laws.
Let the politicians in these states feel the pain of their inaction in the only place they understand: their bottom lines.
DON’T VACATION in these states.
DON’T INVEST in these states.
DON’T HOLD PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS/CONFERENCES in these states.
And be very vocal about why your personal and professional and investment $$$$ are not going to FLORIDA. To TEXAS. To GEORGIA. To any state with a Giffords state gun law grade below C.
These lax state gun laws hurt not only their own citizens, but create GUN SOURCE STATES which undercut states with sane gun control laws, by providing easy access to out-of-state guns.
Massachusetts crime guns are often traced to MAINE or NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Chicago crime guns often come from surrounding states with horrible gun laws.
New York has the same problem.
An open letter was recently signed by dozens of oncologists from all over the US, pledging not to hold professional conferences in states with lax gun control laws. These doctors understand that gun violence is a public health crisis.
These doctors understand that dead kids can’t talk, so they are doing their best to advocate for sane guns laws.
You/we can all do this.
5
Americans pay lip service to some kind of Christianity, whether fundamentalist or of the feel-good Joel Osteen variety. But their real devotion is to the Second Amendment that permits every male to supplement his own physical prowess with a piece. As long as our warped culture equates gun use with virility and sheer power in its atavistic, twisted way, we will have this endless barrage and children will be sacrificed to our carelessness.
5
It's a little late to talk about not letting this become the new normal. Gun violence is just the latest symptom of something that became normalized a long time ago. It has been destroying our country slowly but surely in a determined effort to establish a permanent grip on power: the Republican Party.
Guns are just one of many issues the GOP consistently comes down on the wrong side of, time after time.
Healthcare, racial division, inequality, criminal justice reform, immigration, sexism, religion, the environment, climate change, civil rights, education, taxation....
Behind every problem bedeviling this country, you'll find conservatism working to make it worse in the name of... what exactly? What higher cause do they claim they are working for?
Freedom?
The freedom they seem most concerned with is the freedom of rich white people to behave badly and be rewarded for it with even more wealth and power.
The quickest way to do something about gun violence (and so many other problems in America) is to stop voting for Republicans. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, conservatism isn't the solution to our problems - it IS the problem.
3
The GOP is the worst.
But I have yet to see Democrats demand the only thing that will work: a ban on guns.
More school shootings create more resentment. More active shooter drills create more resentment. More guns and gun rights create more resentment. More NRA talking points create more resentment. More GOP donations from the NRA create resentment.
The resentment is building, so vote against any and all politicians who accept NRA money.
1
>
Nope it's not enough.
My calculations indicate that another 19 massacres of this kind will finally have the effect you seek.
“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
Schopenhauer
2
Mr. Blow,
You're editorial is Short and to the point,
The carnage will not end until politicians stand up to the N.R.A. This is also the solution, short and to the point.
3
Blow is right. Those of us fed up with school shootings, and shouldn't that be all of us...? need to be single minded, one-issue voters, because that is the only way to stop those who cling to their guns, making a cold, hard piece of metal and its ammunition sacred objects, one that destroys life and maims living, breathing children.
In my school district in MN, taxpayers are currently paying millions of dollars to change/secure the front entrance to each and every school. Shouldn't the NRA counter us who demand stricter gun control be making charitable donations to the cause? Donating dollars for school safety at the secured front entrance of every school ? With a plaque explaining the ''sacred nature" of the 2nd amendment and the NRA?
1
Repeal the Second Amendment. It is badly drafted, susceptible to interpretations (like the idiotic Heller v. DC) that are far from the Founders' intent that the "right" apply only in a military context, and the subject of huge demagoguery. Then, as I have written before, treat guns like cars (registration, compulsory liability insurance, recording ballistics properties of all weapons) and their owners like drivers (licenses with pictures and fingerprints, subject to demanding tests of shooting ability). The mass shooting craziness just has to stop.
6
The USA has made it's 2nd Amendment bed and now must lie in it. Until that is repealed and guns are taken out of the hands of a public emotionally il-equipped to handle such push-button lethality, nothing will change.
3
What we have now is a situation where the media shares in the blame for these events.
Somehow someway every new incident of gun violence takes over the airways. It becomes the number one story and in doing so we unintentionally adopt an attitude that the perpetrator will go down in history.
This in turn leads to copycat crimes and a new shooting pops up.
We need to consider changing our coverage of these crimes as well as not publishing the names of the shooters.
One approach would be to to use the latest tools like FMRI to probe the minds of people when they are exposed to present news stories and perhaps modify these stories.
1
We hear over and over that the mythology of gun ownership and the NRA power in politics is too powerful to overcome. That’s things won’t change that we live in a culture of violence. That the media exaults the sick and disenfranchised . It gives them a voice.
So let’s give them all a voice: let high schoolers vote. It is after all their lives we are callously debating
3
Since we now know that Vladimir Putin controls the NRA and Trump, we must find a way to appeal to the Kremlin to ease up on the plan to sow chaos in our schools, government, religion and politics. In all likelihood, Putin will be invited to attend the military parade to glorify Trump. Perhaps we could organize a demonstration there that would persuade Putin to cut us some slack. Just a thought.
2
The National Violence Association (NRA) is what we are all up against. No, they are not about preserving your Constitutional rights. The 2nd Amendment was about permitting you, a newly minted United States citizen, from having to give up your musket because, just maybe, the British might return to take down your revolution.
The Nation Violence Association was once the NRA, formed during the Civil War era to improve marksmanship. It evolved to educate people on gun safety. But somewhere along the last 45 years, the NRA morphed into the NVA. Power, money and profit overtook marksmanship, hunting and safety. Instead the NVA became the voice of the gun lobby, the gun manufacturers.Talk about a takeover.
Those of you, some of you my friends, won't see their guns stripped from them until it comes from their cold-dead hands. That stupidity lies in not realizing that there could be a middle ground.
Why, because the NVA has not bowed to recognizing that nothing but unfettered access to guns and munitions is its only goal.
Age limits on purchases, a violation of the Constitution.
Limits to purchases based on common sense usage, Unconstitutional.
Registering all gun owners, Unconstitutional.
Requiring a background check on all gun sales, you guessed it, Unconstitutional.
The more I consider these answers, the more I come to the conclusion that either law makers modernize the interpretation of the 2nd amendment or that we repeal it.
Eventually, the bow will break.
3
I dont know how you would gun control this kid away, he used a shotgun and a revolver. I guess you could make it illegal for the father to not have his pistols and shotgun locked up, but that would only cause this kids father to go to jail not stop the kid from killing people.
The only way you could gun control this shooting away is by repealing the second amendment and then sending the army into every house in America to confiscate everyone's guns.
I personally dont see Americans being ok with repealing the second amendment and mass confiscations.
As such, I think that this reflexive pull for gun control on the part of liberals is misplaced in this context. It wouldn't have prevented this murderer.
What did prevent this kid from killing more people was a cop with a gun. There should be more cops with guns at schools until our society isnt so sick anymore.
Also that guy did have a point about entrances and exits. Liberals mocked him but it's true. A school with 10 doors is easy to infiltrate and a school with 1 or 2 doors isnt. That's just reason and logic and doesn't deserve to be mocked.
I support all gun control except repealing the second amendment. I agree with classes and background checks, even making it illegal not to have your guns secured. I'm not an NRA member but I own 10 guns including a AR-15. If the cops gave up their assault weapons even I could be convinced to give up my AR. Yet liberals think it isnt worth talking at all with gun owners like me.
2
Maybe they don't think you are worth talking to because you would be unwilling to give up your guns for the greater good.
Gun owners are correct in what they fear: the only real solution is a total gun ban. It works elsewhere.
Your confiscation scenario is hyperbolic fear mongering. Australia used a buy-back to eliminate guns. A tiny fraction of the defense budget would enable the same in the US.
Defense of the people from guns begins at home.
Here is a simple start: stop glorifying gun violence. Hollywood must expand their rating system so that any depiction of firearms would result in an Adults Only rating. This would limit exposure of the offending movies since many theaters will not show adult material.
A true common sense first step and one that I am sure many anti-gun Hollywood professional would get behind immediately.
Can we count on your support, Charles?
1
Good ideas:
"So how do you find out where your representative in Congress stands on gun control? I suggest that the New York Times tell us. And provide the NRA's rating for the person."
Personally, I don't need to check, since Nancy Pelosi is my Congresswoman. I'm pretty sure where she stands on all of this, and what her NRA rating is -- no need to check. But that wouldn't be true if my rep were someone else.
After The Port Arthur massacre in 1996 in Australia, Australian government took action to stop the madness.
Multiple massacres in this country have not prompted our government to do anything. Who does the government represent, the people or the gun lobby? Never mind. That was just a rhetorical question.
Unless we the people change the government that we have which refuses to do anything, with politicians offering "thoughts and prayers" and nothing else, we will continue to have to deal with these tragedies.
"Be the change that you wish to see in the world,” said Gandhi. Vote for change.
3
Nothing will be done until the NRA is outlawed as a lobbying group infiltrated by a hostile foreign power, and all Republican members of Congress are voted out of office. So vote people.
3
To all persons who refuse to support sane gun laws:
are you willing to sacrifice your child to your so-called right to bear arms, any kind of arms, under any circumstances?
If the answer is no, then I guess you are willing to sacrifice someone else's child, but not yours?
If I still had children in high school, or middle school, or elementary school, in this country, I would pull them out in protest, until sane laws are passed in this country.
It is insane that a parent needs to worry about the safety of his or her children, when they go to school.
192
Agreed! I also think that a nation-wide walk-out on the part of teachers would send a strong message. If teachers refused to teach until sane gun laws are enacted, I think we'd get some action quickly.
12
Frankly I would take every last gun away from everyone. I'm done. The only people I know who own guns (in Texas except for collector items that really aren't that usable) are paranoid, old school, overly masculine as a defense, defensive, and not that educated. Just take them all away. We gave you guys a chance. Now turn them in.
13
The only sane gun law - one which would make any dent in these kinds of massacres - is a complete ban on guns including comprehensive confiscation of all guns.
Let's cut to the chase and demand that.
How is a better screening or background check going to make these outrages never happen again? How would eliminating bump stocks eliminate these massacres? These can only help, but they won't really end the problem.
We need a serious, clear and honest debate about whether we should repeal the 2nd Amendment, and talk about what that would require, what it would look like.
8
No guns in civilian hands, ever. Government can buy them back at market value.
