Killing Sprees: More Questions than Answers

Memorial flowers for the victims in El Paso

     This past weekend, August 3rdin El Paso and August 4thin Dayton, were the 16thand 17thmass shootings in the US thus far in 2019. An ABC News post reported we are averaging “one every 12.7 days this year.” That is a horrible statistic.
     We have a problem in this country. We have a big problem. Something is fundamentally wrong in our society and way of life that, first and foremost, we have killing sprees with this frequency and, secondly, that we have done nothing about putting an end to them. Either one of these two is mind boggling. Having both means to me that there is something fundamentally wrong in our society.
     Something is so very wrong that we have 17 people, just this year, who took up guns or knives and attacked others. No other country seems to have these kinds of incidents and when they do, they are extremely rare. With each occurrence, we get upset, rant a bit, and then forget about it until the next. We forget about it until the next… What is wrong with us?

• Why is this happening here? What is wrong in our country that has this sad condition?
• Is it due to our societal pressure to have to be successful? The relentless drive to make more money? Does this make people who aren’t ever going to achieve that kind of success begin to hate, blame others, and make a name for themselves with their own killing spree?
• Is it due to TV and video games? Drugs? 
• Is it because parents are not dedicated to raising their children?
• Can any of this be quickly solved? Or are we just stuck with this problem?

     There are those who will argue it all about having too many guns and it being way too easy to buy guns in this country. It comes down to the right to bear arms as guaranteed in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution:

A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

     Almost all of the rest of the world is not so free with gun ownership. I have pellet gun but have never owned a firearm. I have never had the need to buy a gun. I do not hunt. I get all the target practice I might ever want with my pellet gun without all the maintenance and having to go to a target range to do it. I thought about having a gun for home protection. I have not acted on it because I have never felt the need to have one to protect my home or family nor did I want to also have to buy a gun safe to secure the weapon and ammunition.
     Certainly, keeping guns out of the hands of killing spree lunatics seems like a sensible

Memorial to the victims in Dayton

idea. But how do we detect who these folks are? Where do we draw the lines?
     I often comment that the Second Amendment was written in the era of muzzle loading rifles. Maybe it should only apply to firearms that were available when it was written and not every high-power repeater available on the market today.

• How many guns should one be allowed to own? How much ammunition?
• How do we allow hunters, sportsmen, and collectors the freedom to enjoy their passion?
• How do we differentiate between honest law-abiding gun owners versus criminals and lunatics?
• If we banned guns tomorrow, would it stop these killing sprees immediately? Or would it take 10 – 30 years to have an impact like the anti-smoking campaign did? 
• Is the black market for illegal guns already well established for a ban to have any impact?

     I do not really have the answers to most of these questions. I do believe that we should start trying to answer them. We have to seriously try to stem this tide of killing sprees and I see no evidence that we really want to do that.  This leaves me bewildered and sad.