The Real Problem



My youngest son will be six in January.  But that’s not the only reason these recent killings disturb me as much as they do.  I was equally shocked, and moved, by the attack at the premiere of the Batman film in Aurora, Colorado, earlier this same summer.  So I think my feeling on this matter goes far beyond imagining the ways in which tragedies like this can ruin—and end—my own life, or that of my loved ones.  In many ways the feeling is not personal.

And the thing is, the deep deep sorrow cannot be directly merely against the assassin.  What he did was horrific, but he not only caused the horror, but was also consumed by it.  And I’m not referring to the fact that he killed himself as well.  That’s the least of it. 

It seems to me that if we fail to react in a reasonable and significant way to this tragedy, we will only be permitting other similar tragedies to continue to occur.  The answers may not be easy, but if we don’t even ask the questions—and keep asking them long after the front pages of our information sources are concerned with something else—nothing will change. 

That’s what bothers me so much about the posture of the NRA and their supporters, and all those who treat the 2nd Amendment as if it were sacred, and inviolable.  Their attitude, and their actions, continue to demonstrate that they don’t want anything to change, that they want all our lives to be ruled by an attitude which is perhaps comprehensible at a time when this nation had only recently won its independence, in large part thanks to the ability of the patriots to successfully engage in guerilla warfare.  But that time is long past, at least in this country.  Now, ironically, we are the ones fighting guerilla wars abroad.  And yet, at home, some of us cling to the notion that we have the right to be armed without limit, in order to defend ourselves, just as our 18th century forefathers did.

Unfortunately the technology has changed, considerably, immensely.  There is no comparison, when it comes to the damage that can be inflicted in a very short period of time, between what the New York Times calls “a semiautomatic rifle that is similar to weapons used by troops in Afghanistan,” and a Colonial musket.  And yet the attitude that established every American’s right to possess and use one of those muskets has become fossilized.

This, I think, is a big part of the real problem.