Round up those that defy, ten-year guaranteed prison terms, per weapon.
No pistols, no antiques, no rifles, no "target shooters,” no "hunting" (no “sport” = murder of animals), no "recreational" use, no souvenirs.
Worried about the "government?" Be involved in the government, run for things, run things. Be sure the army and police are loyal to the people, not to the President, Governor, Mayor and certainly not themselves.
End "volunteer" armed services, draft everyone, every class, put them to use for societal good (National Services, not Armed Service) until/if ever needed for a true "defense of the nation."
We can do this, other countries have evolved, we could too…
4
"Round up those that defy, ten-year guaranteed prison terms, per weapon. "
This thinking just defies comprehension.
Who is doing "the rounding up"? Law enforcement? The US military? Maybe we can outsource that to China too, or perhaps have Jeff Bezos create robots to do our dirty work.
Have you ever stopped to think, from a political standpoint, where the sympathies and thought processes of the "rounders up" might be? You might consider that before you start prescribing policy that is likely to push the US into armed revolt.
The United States as an idea is melting away, as our democratic system no longer works for average Americans. Our government has become a mere function of a multinational corporate donor class, backing special interest groups like the NRA, who write American laws that benefit their interests at the expense of regular people.
These entities owe no allegiance to the United States as a nation, therefor common sense gun laws, or any other laws that benefit the people, gain little traction when the system is explicitly rigged against us.
They use their media outlets to divide us, perpetuating propaganda to instill fear and hatred of our fellow citizens and helplessness in the face of ever mounting insecurity. If children are shooting each other in schools, mentally unstable men gun down people in churches, restaurants, or movie theaters, the bloodshed never really affects their gated, insulated lives. Rather the mayhem serves to “decrease the surplus population”.
It's imperative for all Americans to make the system work for US again. Vote in November.
5
Enough IS enough! I agree and yet wonder why my fellow Americans have such memory lapses when they get into the voting booth. Our society is decaying from within when thinking about children dying in school. It is nothing but moral rot when we accept and excuse the deaths of 6 year olds.
So I urge everyone to Remember and Vote in November for the candidate who wants proper gun control legislation.
And we should also be vigilant regarding voter suppression by the GOP/NRA. They love to deny the vote and are aware of the swelling numbers of new voter registration efforts which we can be sure they will challenge as best they can.
4
Dear Casual Observer:
I'm not deluded. Calling me deluded makes me want to just oppose all gun control because I know your end goal is repealing the 2nd amendment. I own 10 guns and I believe in universal background checks, red flag laws, I'd even be willing to give up my AR-15 if the police give up their assault weapons and demilitarize. I dont want to repeal the second amendment. As a transgender woman I feel safe with my pistol in my purse and I have adequate reason to feel valid in that feeling of safety given how many transgender women are brutally murdered each year.
Yet you call me deluded. When you are dealing with people who think you are crazy it's hard to trust them to compromise with you. Why would anyone compromise with someone they consider insane?
Yet we live in a Democracy. Your Right-Thinking is not everyone's Right Thinking and in a democracy citizens need to A: Not think 30% of the populace is insane and B: To be willing to compromise with people you disagree with because you understand and respect that they can have a different context or point of view.
I live in a mountainous rural area where the nearest cop is 30 minutes away. I have to take care of myself and my transgender wife and I have guns for that reason. I also just love shooting and have shot thousands of rounds yet never killed a single living creature, not even a bird. I am sane and responsible. I was educated at MIT. I'm not in the NRA and didnt vote for Trump. I'm not deluded.
1
I suggest that a man who claims he is a woman, such as this person, is deluded.
Not deluded. Just selfish.
Giving up your guns for the greater good is apparently too much to ask of you.
After all, you "love shooting."
After that, who can argue for the 35,000 lives lost to firearms each year?
I personally cannot wait for these students to begin voting. I want their anger at the polls. It will outshine mine, but their anger was earned suddenly. Mine has just grown over time - and a short time at that.
3
Mr. Blow,
It is not enough to say that the cowardly legislators are beholden to the NRA. It must be made clear that the gun industry profits from all this. Please tell us who funds the NRA, how much profit each gun company made last year, who their CEOs are. It is time to smoke our enemies out.
2
Yes, this is the defining single issue and voters must vote to stop this carnage. Parents of these killers should also be held responsible. The names of the killers should not be published. Anger management classes must be taught. Every child should do community service. Young white males and probably their parents should be screened by psychiatrists since they are the main murderers. More money needs to be spend on public education and not just for defense against these acts but for ensuring a really top education for all kids and smaller classes. I am generally against single issue votes but in this case I believe it is essential. Stop the murder of children at school. Get rid of the guns.
NRA gun nuts are indeed single issue voters, so even though they are a tiny minority they carry a lot of weight as swing voters. The rest of us sane voters need to demand that any candidate who wants our vote specify his or her commitment to strict gun control measures, including but not limited to: minimum age for purchase 25 years. Weapons must be kept locked in gun lockers. Magazines limited to 6 shots. Complete ban on assault weapons. Complete ban on bump stocks. Complete ban on open carry. Ban on concealed carry unless applicant can prove imminent threat. All purchases including private sales and at gun shows must be subject to thorough background checks. Minimum 2 week waiting period. Gun owners and purchasers must participate in gun safety training, and be licensed and registered.
1
The NRA is a tax exempt nonprofit organization that spent $52 million on GOP politicians in 2016, including an unprecedented $30 million -- at least some of it from Russia -- on Trump. It is the main lobbyist for gun manufacturers and dealers. It is years since it has been about gun safety and now is about selling guns and gun culture. George H. W. Bush had the decency to resign when the NRA head called federal agents jack-booted thugs.
Pres. Obama had it wrong. Frightened right wing people don't cling to their Bibles and guns, because guns ARE their religion. Christianity has little to do with it.
The only hope is for young people and the non bigots of this country to vote all NRA politicians out. The Russian money was illegal and treasonous anyway but patriotism has been tossed out along with their children's lives.
2
Charles, your problem is you are thinking of the people. That is not the Republican party. Think only of the MONEY. Then it all makes sense.
More murder means more fear means more guns. The gun industry knows that. The NRA knows that. Mass killings aren't a bug. They are a feature. This week was a great triumph for the gun industry and a great triumph for the NRA.
It's not just people harmed by bullets who don't matter. People harmed by not going to the doctor because they can't afford it don't matter. People harmed by drinking brown Appalachian water don't matter. People who attend phony for-profit colleges and emerge with crushing debt don't matter. People who lose food stamps because of bureaucratic work requirements they can't fulfill don't matter. People who fill for-profit prisons because it's impossible to avoid police scrutiny starting as kids don't matter. And of course people who lose out on whatever remaining government support we have for housing, education, infrastructure, and everything else because our richest citizens need a tax cut don't matter.
The ultimate purpose of the money, from the Republican perspective, is to fund and continue to elect Republicans. From the perspective of the wealthiest Republican donors, it's to be even richer and lock in their dominant position in society. And it's working for both. A win-win!
And your silly little powerless people don't matter.
1
“People seeking common sense gun control must become single-issue voters on gun control”.
Point well made Mr. Blow. Point well made!
1
Trump likes superlatives. Indeed, in just fifteen months the Trump administration has the greatest number of school shootings per month in American history.
2
This column paints a picture of what it's like to grow up in America today. We are robbing our children of the childhood they have every legitimate right to enjoy.
Along with spiraling national debt, stagnant wages, environmental degradation, involvement in unending wars of choice and economic disparities so gross as to be obscene, we baby boomers are leaving our kids a culture of violence and random killing.
if our kids grow up to hate us, we will have fully earned the rage directed toward us. We are leaving the world worse for the children who will follow us. We should be hanging our heads in shame but we don't; we simply plow on, clueless and heedless.
2
Sitting in a Perkins restaurant in PA this morning I asked the waitress if there was a door in the kitchen that I could use to exit if a shooter came in . I was boxed in where I was sitting and saw no way out except through the kitchen . MAGA ?
Um, is there anyone other than me who has noticed that school shootings have never occurred in the schools the children of our mayors, governors, members of Congress, and executives of the IRA, attend?
Just asking.
1
America is pathologically obsessed with the Second Amendment and gun violence. The NRA fuels that obsession out of greed and lust for power. Vote in November and in 2020 to bring sanity to gun ownership in America. There is a right to bear arms but all rights have responsibilities and rules.
The Second Amendment is running amok in America.
Too many guns. Too many guns that are too easy to get. Too many crazy people with too many guns that are too easy to get. When will the carnage and bloodshed end? When we decide to do more than just talk? How many more children will die to protect the "rights" of adults? We should protect and cherish our children not kill them in cold blood.
It’s insane to say that guns are the problem here. Guns have always been prevalent in American society and we never had this issue. What has changed? We’ve taken religion out of the public square, violence is glorified in our movies and video games, it’s like we are grooming killers with no moral guardrails. Surprise, we have shootings, and we blame it on guns? Ridiculous. Well Charles, thanks for at least not making this piece about race.
1
The hypocrisy bothers me most. If gun in abundance are the answer, not getting guns out of society but putting more into it, then why are guns not allowed in the White House, let visitors carry. Let visitors carry guns in the halls of congress, carry them in courts, carry them everywhere, because if a good gun will take out a person with a bad gun let's see it happen in the places lawmakers spend their time. Let's see them practice lock-down drills and running for their lives. Hmmmm, why is this not the case? Answer up law-makers!
3
You can add to your list NRA conventions, where guns are not allowed.
The ultimate hypocrisy.
1
Madness.
We've created snake-pits of random violence, and have managed to cynically seemingly permanently traumatize
our children/grandchildren.
Mandatory public schools are for indoctrinating our culture, and
our gun culture is explicitly being taught.
Is the phenomenon un-subtle marketing or what?
Perhaps I'm deliberately distorting in order to make the point.
Exaggeration rhetoric, because what I'm posting isn't ordinary and normative, is it?
Monkeys see, monkeys do.
Pavlov and Skinner are archaic ... not.
Okay, I've allowed my fear of what's occasionally happening to be a biggg dealll: I apologize, best to ignore & write-off, nevermind.
Thank you Mr. Blow. A cogent and compelling opinion.
I live less than 3 miles from the Sandy Hook Elementary school.
It is very demoralizing to realize that even the deaths of such innocents did not lead to change on the national level. It even led to a huge increase in the sale of weapons.
