Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Background Checks Won't Stop Mass Shootings
Yet another school shooting took the lives of almost two dozen people yesterday. In Uvalde, Texas, an 18-year-old who had purchased two AR-15 style guns on his birthday last week went into an elementary school and killed 19 children going to second, third and fourth grade. Three adults appear to have died protecting the kids. From the right, the victims will receive thoughts and prayers. From the left, they will get failed efforts to broaden background checks for gun purchases. These reactions merely prove that America has no desire to solve the problem of mass shootings. A real solution is a radical one few are prepared to accept: repeal of the Second Amendment, confiscation of most firearms in private hands and severe regulation of those not taken.
The weapons manufacturers and their followers like to point out "guns don't kill people; people kill people." By that logic, nuclear weapons are not a problem. Nor are weaponized small pox, nerve gas nor polonium-laced tea. All of those are banned from private (and even government) hands. Their logic fails.
In the US, there are about 330 million people. There are more than 400 million guns owned privately. It is that reservoir of firepower that policy must address. Background checks on someone buying a gun might have been a way to stem the tide of violence about 380 million gun purchases ago. Now, such a check would only address whether gun number 400,000,001 is in responsible hands.
When properly maintained and stored, a gun can function effectively for decades. In other words, if there were no new guns made or sold in the US, there would still be 400 million of them in 2050, 2060, 2070. And there would still be a mass shooting every 6 days or so.
In order for America to get serious about the gun violence, it is going to have to change how guns are viewed and used. First and foremost, the Second Amendment to the Constitution must go. It has been used and abused to create the idea that open-carry of a firearm without any kind of license or training is a human right. The rights and wrongs of the amendment and the court cases that revolve around it are irrelevant. It has become a threat in and of itself to the "domestic tranquility" the founders drafted the Constitution to secure. That will require a majority of two-thirds in both the House and the Senate and then approval by three-quarters of the state legislatures. Given the choice between that happening and a snowball lasting in hell for a decade, the smart money is on the snowball.
If that miracle were to occur, Congress should pass laws requiring the surrender (at cost) of all firearms that can chamber around without any action by the person holding it. Bolt-action rifles and revolvers would be permissible for the few who can prove a need. Special arrangements can also be made for hunters and target shooters. Possession of a firearm outside the home without a license should be a felony. Collectors can render their guns inoperable.
This will upset the gun culture in America to be sure. However, the "law-abiding, responsible gun-owners" make up a much smaller part of the population than most believe -- people who keep their guns in the nightstand are not responsible. Almost 3 out of 4 American homes have no gun at all.
That solution, of course, is not politically possible.. Americans will continue to die in mass shootings as a result. Any reforms will be marginal at best. And the reason is simple; despite everything, America refuses to take the problem seriously.
© Copyright 2022 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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