More School Shooting Gun Deaths

 This week's news has been dominated by the Nashville Convent School shooting deaths of three nine year old children and three adults.  The 28-year-old shooter was killed by police at the site fourteen minutes after receiving the 911 call about the active shooter.

There are no signs today that the incident will spur changes in laws or enforcement to address mass shootings.  There have been over 100 such mass shootings in 2023 to date.  There were reported to be 648 shootings in 2022.  More than 44,000 gun deaths in the U.S. in 2022.

President Biden claimed he could not do anything more than what he has done about gun violence.

Is it a cop-out to say that the problem cannot be solved without cooperation from gun owners?  This is what I believe.  There are millions of gun owners in the country.  It seems they are in such numbers that members are from all walks of life and political persuasions, even if the majority are of some category.  For the sake of argument, assume the vast majority of gun owners are white, male, and conservative.  Does this assumption help in making progress on this issue.  No.  

Implicit in asking about the gun owning community is my belief that meaningful progress on gun violence can only come with a drastic change in the availability of guns.  Statistics on gun violence around the world clearly show the correlation of gun deaths with gun ownership.  Americans want to believe that our country can change to address challenges because most people accept the rule of law, and laws are created through majority rule legislative action.  But in this case, gun ownership has taken on the status of being sacrosanct and inviolate.  Court interpretations of the Constitution have reinforced the notion that the state cannot restrict gun ownership.  

Groups dedicated to reducing gun violence have taken various approaches to enact meaningful change.  Perhaps each step brings a change closer.  The country has made big changes in other areas of injustice, so I suppose there is always hope.  I believe that change can come only with a drastic change in the electorate that delivers the following:

1. A judicial system that rejects the assertion that gun ownership is a Constitutionally guaranteed right.

2. An electorate that holds in strong contempt the idea of wide-spread gun ownership.

3. A cultural realization that gun violence is among the most evil and anti-American activity imaginable.

4. A cultural understanding that gun ownership puts the gun owner at higher risk of gun violence rather than lower risk.

5. Shaming and ostracizing of gun advocates on the level of other strong taboos (i.e., incest, child pornography).

If my sense about the above is close to accurate, I will not expect to see change in my life time.