The NRA and local groups like CCDL (Connecticut Citizens Defense League) have a stranglehold on this country. They preach the perverted message that gun ownership is a "sacred" right. They don't believe that children have a scared right to feel safe when they go to school.
When will it end?
My son is in high school. After the Parkland shooting, he told me that he thought the instructions his school gave for active shooter drills were stupid, and that he had worked out the best place to run to in each classroom he was in.
This is my chilling assessment of the world we live in today - I didn't blink an eye as my son explained his plans to stay alive in the event of an active shooter in his school.
191
He's smart....a survivor.
4
Your comment touches on a fear of mine - the effect on all of the students caused by living in fear. As tragic as actual shooting events are, we have an entire generation developing a siege mentality.
18
@ Teresa: Just the way the NRA and the conservatives want us to be - fighting with each other, fearful of the "other," and oh yeah, buy more guns. Sad.
Gun violence, whether suicide or murder, is an expression of a sick America. Not just the shooter, our society. The Trump Presidency is an expression of how sick America is. America is sick.
Six out of ten eligible voters did not vote in 2016. Of those who did vote, a third voted for moral rot. Those who sat out the election actually voted in absentia for moral rot. America is sick.
The small deplorable bloc which voted for Trump, demands more guns, more powerful guns, gun ownership free of background checks, guns in schools, open carry of guns, concealed carry of gun, guns everywhere. And larger capacity magazines. America is sick.
Six out of ten eligible voters did not vote because the Republican Party suppresses voting; supporters of the Trump campaign used social media to suppress voting; red states underfund education with the explicit objective of limiting critical thinking skills and eliminating civics and history from the curriculum. America is sick.
The Republican Party is a bought and paid for subcontractor of the NRA. Never before in history have so few sold out so many for so little. Republicans are cheap prostitutes. America is sick.
America is a fake-democratic republic. The reality is America is run by the wealthy for the wealthy. Guns, Trump, race, illegal immigrants, religion, abortion are all distractions to keep people divided, keep people from voting in the interests of The People, including sensible gun regulations. America is very sick.
9
All sound thoughts, and the voters you describe are, to borrow HRCs accurate but condemned phrase, deplorable, are NOT a small minority. They constitute 1/3 of the electorate. As a result, this is never going to be reliably overcome until URM, teachers unions, and Hollywood place this issue above their heretofore agendas. I look to the day, Charles when you actively oppose the candidacy of a ANY Democrat who is not openly and actively supporting gun control, and actively supporting any Republican candidate who who is actively pro gun control, even if they are hardly "solid" on a host of issues such as immigration restrictions, teacher tenure, charter schools, tax policy, zoning, etc. I agree this can be down, but ONLY if we ALL walk the talk and make compromises in heretofore historic and immutable positions. It is precisely this focus that gives the NRA strength.
radical measures to fight radical killers. it's about time we do something about it. fight fire with fire.
Repeal and Replace the outdated 2nd amendment . Just do it
3
This is naive , ahistorical magical thinking, as is impeaching Trump. Its NEVER going to happen, and in Alfred part explains why gun control proponents cant get traction. Count the votes- they arent, and never will be , there. Instead of getting Distracted And feeling good about manning the ramparts on the upper West Side, why not identify a swing candidate to support in a purple state and put him/her over the top this fall ? If we want to save our children we need to get real.
1
If you actually care about the lives of schoolchildren, you will agitate for the repeal of the Second Amendment and the confiscation of all the loose guns in society.
Because nothing else will work. Nothing.
If you cannot bring yourself to support those measures, get ready for more deaths of innocent children. All the half-measures will not work.
2
An impassioned plea, Mr. Blow, but one, I fear, that will have evaporated by morning like this evening's dew. The votes of those who are chiefly responsible for the laws in our country--at the municipal, state and federal levels--are in the paid thrall of the National Rifle Association.
The only way that I see the N.R.A. even stopping to re-load on this issue is the almost-unheard-of mobilization of young people of voting age with the power to make a huge statement in November.
Those who are younger, for example, can bring their small voices to bear with family round-table discussions; with conversations with others their own age. Surely, unless I'm being terribly naïve, a groundswell of support--a movement, if you will--by the most vulnerable among us may jolt those in responsible positions into reluctant action. But the prognosis for such a volte-face is, sadly, not realistic. As we learned in Florida after the Parkland massacre, Marco Rubio almost resentfully defended the campaign contributions to him from the N.R.A. "People buy into my agenda" was his crude but unintentionally truthful statement of his meek subjection to the N.R.A.'s greasy orders.
1999 (Columbine, 15 deaths);
2012 (Newtown, 28 deaths);
2018 (Parkland, 17 deaths);
2018 (Santa Fe, 10 deaths);
The above took place at the (public) high school level or below. Congress is uninterested. Their kids aren't at risk. They're in private schools.
Ready for the next deadly news bulletin? I'm not. It's coming.
Enough is enough. So, effectively immediately, we need to make all schools physically secure and have armed guards at all schools. Then we can debate the gun control issue.
And the gun control advocates can admit that, since this latest killer used a shotgun and a revolver, we must add
the weapons to the ban list. Good luck with that.
What is "common sense" anymore? Look who's occupying the White House!
Gun violence is only one sign of our broken political system. We have an embarrassingly high infant mortality rate. Our national debt is out of control. Our criminal justice system kills thousands of innocent people annually. Our youth can't afford to go to college. We just passed "tax reform" that was a massive ripoff of the treasury by the wealthiest among us.
None of this will change until we fix the corrupt, broken campaign finance system; American voters need to get a clue not a single issue.
6
"None of this will change until we fix the corrupt, broken campaign finance system;" It can only be done at he polls.
1
The irresponsible inflexibility of the NRA to any responsible gun control action is leading directly to an entire generation of voters ready to abolish the second amendment.
2
The NRA is only possible because American voters elect leaders who are in its pocket.
1
I think that, in addition to voting against reflexive gun primacy candidates, we need to redefine what owning a gun connotes. Just as tobacco use morphed from cool and sophisticated to stupid, dirty and destructive, we could make the ownership of all but hunting weapons selfish, irresponsible and aggressive. Rather than regarding our national myth of the High Noon hero or patriot defending freedom with respect, we need to face the Disneyland delusion of the everyman's Dirty Harry or John Rambo. Think how far we've come toward eliminating the danger of drunk drivers on our roads. Campaigns of social disapproval resulted in changes in the law, which led to far fewer accidents involving drunks than there used to be. If we truly want to revamp our gun laws, we need to start by making it socially unacceptable to pack heat anywhere except the woods or the gun range.
5
Problem is republicans have banned federal support for any research in begun violence. Plus, you would be shocked to learn how many democratic voters in blu states have guns at home. Left off your laundry list is more active and visible policing. Until people feel safe, guns are going to proliferate.
1
Repeal the 2nd amendment. Never vote for NRA supported representatives. Vote for more money for teachers, schools and for mental health services.
That is where we should start and we must never give in to reaching those goals.
5
Enough is enough is enough is enough is enough.
But it never is.
3
The attitude that assault weapons can’t be regulated or even studied is beyond absurd. Imagine the outrage if the American Autombolie Association supporting not using seat belts and decreed that the of seat belts can't even be studied.
8
Let’s just put away all guns for 24 months. Call it a time out. An intermission between half’s. And see what results.
1
It would seem to me that you need to change the focus of the NRA. How to do that?
Well perhaps if the 63% of US citizens who don’t own a gun should join the organisation and get involved it its policy making.
More focus on gun safety, on access by not-qualifieds, on training. An easy search will give you a membership form. Can you afford $40 a year to save your children?
Your Fifth Column approach is interesting.
However, the membership of the NRA doesn't set policy. The leaders will just find a way to rule out of order anyone who opposes it.
I look forward to the day that Republicans decide that kids are more important than worshipping guns and the NRA. Sadly, it’s unlikely to happen.
4
Wasn't enough "enough" after Columbine? Sandy Hook? Mr. Blow is more optimistic than I am, believing that gun control can succeed because of another school shooting; only the latest, not nearly the most horrific. Feminists traffic guns as their pathway to empowerment; even my most "liberal" friends own guns, supposedly to "protect" their families. Guns give the illusion of power, and that is why power-obsessed Americans love them so much.
3
With respect Charles, we cannot play the "long game" and accept congressional candidates who promise to "review the issues" while our fellow citizens - and our especially our children - are being killed on a daily basis. Simple solution: reject any candidate, of any party, who is endorsed by the NRA.
1
There are millions of guns in the hands of Americans, I don't believe we can legislate our way out of any murderous rampage that is now part of every day life.
What is difficult for people to understand is motive it seems the first question that is asked is why.
People need a reason to grasp on to so they can believe a solution is possible to stop the carnage, mental illness is the first choice.
I don't buy it.
The terrifying excuse of mental illness is just that an excuse.
Our heads will be buried in the sand forever if we believe you can tinker with gun laws ban a few types of weapons and that will make our children safe from gun violence you are wrong.
I'm not sure at this point there is a solution there are just to many guns in the life blood of our culture, looking for the reason is important only to those who are grieving and to those who want a political soapbox issue.
I take issue with Charles because how many times will we hear Enough Is Enough, isn't that obvious by now.
13
I completely disagree with your contention that mental health is "an excuse." Are you contending that these are normal, well-balanced individuals who are carrying out these attacks? There is no mental health 'system' in this country capable of intervening and deterring an attack. We have the illusion that care is there for those who need it. It's a national disgrace.
5
If we can legislate our way over the past 45 years to restrict a legal procedure such as abortion to where it's almost impossible to get one, we can do it with guns as well. And I don't mean pistols, shotguns, and other non-semi-automatic weapons, just anything that can carry a magazine of 10, 20, on up to 100 rounds, any weapon that can be easily converted into a semi or automatic weapon, and any weapon that is not necessary for hunting. Target practice, sport shooting - do it at a range where you can shoot those weapons to your heart's delight but leave it there when you're done. By the way, most mentally ill people are not a danger to society. However, angry white men and boys who lack in social skills and don't want to get the mental health help they need, and is readily available at your local ER, certainly appear to be the biggest problem we face.
1
Charles, you do not extend your argument far enough.
Almost all Congressional Republicans receive a NRA rating of A or B, and financial campaign support from the National Rifle Association.
75 % of Democrats receive a failing grade from the NRA and virtually no financial support goes to Demcrats from the NRA.
If you really want to keep your children, grandchildren, loved ones, and America safe from gun violence, you should vote only for Democratic candidates for federal, state, and local offices.
And vote for NO Republicans until the gun violence health issues
are strongly addressed!
4
We tell our children, and grandchildren, that people are more important than things. Let's show it to be true. Children have a right to go to school and know they are safe. That right has more weight than adults having their right to bear arms, which was instituted to form a state militia at a time where there wasn't a military presence easily accessible to protect against foreign intruders. We NOW have a president who welcomes foreign intruders into our elections and policy making - 'pay for play', but encourages folks to get tough with opponents and American to have guns, even though they shouldn't need them, if he and Congress were doing their jobs. The slaughter of the innocent is on their hands, as they have failed to do the right thing again and again. God please help us to erase this blot on our nation. Justice will be served. The day of reckoning is coming.
Is this the price we pay for protecting our obsession with owning guns. Something's got to give and it better not be our kids.
"Sorry, Charlie" --- as the old TV ads for StarKist Tuna used to say.
"People seeking common sense gun control must become (more than just) single-issue voters on gun control" --- they must become meta-issue voters, focused on the meta-cause of all issues, which is this Empire only 'posing' as our former country.
This awful 'gun issue' is just the smaller domestic violence version of the 'MIC issue', which Ike 'exposed' in 1961 as the far bigger and violent foreign policy 'issue' of Empire.
1
The Supreme Court must revisit its erroneous 2008 decision on the Second Amendment.
1
I have long thought that only way ordinary Americans including that most ordinary of all whom I do not name would begin to grasp what we have done in Iraq and elsewhere would be for war to come to the 48.
Now that war has come but only to a select population, our school children, brought not from the outside but rather by our very own, all too often killing with versions of a weapon designed to cause maximum damage to the body of those not killed.
There is one possible but by no means guaranteed solution.
VOTE.
Only-NeverinSweden.Blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
4
It dawned on me the other day. They never show the carnage and blood and dead bodies, do they? Maybe they should so Americans can get a really good taste of what we are doing. Why don't they show that? I certainly wouldn't want to be the EyeWitness News Photographer, but that's their job isn't it? I think there is some censorship going on, and it's un-American.
5
I agree.
One sight of the mutilated, twisted bodies of seven-year-olds at Sandy Hook would be a more devastatingly effective reminder of reality than all the pious, hypocrital thoughts and prayers of politicians and gun fanatics.
1
Thank you, Jerry. That is exactly the point. There would be serious discussions then. Let's get to finding out, "Why aren't we seeing those videos? Who doing the censorship?"
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to make Texas Blue.
There is neither a universally acceptable solution on gun control nor a proper understanding about identifying and handling deranged kids. Any solution on either will create more opposition than support.
It is better to force Texas to come up with a solution. They won’t. This will help Texas to go blue.
That is the most important political necessity.
1
The New York Times and other media outlets are right to insist on the pressing necessity of gun regulation. Besides school shootings, far too many suicides and homicides are due to the wide availability of guns.
Nevertheless, school shootings have become distinct crimes that require more than just gun regulation. The media needs to think very carefully about its own role in perpetuating this insanity. These young men kills their schoolmates and neighbours because they want their photos splashed all over the front pages, because they want their names and deeds trending on Twitter.
So deny them the publicity. Don’t print their names or photos. Don’t interview their parents and friends. Stop describing in detail the mayhem they caused. (The same goes for terrorists, by the way.) Take away their motive, and watch school shootings plummet.
Just as gun owners need to ask themselvse if their love for assault weapons is worth sacrificing children to, you in the media need to ask yourselves if getting more clicks are worth sacrificing children to. Media coverage of the type we see with every violent attack provably generates more such attacks. It’s past time all media owners – ‘old’ and social - agreed to a blackout policy to help stop this vicious spiral.
1
I disagree.
Truth requires light.
There is no evidence that any of these school shootings was the action of a copycat or publicity seeker.
Not Responsible Adults (aka N.R.A. supporters) must be voted out this November if we want to end the gun massacres at schools, movie theaters, night clubs, outdoor concerts and everywhere we gather. It's time that we make this a top priority issue when we vote. The lives of our children and grandchildren, friends and neighbors depend on it. If you care more for them than unrestricted access to guns, then it's time to make #NeverAgain a reality. This is our chance to do something to save lives. And, as they used to say about auto safety which includes training, testing, safety devices, and preventive locks and keys to operate a vehicle, "The life you save may be your own."
1
As long as the victims are school children, teachers, church or theater goers, shoppers, poor or ordinary people nothing will change. But we have the untouchables, politicians on the national level, elected or otherwise, oligarchs, super donors, CEOs, and right wing icons, who pull strings and whisper in the ears of power. Hundreds of millions, if not billions are spent to protect these people most at taxpayer expense.
Once people like these are shot or put in fear of their lives and the lives of their families gun laws will change. In 1954 fanatical gunmen broke into the House with the intention of submanchine gunning as many as they could. They killed no one, before the Capatol police shot them down.
There are groups in this county, armed to to the teeth who could, as terrorists might plan to do, break into, let’s say, the Senate and let fly with folding plastic guns or tossing a few granades and killing a dozen or more Senators and if they were Repulican or even a few, there would be new gun laws by the end of the week.
Because then the privileged class has need to feel fear of gun violence. Shoot children and teachers, it’s hearts and prayers, but shoot a few politicians and you will get action
2
Blow has completely missed point. Why in the 1900s did we go through school and never had a school shooting? What changed? Liberalism changed school discipline and family discipline and did away with reform schools. Instead of Blow asking what has changed in the past 100 years, he is like the mayor of London wanting to pass a knife ban now because people are using them to kill instead of guns. Society must change back to strict discipline, parental control, zero tolerance for delinquent behavior and reform schools. You won't have to worry about knives or guns.
Why stop there?
Why not just go all out with a police state?
That's the logic that dictators use: lax discipline, not repression, is the problem with society.
Liberals, not the easy availability of guns, are responsible for 35,000 firearm deaths per year.
Well, who do you think owns a majority of those guns? Hint: not liberals.
1
When Reagan put Scalia on the Supreme Court the USA ceased being a nation of laws. The Bill of Rights makes perfectly clear the second amendment that conscientious objectors are exempt from military service. (article five passed by the House August 24 1789) the Republican Jurists knew and understood it was not about guns.
The Supreme Court rendered the constitution meaningless and now your country is hopelessly divided. There will never again be a UNITED States of America. I hope and pray you country can find a peaceful solution to your irreconcilable differences but looking to the courts which are now just another political body is impossible. The constitution which was your foundational document was rendered null and void.
2
There is only one way to address the problem. Make gun control a single issue vote. The majority of Americans favor gun control. They just don't care enough to vote.
1
Pretend the shootings were happening at GOP fundraisers. I guarantee Congress would find a way to pass effective gun control legislation and do it quickly.
2
License, registration, liability insurance required for gun.
Repeal the legislation that stops lawsuits of gun manufacturers and distributors.
Publish and shame every politician who accepts money fron the NRA.
2
The gun lobby, their converts, and paid politicians will think up anything to avoid the real issues---guns for all everywhere---which no other modern country tolerates. And politicians paid by corporate interests.
One of the crazy remedies now pushed by some in Texas is to redesign schools to have fewer entrance doors, thus more easily guarded against killers. Sounds real good to those trying to avoid sensible gun control policy. Anything they can think up to avoid the truth.
In other words, in 21st century America, schools for our children must be designed against repeated terrorists looking to murder as many kids as possible.
But fewer doors also means fewer ways for students to ESCAPE once a killer enters and starts the slaughter.
If guns for all everywhere weren't an American credo, then there wouldn't be so many crazed killers with guns trying to get into the school in the 1st place!
Unbelievable.
In other modern nations they don't let gun maker money help finance their politicians' careers---thus guns for all is NOT a norm. Thus their strict, sensible gun laws are supported by all parties and the voters. Their kids are safer than ours.
Their schools aren't in constant danger from demented killers with easy to get weapons coming in and slaughtering their students and teachers.
Decreasing entrances, and arming teachers just caters to the US gun lobby.
Try, try again---what other evasions and denials can the gun lobby think up?
2
You are directionally correct, Mr. Blow, but are being too kind toward intransigent, NRA-bought and paid for Republican members of Congress. Enough, when it comes to gunning down students and teachers in our schools, is more than enough. It is way too much.
The blatant hypocrisy of elected officials who rail against the death of unborn children, but who regard the shooting deaths of those already born as acceptable collateral damage to an overly expansive interpretation of the Second Amendment is, quite literally, criminal.
It is up to We, the People, to use the mid-term elections to rid our Congressional chambers of those who continue doing the NRA's dirty work by allowing the chambering of endless rounds of ammo in our nation's schools. It is explosively loud and undeniably clear that left to their own devices, they will continue to obey their gun lobby masters as long as they occupy their privileged Congressional sinecures.
If they can't hear the ear-splitting message sent by the explosive rounds of ammo which silence the voices of our students and teachers, then perhaps the ringing message of our votes will pierce their deafness to the bullets that are taking an increasing number of innocents from us.
Too much is too much.
Sooo..,probably nothing will be done despite the fact that there were, I believe, already 20 school shootings this year. Or despite the face that more kids were killed than were our troops fighting in war zones. Or that more people are killed by guns than die in car accidents.
Much of the blame goes to the NRA. The closest I have seen as a viable diminishing of NRA power is for all of us to join the NRA and then use our NRA vote to influence the direction they take.
However, I suspect that wouldn't work since the majority of Americans want more regulations on guns, yet nothing happens. When the majority of our budget goes to war-funding, the ultimate deliverers of weapons are always going to have more money behind them. This isn't just about guns, it is about the god named GREED.
All good and valid points Mr. Blow, but I don't see you or the vast majority of others talking or writing about Bullying. Not to make excuses for the shooter in Texas or any of the other school shooters, but I would suspect if law enforcement, school officials, politicians and the rest of us looked deeper, you would see that this kid was bullied over a long period of time. I saw it as a kid in the 1950's, my children experienced it in the 1970's and my grandchildren talk about today. You see it on TV, in the movies, books and online and we laugh, shrug it off or just plain ignore it from lack of concern. Going to school with a pistol, rifle, knife, pipe bomb or other weapon is terrible and steps need to be taken to reduce the threat of violence. Possibly looking at one of the root causes of this violence, bullying and taking positive steps to reduce it might also go a long way to help make schools a safer place. Spend a few minutes looking at www.stopbullying.gov, it's worth our time.
1
Yes, school shootings are horrific. And there are too many of them as 1 is too many. But they are essentially rare events. Since Columbine there have been a handful of rampage shootings (Va Tech, Newtown, Parkland, Santa Fe and a couple of others) but the media is drumming things up as if school rampage shootings were a daily occurrence - but they aren't. Yesterday in an article about Santa Fe the Times noted there had been over 200 school shootings since Newtown. Sounds horrific on the surface but around 190 of them were of the nature of -- jealous husband shoots wife at the school where she teaches. A gang member shoots another gang member on school grounds. A kid commits suicide on school grounds. There is a fight after a basketball game in the parking lot. Etc. In short, the shootings occurred on a school grounds but were personal and didn't threaten other students, sometimes the shootings occurred outside of school hours.
So rampage school shootings are rare events statistically which means that it is unlikely that psych screening or tighter gun control will solve these types of shootings. The real focus should be on the daily carnage on our streets. We can maybe do something about that.
1
Fortunately, but not unsurprisingly, being a "one-issue voter" in favor of sane gun controls would also have the effect of ameliorating most, if not all, other issues in need of sane policy since it would mean voting against almost every Republican in almost every district and state.
Talk about bang for your buck!
7
I'll support any gun control initiative, any anti-NRA initiative, and anything that will end the legal ownership of combat style weapons. That being said, Mr. Blow can't possibly be naive enough to believe that even if all of the above happened that anything would change. There would be still be more than enough guns out there for whomever to procure legally or illegally. Worse, there will never be anything that would stop these sickos from building bombs. Listening to Blow conflate these ideas leading to a reduction in gun violence, or more to the point school violence, is about as grating to common sense as listening to Trump talk about arming teachers.
1
Yes, there are enough guns out there to keep the carnage going, but we need to stop the guns from increasing. Then we can start working on reducing the guns and maybe returning to some sort of sanity. If we do nothing, the only certainty is that it will get worse. The first steps need to be taken, and the sooner the better.
1
Mr. Blow is correct. Very little happens in law that isn't supported by the electorate. Until politicians see a price in supporting the absurd lack of gun control the unnecessary carnage will continue. For now maybe we can have lotteries on when the next school shooting will occur.
1
22 school shootings this year, all on the watch of Donald J. Trump and the Republican majority. That is enough to make me a single-issue voter. I will never vote for anyone who is not vocal and committed about enacting new legislation aimed at putting a stop to this fatal development in U.S. history. Enough is enough!
5
Those politicians who refuse to pass legislation that would ban semi-automstic weapons, ban bump stocks, require universal background checks, give police departments discretion to reject an applicant's request for a gun license if that applicant has a history of abusive and/or violent behavior... those politicians do not care about the safety of our children. Period. Those seeking elected office this year who endeavor to ban semi-automatic weapons and bump stocks, who will work to pass legislation to require background checks and provide police departments with discretion re: the issuance of gun permits need to remind the public that those who oppose making common sense the law do not care about children. And they must keep reminding voters. No more about second amendment rights. No more about guns don't kill people, people kill people. No more about the mainstream media creating mass shooters because of extensive media coverage. Enough. Enough.
5
If I were in charge, I'd insist upon gun regulation that parallels that for drivers: that is, a license demonstrating some level of competence and knowledge--including practical and theoretical testing.
That's not going to happen.
Neither is universal legislation in this country except for the most bandaid-ish of measures. Yes, please do ban assault rifles and bump stocks, but recognize that these are token measures. Tip of the iceberg.
The gun culture in America is diverse, deeply rooted , and unlikely to go away and it crosses both legal and criminal fronts.
Maybe answers come locally. (Although recent congressional legislation took power away from the states when gun owners cross state lines.) What might work for New Hampshire won't fly in Texas. Rural and urban areas have different problems. Definitely any solutions willl come incrementally. Clearly, they'll come from attacking, not just gun regulation, but social-psychological root causes.
But don't tell me that guns don't kill people; people kill people. Don't tell me there will be shootings anyway--it's no use to get rid of guns. Don't tell me that your right to carry a gun in public supersedes my right to insist that open carry is disturbing.
And don't tell gun control advocates that they're over-reacting, that the fear of school shootings outweighs the actual probability.
We need to stop being in denial, to stop being stupid and to stop being conciliatory. That's definitely not working.
4
I totally agree. There will either be a political solution (new people) or no solution. Period.
4
The shooter was breaking existing gun law before he fired a shot, as I understand it.
1. he was under 21, and carrying a firearm without a carry license.
2. he carried a gun onto school property.
If the conclusion is to write more law, I'd like to hear ideas short of the far-left position that the State and its officials should be the only legal arms-bearers.
Personally, I understand someone wanting a gun in their home to protect themselves from a potentially armed home intruder.
I understand The People not wanting to turn all firepower over to The State, and not wanting to live in a world where The State has a monopoly on legitimate arms-bearing.
2
The politicians have learned to quietly send their prayers to the victims, disappear from the daily view, and wait for the outrage to pass. They have even learned and taught others to say things like "thankfully there was a good man with a gun to stop the shooter so the death toll remained at 10." The thought of "if the shooter did not have the guns, the death toll would have been ZERO."
The distorted "logic and reasoning" eventually become adopted by many to perpetuate the quietude of the Congress and the political machine. No one even states the obvious anymore that the Second Amendment is not about self-defense but to protect the Republic. The reason to carry guns as part of a well-regulated militia has been turned upside down, even the "militia" has been dropped out from the conversation. Talk about distortion!
4
My wife, 3 school age children and I left the United States for work in Asia and Europe four years ago. In those four years we have never once worried about a school shooting, it is truly an American worry. It's like having blinders taken off by moving overseas and seeing how bizarre and obscene it is for children to be shot to death in their schools- and how it seems Americans now just shrug and say, "Well, what are you going to do?"-- the answer to that is-- "uh-- how about looking at any other country on the planet and see what they do?"
364
I totally agree with you. It's unfortunate that there is a sizable minority of Americans who are too myopic and uneducated to bother seeing anything outside of their bubble.
6
If we were losing this many kids to school fires, we would sure as hell be doing something about school fires.
6
There is an obvious solution to this problem, in addition to expanding mental health facilities for young men, treat guns like cars:
License based on training that is renewed annually
Annual tax on each weapon in addition to a hefty sales tax
Mandatory insurance on each weapon (the insurance companies would love it!!)
Monitor sales to keep an eye on gun "hoarders" who might be accumulating an armory.
With respect to licensing the State DMV bureaucracy is already set up to do that so it only need to be expanded.
Tax money would support licensing and expanded mental health facilities.
Make gun ownership responsible, just like car ownership.
19
I like the suggestions. The penalties for not having insurance would have to be much stiffer than they are for vehicles though.
You already have the right to sue somone that hurts you with a gun in civil court for damages. As for licensing, when did a civil right require a license?
I would love to have a definition of "common sense" gun controls. The term is used constantly in the media, but I rarely hear any specifics. It's easy to be in favor of "common sense" as a rallying cry, but what does it *really* mean?
We need to take a good hard look at our society and our schools and see if we can't find out WHY young men feel that killing classmates is a solution they are willing to entertain.
In my high school - on a US military base in Germany - virtually every student could have had access to their parent's firearms (had they dared!). But I doubt it occurred to any of us that shooting fellow students was an option.
We know from our history, from our experience with the Prohibition that prohibiting something doesn't mean people will stop using it, or stop acquiring it. It's hard to see how more legislation will help the problem. It might make us feel better - for a little while - until yet another disaffected teen breaks the new laws and shoots his classmates.
Can we do a better job implementing the laws that are already in place? Certainly. Are there laws that need to be strengthened or changed? Maybe. But all the laws in the world won't solve the problem of why some teens feel they can kill classmates and teachers. That's where we need to do our work.
2
SJ, as your are probably aware. Privately owned firearms on military bases are highly regulated. Government owned firearms are stored securely in arms rooms. If only the civilian world could do as good a job.
1
Yes Mr. Blow, enough is enough, but nothing is going to change,the gun mentality that exists in the United States.New Laws won’t prevent these killing nor will stiffer regulations, or trying to regulate what guns we can purchase .Every Law & regulation will only increase the profits made by unscrupulous criminals.As stated by Mr. Blow, the IRA owns our Political Parties, so it’s useless to to look to our politicians for help.But we can install Metal Detectors in the Entrance of of our schools, along with professional Armed Guards. All the tax money that is collected by the sale of guns should be allocated to these safe guards.This is the only way to prevent, & reduce the murder of our children.Eventually, every entrance to places where people congregate,should have these safe guards.This is the world we live in, we have to adapt.
1
Rather than spend energy in trying to change gun laws how about implementing things to secure schools? That can be done right now: access only from front door; metal (or other) detector manned by trained armed guard or armed police officer. All other doors locked, from the inside so as not to prevent exiting. Foolproof? Nope. Make a difference? Maybe. Just do it. Now!
2
So how do you find out where your representative in Congress stands on gun control? I suggest that the New York Times tell us. And provide the NRA's rating for the person.
That's at the national level. I think it is also important to know where your local state representative stands on gun control. And I don't know how you can do that. One thought is to contact someone in Everytown or Moms Demand Action for your state. Or ask your local newspaper to publish the information.
11
Second amendment supporters refuse to allow us to tackle this problem with the obvious solution, used around the world successfully. They are paralyzing the system. So for me, I expect them to own this problem and it is up to them to solve it. For every shooting going forward, I will ask, why have the second amendment supporters failed yet again to protect us?
5
There is almost no such thing as a responsible gun owner. There is almost no gun owner who thinks they aren't responsible enough to have deadly force lying around the house to protect themselves and their family.
It will never be enough.
2
The only way to stop this killing is to vote NRA supporters and tools out of office. That means that everyone must vote in November for candidates that support gun regulation. No excuses. Do not engage in the debate, because the issues are settled and the debate is a smokescreen. Tell your candidates that either they support rational gun regulation, or they will not have your vote.
Our issues are not being addressed because Congress is controlled by right wing Republicans due to gerrymandering. In fact, the majority of Americans support rational gun laws. This means that state elections have become extremely important, because Congressional districtd will be redistricted after the 2020 census. Congressional districts were gerrymandered because people did not pay attention to state elections. The Republican right had a long-term plan to take over state houses and then manipulate districting to control Congress. That plan succeeded.
To create the nation that we want, the nation that reflects the will of the majority of voters, we must remove from public office the tools and flunkies on the payroll of organizations such as the NRA. The only way to do that is to vote, now, to reclaim those districts where there are enough moderate Republicans, independents and Democrats to turn the tide, and at the same time vote in state contests to ensure that state legislatures are not Republican in 2022.
We are the majority and the laws should reflect our views. We can fix this. Vote!
13
There’s a simpler answer to our current state than single-issue voting on gun control: Vote against any and all candidates flying the GOP flag since, in addition to being in the control of the NRA, they also advocate dismissing the underprivileged while worshiping the privileged, treating immigrants as animals, going to war without forethought, blessing the evangelical cultism, and ignoring the threats to the country’s democracy by serving blindly a corrupt president and allowing another country to taint our electoral process. Those are ample reasons for a single-vote approach that might ultimately bring some sanity back to governing.
16
One of the answers is fo all 18 year olds to register to vote and vote out any politician who refuses to vote for Gun Reform. Perhaps another answer is to investigate the NRA tax filings. It would give the public a real view of how the money matters to politicians who support the NRA. Also it would tell the public if the NRA is a non-profit, thereby getting tax advantages.
And those who actually care about having children safe in school should start marching as well. And vote.
11
Become a one-issue voter? For now, YES! The anti-gun-control
lobby votes largely on this one issue. What do they get out of it? Freedom? Testosterone? Defense against the black helicopters?
Actually, what they get is dead children.
And most of us who long for sensible gun policies additionally support all the other things that keep humans safe and well. As the Trump administration in its "pro-life" disguise attacks Planned Parenthood, I wonder why it does more for fetuses than school kids.
11
I meant the Second Amendment not the Fifth. Canada has The Charter of Rights and Freedoms....that is what we fight over and take to court although we have a Constitution Act also.
Excellent analysis. This particular shooting was with a shotgun and a revolver. I remember when Joe Biden famously said "get a shotgun". But he was wrong. All guns are the problem. We need to ban not only semi automatic rifles, but semi automatic handguns, revolvers, and shotguns. And probably bolt action rifles too -- as this was the weapon sed to assassinate Kennedy. Yes Mr. Blow, thank you. We need to simply ban all gun sales, and seize all existing guns.
4
Single issue voting is for the most part a terrible thought since it contorts the significance of different issues, yet the professional weapon powers, the individuals who trust everybody ought to be equipped constantly and be prepared to shoot to murder, are single issue voters. They are constraining the issue. Huge numbers of them assume, by their votes and yells, that nothing is more imperative than firearms, as though weapons can settle everything and the advance of society toward fairness, enlightened conduct and a feeling of a minding country amount to nothing. Along these lines, perhaps different voters need to wind up single issue voters as well. Send the star passing gathering home, right now.
http://www.siyasat.pk/express-news-live.php
Firearms will never be prohibited in America, in any event so far as should be obvious and see toward the following 100 years. In any case, weapons will be controlled and subject to instructive (permitting) necessities. It will happen. The ability to roll out a major improvement is in the hands of the general population. They, and we, just need to need it enough to compose, give and, above all, vote.
4
The NRA is a big part of the problem (and none of the solution), and the easy access to guns the other big part. But these have to be taken in context. America loves violence. Violence is "just a part of growing up" for boys, it pervades all forms of entertainment (guns are a central plot device, characters' worth is measured by how they handle an automatic weapon, women actors have finally been allowed to be perpetrators of violence so now there is no moderating influence), nothing gets Americans all jazzed up like a good war, and violence is always one way to solve a problem, be it domestic, workplace, schoolyard insult, etc. Couple this with an angry society, which America certainly is, and you have a rolling disaster.
Part of the culture is also he adoration of "the individual", especially kids, as a person who can be whatever he or she wants to be, to "express" him or herself in any way he or she wants, and no one is allowed to judge or suggest there might be something wrong with this person because their very individual-ness is self-validating.
The rest of the world sees America as a sick society. When will Americans wake up to the fact? Before or after the next massacre?
8
I have an idea for a wall. It’s not a wall to keep people out but a wall to honor the innocent victims of gun deaths in the US, much like the Viet Nam memorial wall honors those who gave their lives for their country in that war. The names of all the innocent victims of gun deaths would be inscribed just like the Vietnam memorial. The memorial would be dedicated to “the innocent victims of gun deaths in the USA who innocently and unwittingly gave their lives to ensure that the 2nd Amendment rights of citizens were protected.” The names of victims of gun deaths since the tenure of Wayne LaPierre of the NRA would be given first priority. The memorial wall would be constructed on the Mall in Washington.
We need to undermine the NRA's control of the conversation about guns and gun rights. I see the wall as s step towards rescinding the 2nd Amendment and replacing it with something more relevant to our times.
6
I can make this easy for everyone. Vote “D”. I could expand, but I said I’d make it easy.
My great frustration as a survivor of suicide loss is the abdication of responsibility by the country's largest suicide prevention group after its decision to partner with a powerful gun lobby organization. Since this collaboration was announced two years ago, the organization changed its policy on gun legislation to "neutral" and follows the NRA/NSSF line of "education" not "legislation." More than 23,000 people kill themsevles with firearms each year in the U.S. Where is the outrage when this powerful organization uses the pain and sorrow of those of us whose loved ones have died by suicide to raise money to give cover to a gun lobby trade group whose only mission is to sell more guns? Easy access to guns and suicide is the forgotten topic.
3
Every Western Democracy has its share of individuals with mental health issues that pass under the radar, and also individuals who “snap” for whatever reason, commit a dreadful act and then plead “temporary insanity” in the courts. Only in America, however, do we give the disgruntled employee, the spurned partner, the paranoid xenophobe, the bullied student, and the seething misogynist and raging homophobe etc. etc. an easily accessible, relatively cheap and incredibly lethal way of “getting even.” We are truly exceptional.
6
We keep saying enough is enough, yet nothing is done. The only solution is to VOTE THEM OUT, and demand strict gun laws.
I decided long ago against voting for anyone who rejects what I think are sensible gun control measures. Sadly, not everyone who agrees with me has the same options, but we must move forward to support those in power who are willing to challenge the NRA and it's puppets. Let's vote in November!
1
" common sense gun control "
What are you common sense ideas I didn't see any?
This latest school shooting in Texas inspires you to want 'gun control' but it wouldn't matter if your ideas would not have prevented it. The incident in Texas becomes a reason to impose
'irrational gun control.'
1
Sure, I'm a single-issue voter about gun control! I'm also a single-issue voter on the environment. As it happens, that rarely forces a choice between two candidates, and no question about having to choose between two parties.
As for anti-abortion group, one must ask whether they believe the right to life stops at the door of the gun-lobby.
4
I agree, but too many gun opponents don't draw this distinction:
"A ban is not what Americans want. A sane policy is what most of us want."
Too many would-be gun restricters argue simply "Ban all guns!", which guns-rights advocates cite as proof that any restriction will be simply the first step on a slippery slope to confiscation.
DC v. Heller isn't likely to be reversed any time soon, and the Second Amendment isn't likely to be amended or repealed any time soon. That leaves passing -- and enforcing -- laws that restrict guns to the extent Heller allows, which is a considerable extent. Most of us understand that the Second Amendment will (and, frankly, should) protect hunters and fearful homeowners, and that guns have long been prohibited in schools, airports and, yes, NRA conventions. But there's a lot more that could be done and isn't.
Guns-rights supporters are able to shoot down most efforts to control guns by pointing out that those efforts don't draw important distinctions. Gun opponents allow those responses from guns-rights supporters by not drawing these distinctions themselves. When someone responds to a school shooting by marching around with a sign that reads "Ban all guns!", that protester is merely providing guns-rights supporters with a slogan.
1
A recent letter in the NY Times articulated an excellent fix for the short term: Treat guns like cars. You need: license to own a firearm, registration of the firearm, and liability insurance. If your firearms are used to harm or kill anyone, you are financially liable for all medical bills, funeral expenses, and financial compensation to the families of the harmed or deceased.
20
Not even a license. Just register all guns just as you would do a car. Second amendment rights are preserved - any adult can buy a gun - just that the ownership has to be registered. Plus mandatory liability insurance for any loss or damage caused to person or property - just as in a car. Gun sellers could sell the insurance as well with anti trust exemption if needed. 300 million guns would make a multi billion dollars insurance market. Pitch the insurance industry against the gun lobby to get this done.
4
Really, there's nothing left to say. I've lost track of the number of comments I've made over each of these horrific episodes. We all know what has to done: vote out any politician not willing to support gun control; vote out any politician beholden to the NRA. It's that simple.
10
In a chilling statistic, it has been reported that more students died in school-related shootings thus far in 2018 than U.S. military personnel killed in battle. Just ponder that societal obscenity for a moment.
Yes, America is "exceptional". As the lone outlier of the world's developed nations, we permit, through political cowardice and purchased obstruction, the slaughter of our most precious resource, our dear children. We don't really love these kids. They are expendable for the worship of some erroneously interpreted words written on a piece of paper centuries ago, a deified Second Amendment. Try hugging that.
13
I have yet to hear an explanation of what new gun laws would have prevented this. All this talk of "sensible" gun laws but no specifics.
If you read just a bit further, one proposal is to treat guns like cars. Another is to allow/encourage the production of smart guns. A third would be to allow the CDC to collect information about gun related injuries. A fourth would be to stop prohibiting doctors from even asking about the possession of a gun as a health related issue.
Hows that for openers?
8
Requiring a license to own each gun, registration of each gun, and liability insurance for each gun owned by the father of the shooter could very well have prevented this shooting. The father would likely have been much more responsible about access to his weapons had these laws been in place.
3
Is the father of the shooter, as the gun owner, liable for any of the deaths and damages?
3
Single issue voting is a dangerous thing. That is what got us into the current mess in the first place. People vote based on one pet peeve and ignore everything else. Single issue voters on abortion and gun rights have managed to get the most hideous politicians voted in again and again. The problem is that voters are not swayed by push button topics and don't bother to learn more about the candidates. We've turned into a headline driven society and democracy is losing out.
3
It's not really a single issue vote, since there is a huge overlap in beliefs by candidates who supports the NRA and all the other retrograde policies espoused by the GOP and a few timorous Democrats.
3
I agree completely with Mr. Blow's assessment of the situation and his proposed solution. But something is bothering me. In literally every one of these shootings, the shooter has a disturbing hatred of females. In the case of Santa Fe, the killer had been stalking a classmate for months. During the attack, he murdered her. While we must address the absurd mass availability of battlefield weapons to random citizens on demand, it is clear that mass shooters result from the combination of this availability and misogyny. Most women murdered by men they know had a restraining order against their stalker. The Sante Fe student who was being stalked prior to being murdered in the shooting had tried to stand up to her future killer. It is time to regulate guns and stalkers.
5
Thank you for this excellent article. I sent my Senator Claire McCaskill a question this morning via her website asking why the issue of gun violence was not even listed as an "issue" on her website. I know she has got to be careful as she is in a tight race for re-election this year but she needs to take a more forceful public stand. The gum violence must be dealt with.
3
Right now there are kids out there enjoying life who will be murder victims in the next school shooting or the one after that. Mr. Blow is right in stating that voters should make gun control the single issue in upcoming elections. It wouldn't take long for clueless politicians to get the point. If they support the NRA, they should be voted out.
2
Common Sense, to my mind, bespeaks Gun Control writ large!
Anything less than strong gun control is senseless gun permission.
I’ve had it with the “common sense” mantra!
1
I have long thought that the only way to change the voting patterns regarding gun laws is for the people who are in favor of such laws to become like the anti-abortionist. No matter how much I agree with you on other issues unless you are in favor of reasonable gun laws then I can't vote for you. Also I believe that it is foolish to think that the government will actually vote in such laws. Therefore I think that we should take the path of voter initiatives. Most states allow individuals to put initiatives onto the ballots. If it is true that most people support reasonable gun laws it should be easy to get these initiatives onto the ballots and to get them passed.
3
First, the argument that the NRA has any real power is ridiculous. The power comes from the fact that a huge number of Americans, some NRA members, but many not, don't want their basic rights taken away by the government. Second, any call for liability insurance is either borne of intellectual dishonesty or ignorance. Insurance never covers intentional torts, and in the event that a carrier tried to underwrite such a policy, it would likely be held to contravene public policy. I agree that mass shootings are a problem, but I don't think there's any way to fix them, given the fact that a) gun ownership is a Constitutional right in America and b) there are already 300 million guns in circulation.
2
"Roughly 2 in 3 Americans now say gun control laws should be made more strict in the wake of the murder of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, according to a number of polls, including a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll that shows support for stricter gun laws among registered voters at 68 percent, compared with just 25 percent who oppose stricter gun laws."
It would seem the NRA is actually a minority position. To claim that there are already too many guns out there is to throw up your hands and say there is nothing that can be done. You demand 100% effectiveness or nothing. An absurd position.
1
Your egregiously narrow interpretation of the Second Amendment is a huge part of the problem, as is your assertion that the NRA has no power.
The Framers couldn't possibly have conceived of rapid-fire, multiple round, automatic and semi-automatic weapons in the hands of American citizens. It was written when such weapons didn't exist, and when full-time standing armed forces were yet to be formed.
It's time to stop twisting and hiding behind 200-year old language that could not possibly have been intended to permit this. This is not about Constitutional rights. It is about contemptible wrongs aided and abetted by our nation's ostensible leaders.
1
hmmm... then i must be guilty of "intellectual dishonesty". Mandated liability insurance is the best hope for bringing this problem under control. It is the solution that best internalizes the externalities - i.e. gets the people who impose the risk to pay for the risk. Regarding your legal arguments, they ironically strike me as intellectually dishonest. Congress has the power to create the market for this type of insurance despite whatever you may say about "intentional torts". Whether they have the will to do it is another question.
[[Students like Paige shouldn’t simply assume that one day a fellow student will show up with a gun and an appetite for death, and that there is nothing Washington is willing to do to prevent it.]]
Gun laws and prosecuting gun crimes largely are local and state matters.
We often hear about people with illegally owned buns who leave them accessible to children who go on to kill or wound themselves or some other child. Everyone, I think, agrees that the parent who controlled that illegally owned gun should be charged with child endangerment.
So, what about the teenage children who use their parents' legally owned guns to commit mass murder?
Do we all agree that failing to secure a weapon should result in charges against the parent?
That's where I would start.
Washington is incredibly corrupt and inefficient.
You'll have better luck lobbying your local and state governments to pass such a law.
1
President Obama kept mementos from the children slain in Newtown so that their deaths would not be in vain. President Obama cited that tragedy as the single worst day in his terms. And it should not have been inevitable.
If only more political leaders would follow President Obama’s example and understand what’s really at stake in the gun debate. How can they look grieving parents in the eye and say they made a child’s murder possible?
3
I think the glorification of guns is a big problem in places like Texas where elected official like Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, and Ted Cruz actually promote gun owernship even when it's not under attack. While gun ownership is widespread and legal for most to do in Texas, do we need our officials encourgaging us to buy more firearms?
1
Let us be plainspoken. Guns provide the illusion of freedom from government intrusion into our lives and support for vigilante justice that thrived in our Nation for much of its frontier history. There is also the myth that guns are for men. It is an affirmation of their virility and power under threat by the woman's movement. There is no rational opposition to measures that competently screen potential owners. Yet, Wayne La Pierre and the NRA spout nonsense about such laws. It is abundantly clear who should not be allowed to purchase a weapon. We know who are inappropriate potential gun owners yet fail to adequately screen out those with high risk profiles. The figures for gun violence are atrocious and yet we tolerate the slaughter. Our children deserve the right to attend schools that are safe. Communities should be able to assure parents and their kids the right to a safe learning environment. Adequate screening and 'hardened sites' to prevent the intrusion of guns into the school environment are essential. But...no steps will be taken and we will sooner rather than later learn of still more senseless slaughter of innocent children. Shame on us and shame on our Nation. Our kids deserve better....much better.
3
So here’s what I don't understand: the NRA claims a membership of around five million people, and anther ten million self-identify as supporters. Even if we double those numbers to a total of thirty million, that makes up less than ten percent of nation. Are our elected officials that tone-deaf?
3
Left unsaid in this tragedy is how much worse it would have been had the shooter had access to any assault-style weapons that his father may have legally owned.
I was just reading the other NYT article about the different reactions of kids in Texas vis Florida - and realized that what we need to have around guns - is not restrictions but liability.
If you own a gun and your child uses it to kill someone - both YOU and the child you raised are liable, held accountable for damages and both do the jail time.
If you sell a gun retail or privately that is not registered, you will be held accountable.
And I assure you, across the country there will be a very different conversation about guns.
So GOP NRA members who are all about “guns don’t kill people, people do” “people need to take personal responsibility for themselves” -
Maybe you should starting taking some personal responsibility and —- liability — for yourselves.
2
I think of all those Australians surrendering their guns in that country's "buy back" in an attempt to curb gun violence. It worked. All those people from different walks of life with different ideologies came together to protect their people. Great Britain? Great gun laws, almost zero gun violence. Our country? The lobbyists for gun manufacturers buy politicians and children continue to die. I'm ashamed to be an American. I was so proud of being a citizen of this once great nation. Now I watch Congress, collared like dogs to the NRA, do nothing but offer prayers and excuses. Then I remember as a child in school that this country was comprised of all the people the other countries didn't want. Now I know why. I want to be proud of our country again. Pat Toomey of PA was clever. To appease his constituents he introduced gun control legislation. Then to appease the NRA, he didn't fight to get it passed. Toomey refuses to hold a town hall meeting. It's not that these people don't know what they are. They do. Which makes it all the more disappointing.
1
Second amendment absolutists are fond of pointing out how many more Americans are killed by cars than by guns. Good point, but remember that the government has taken steps to reduce auto deaths, efforts which have been effective. So we should treat guns more like cars: they must be registered, you must pass a test to demonstrate that you know how to use them, and you must carry liability insurance to cover any damage that you may cause with your guns. And contrary to existing laws. the government must be allowed to gather statistics in order to study ways to reduce gun violence in America. Or is it acceptable to continue to allow high school students to be mowed down in school?
3
This may be a terribly cynical theory, but, perhaps not much has been done regarding gun violence in schools at the federal level in part because it is a way to undermine public education? If parents become too afraid to send their kids to school, there is an opportunity for private schools, religious schools and home schooling to step in. This aligns with the agenda on the right that discourages teachers and families by low teacher pay and educational support. It aligns with the agenda on the right that discourages higher education. At the moment, violence in schools fits in quite well with the Republican agenda.
3
It's past due when Americans should demand equal rights to have the same protections/benefits/resources as the people they vote to represent them. The Congress does not allow anyone with a gun to be in the halls of congress or anywhere they control in DC. Why then should the children of their districts not have the same right. They have the right to healthcare subsidized by tax dollars, along with handsome salaries and benefits that enrich them far beyond their average constituent. Come on, America, demand equal rights.
3
The Supreme Court interpreted the Second Amendment in DC v. Heller. I strongly disagree with its holding, but it did hold that the two halves of the key sentence (and the Second Amendment consists of only one sentence) are NOT connected: i.e. that the Constitutional prohibition against infringing on the right to bear arms is NOT limited to militia-related restrictions.
That being so, there are three choices, and the first two aren't likely to happen any time soon:
1. Persuade the Supreme Court to reconsider the issue and reverse Heller.
2. Amend the Second Amendment.
3. Do what's allowed by Heller.
Heller allows for many existing restrictions (not all of them, obviously: that's what Heller was all about), some of which the Court mentioned, others of which it didn't. We should push for everything, everywhere, that Heller allowed. I doubt very seriously that that will cure the "school shooting" problem, but it will have two beneficial effects:
1. It will accomplish what Heller allows, which can't hurt and may help.
2. It will persuade more Americans that the only real "solution" (if there is one, and probably there's not) will be to amend the Second Amendment -- not to prohibit guns, but to distinguish more carefully between the permitted uses (hunters and fearful urban apartment dwellers, for example) and the prohibited uses, without persuading gun-rights supporters that we're starting down a slippery slope to confiscation.
So what about the first part of the sentence? What's its purpose tied to the second part with comma? That it allows for a well regulated Militia separate from the right to bear arms?
As far as Heller is concerned the first part may as well not exist. Or it could be "A well regulated ice cream parlor being necessary to the happiness of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." for all the difference it makes.
Yes, our politicians want to arm teachers and “harden” access to schools as we have done for airports. Unfortunately, gun wielders will move on to softer targets, forcing us to arm movie and live theater employees (perhaps the casts of Broadway shows?), bus drivers, train conductors, librarians, store clerks, fairgrounds workers, and church ushers. Prior to parades, rallies, or outdoor concerts, SWAT teams will need to sweep surrounding areas. Buildings will need to install entrance metal detectors and bulletproof windows. Have I omitted anything? Oh, yes, mental health evaluations for our politicians — and for all the rest of us.
1
No. School shootings are normal now. These kids get it. The kids know this will keep happening until guns are restricted in a much more serious way. They also know they have to vote to get the lawmakers they need to change the situation. Until then, just keep recycling the same stories. And Thoughts and Prayers.
2
'Paige continued: “It’s been happening everywhere. I’ve always kind of felt like eventually it was going to happen here, too.”'
Who will be the last American parents to hear their child was killed in a mass school shooting?
Could it be the parents of Santa Fe High School?
Could it happen during the Trump presidency?
It’s not likely as long as the NRA calls the lethal shots.
And not if tax cuts for the wealthy, environmental degradation, bashing our own Justice Department, and pandering to evangelicals are more important.
Congress would turn on a dime if they felt an existential threat to their privileged existence. There are very few profiles in courage by members of either side, but particularly among current Republicans. Their true allegiance is to party first (read rich opinionated donors) and not to country. And it’s not even a secret they hate a government that tries to do much of anything for its citizens.
As Stephen Colbert said on his Friday show, there may not be easy answers, but when the current crop of politicians does nothing, we’d have a much better chance with new ones.
Vote in November 2018 like your life and the lives of your loved ones depend on it.
1
This has gone on long enough. The overwhelming majority of Americans want something done. We can identify some clear issues that are involved here: Kids billed. Emotionally disturbed people. Easy access to the weapons at home (no one talks about the fact these were the father's guns. He didn't lock them up? Is the father not culpable here?). In other incidents I adequate back ground checks. Parents giving guns back to quite disturbed children. Bump stock availability. And on and on.....Oh we can identify individuals with emotional problems. In a school, they are easy to find. That's not the issue. But we have done NOTHING to address the problems. Fair example, when Mrs. Trump wants to end bullying and her husband engages in it every day and is cheered for it, her efforts are meaningless. So yes this has gone on long enough. And the ONLY answer is to send the message loud and clear by voting. If you have no willingness to do anything about it, we will force you from office and give someone else a crack at it. But we can't deliver that message unless EVERYONE who can vote does so. It is very empowering when you finally recognize your vote does matter.
2
Ideologues are not swayed by facts, as Mr. Blow demonstrates yet again.
And, his rant fails to include a very important element, which is:
His definition of "common sense gun control"
It's easy to rant about gun control but less easy to come up with gun control that does not violate the rights of law abiding citizens.
The Parkland shooter owned his gun legally, largely due to the fact that all the government systems failed to do their duties.
The Sandy Hook shooter stole legally owned guns from the parent's gun locker, as did this shooter.
The simple fact is that more gun control cannot stop a determined person from entering a school and killing - with a firearm.
Armed guards and screening methodologies at the school entrances can stop them definitively, every time.
And when that happens, the loonies will just switch to knife attacks, like the one in China that left nine students dead and nineteen wounded.
You can't stop crazy people, and they are out there.
One would think that, if anywhere, that would be understood in New York City....
2
These are not crazy people. They are angry, determined people. Angry aggrieved men with a gun. Or some other weapon.
What do we call a building where people are inside, surrounded by people with guns? That's right. A prison.
79
Baloney. On both accounts:
1) You can bet money on this shooter invoking the "irresistible impulse" test to prove temporary insanity for his defense. You don't have to be crazy all the time to commit a crazy act.
2) Many government buildings have armed guards and screening, for exampe, most federal courthouses. We don't call them prisons. We call the safe.
Not men. Boys. White and suburban. Who, in the words of the most recent shooter, want their story told. Many things need to happen--banning assault weapons, single-issue voting for reasonable laws-- but also not valorizing these shooters. Media outlets, including the Times, need to stop publishing their names and their photographs. Imagine limiting the name to "shooter" and replacing the photograph with a stick figure. Perhaps this would help lessen the appeal.
For those who speak about “hardening” of soft targets like schools I wonder how many would be willing to live in hardened world without guns where essentially everything is hardened against them - those who want guns?
I guess that argues that schools should continue to be soft targets but where the teachers and kids are all armed.
But is turning our schools and everything into a fortress the real answer?
2
Youth killings and guns was in the news at the end of Ronald Reagan's administration. There were suppressed studies from CDC. At the time I recall that white teenage males primarily used guns for suicide while teenagers of other communities shot each other. My academic question is whether these shootings are also "suicides" of a different nature? My adult question is how can we protect our children from having access to deadly weapons?
2
I try to imagine the rage that must have propelled someone to do such a thing. What sort of existence produces such a result I wonder. And I ache to think having a 14 year old boy of my own, that a 17 year old boy sane or insane was able to go to a place that never should have been option for him or any child. I must admit I hope that I haven’t somehow missed something, some basic message of love that perhaps would prevent a son’s mind from going to such a retched place. But oh, how tragic that guns were even an option to such a mind so broken. Now that is insane and yet here we are again.
2
In my imagination I see an experiment. One county in each state passes a law that states that parents must register all guns with the county. Only then will their children be allowed to attend city and county schools.
Santa Fe, Texas, is in Galveston County. In November of 2016 in Galveston County, Donald Trump won 60% of the vote for president. A vote for Trump is a vote for the NRA is a vote for lax gun laws.
3
Parents need to keep guns out of the hands of their kids. Guns in the hands of emotionally immature, angst ridden, hormone driven teenagers is obviously a horrible idea. We need to ban sales and ownership to people under 21. We need to register all guns and license all owners (just like we do with cars). We then need to hold parents accountable for their children when they break gun laws (like with do with parents that give their kids alcohol).
2
There is but one hope. A UNITED blue wave, huge and overwhelming, sweeps these people out of office. I fear that in-fighting and divisive inner-party agenda-wrangling will be the death of us, and the death of countless kids.
2
Dear Mr. Blow, you are absolutely right, it shouldn't be part of any child's experience to prepare for an assault on the school where he or she is following courses. Unfortunately, the weird acceptance by American voters of their elected representatives' kowtowing to the NRA has landed you with this peculiar situation. American exceptionalism at its worst. Any measures that may be proposed are doomed by the simple fact that there are some 300 million weapons already out there. Securing these is a practical impossibility.
So, unless and until there is a school shooting in which the children of leading GOP politicians or domestic weapons industry executives or lobbyists become victims, and are in a position to remind their fathers of the consequences of their greed, nothing will change.
The now oft-repeated suggestion to arm teachers should be categorized as arrant nonsense, and it is telling that it isn't. It creates a situation in which weapons would actually be in the school permanently. Furthermore, as these incidents happen without warning, teachers would need to have immediate access to them, i.e. have them on their person or at least in the classroom... Also, it does suppose rather a lot from these educators. They are not police or military.
And finally, what if it is a teacher who snaps?
Whenever someone advocates a policy based on “common sense,” it means they don’t have the facts (the data) or the logic to support their proposal. “Common sense” was of course a favorite expression of Sarah Palin. Let us assume for the sake of argument that the problem with school shootings and other violence in the country is getting worse. If that is the case, then logically the cause of the increase in violence cannot be guns. Our country has been awash in guns, when compared to the rest of the developed world, for as long as we have all been alive, for as long as we have kept data on the subject, and probably for as long as we have been a country. If things are getting worse, then the cause must be sociological and psychological and not guns, because the proliferation of guns has not changed. Mental health is not a “tangential” issue as Mr. Blow claims. It is the issue. The evidence is overwhelming that there is a clear link between mental illness and mass shootings (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-duwe-rocque-mass-shootings-me.... Those who dismiss it as “tangential,” are callously unwilling to take steps to prevent future mass shootings, and are willfully allowing school shootings to become normal.
2
Those in state and federal legislatures that bend to the NRA will have to be voted out before we see sanity on the issue of guns and gun control. Facts are facts, the rate of gun deaths is directly tied to the number of guns. Talk by the Lt Governor of Texas about arming teachers is obscene. And where is all the Christian piety when it comes to gun deaths? If all the so-called "pro-life" Christians in the USA really practiced what they preach, there would be an outcry for gun control. I'm not holding my breath.
1
Can anybody name any Republican who is for any sort of real gun control? I can't, not a one.
So as a practical matter, voting for gun control means voting for Democrats.
2
"People seeking common sense gun control must become single-issue voters on gun control."
People seeking common sense gun control must become single-issue voters on campaign finance reform.
2
In the meantime, communities can buy the guns back. It is a public health crisis. Let’s ask Fortune 500 companies and corporations to sponsor local buy back programs. Then recycle the guns and bullets.
Regardless of whatever progress can be made with gun control, and every little bit of progress will help, how do we deal with the reality that there are more guns in circulation than there are Americans
1
Clearly our political class doesn't have the courage to ban guns. Maybe they have the backbone to ban black trench coats. I don't thinks the manufacturers of these garments contribute much to their campaigns, so they wouldn't have too much to lose by doing this. It might be more effective than limiting the number of entrances to a school.
1
I have been a one issue voter for years. If you don’t believe in regulating guns as the second amendment states, you don’t get my vote. About time more people joined in.
10
As an Australian I can only deeply sympathise with American citizens over this gun situation. Paige Curry's words are chilling to me. As a retired teacher I could not even begin to imagine how awful it must be to have that daily feeling of uneasiness whilst trying to concentrate on being a student or a teacher in their respective roles. It's an appalling state of affairs. Yes in the end it will be the electorate that is the only body to have the power to turn this around. It will take decades and in the meantime countless futile further deaths and physical and psychological damage will occur. No other country in the world has this terrible problem to deal with.
8
A good article and certainly political action is needed, get the NRA's lackeys out of office. After the mid-terms, assuming that action is taken, a few legislative steps come to mind. First off, locked storage of guns is a must, it is far too easy for people to get their hands on guns that don't belong to them. In Canada a gun safe is mandatory for any and all weapons. Second, and this should have been done years ago, repeal the Dickey Amendment and let the CDC study gun violence and get a clear picture of the root causes then deal with them. Sadly this will take time but something should have been done years ago and further political procrastination cannot be tolerated.
5