It’s happened again. A school shooting. This time at a Catholic church school in Minneapolis. According to CNN, this was this 44th school shooting* in the US this year.
And still the focus is and will be on the shooter’s identification, motives, mental health, writings, life. Still we’ll hear of communities, condolences, grief, “thoughts and prayers,” and solemn pronouncements that “now is not the time” to discuss the prevention of such tragedies.
What we won’t hear or read about, what won’t be addressed by lawmakers, is the single common denominator between this school shooting and the 43 others so far this year, or the 229 since 2018 — guns.
When will we decide that our children are more important than our guns?
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*Per CNN. Exact numbers vary depending on source.
Image: Anadolu via Getty Images
You know they’ll be more..always never ending..my gun rights BS and the hold the gun lobby has on Congress..both parties
Yep, party doesn’t matter. The almighty gun is apolitical. Their gun rights are more important than our kids’ rights to life.
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The gun rights group will say that the problem isn’t guns, but people who are mentally ill. However, they aren’t interested in funding more programs for people who are mentally ill (including the homeless). And so it goes, round and round, and nothing gets solved, even though most Americans support some kind of gun control. We’re all so tired of it.
Back in 2013, I made a venn diagram showing what I thought about the US gun situation. I reprinted it in 2023, my opinions unchanged. Denver broadcaster Kyle Clark addressed the issue. The primary problem is not mental health, or unsupervised children, or gangs, or anger issues, or suicidality. Those are just distractions and deflections from the primary problem. It was and still is guns. Until the guns are addressed, nothing will change.
johnthecook…The Gun Zone says “conservatively, there are tens of thousands of gun laws enacted across federal, state and local levels in the United States” The use of guns IS being addressed, and this is a well-documented fact. Is drunk driving that kills people the cars’ fault? Is the use of lethal amounts of drugs and alcohol the fault of the drugs and alcohol? Is using a gun to kill people the guns’ fault? Is the killing of babies in the womb the fault of the equipment and drugs that are used?
The common denominator here is PEOPLE, from all walks of life, young and old and it knows no boundaries. Let’s get our heads out of the dark side of the moon and shine the light on the real problem. It’s the people…Not the objects of their affections.
TRUTH: the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it? I submit to you there is ONE who knows, but no one wants to talk about That Person, because those that do are told that they are clueless to the real problem at hand.
Nope, the common denominator in mass shootings and gun deaths is, by definition, guns. You need a gun to shoot someone. It’s the guns, John. The guns.
As a gun owner and military veteran I have long been in favor of banning military-style assault rifles. These high-velocity weapons are designed to kill people and are inappropriate for hunting. I similarly wouldn’t want RPG’s to be legal. Yesterday, my politically-conservative son, who has never fired a gun himself, said something that made me re-think the problem. He basically distrusts government. When I point out how gun violence is so much less in other countries like Japan and Europe, he is un-moved. Maybe he has a point. I used to trust government. During my lifetime the U.S. government has protected our food, environment, and safety pretty well, especially compared to third-world countries. Lately, I’m not so sure about the future considering what is happening with HHS, DOGE, the militarization of policing, and the politicization of the Justice Department. Regardless of this argument, guns are now so deeply a part of American culture that I think I’m ready to look for better hills to die on.
I’ve died on this hill so many times. I just can’t accept the idea of a problem being so out of hand that we just give up trying to fix it. At the very least, we need to get and keep military-style assault weapons out of the hands of civilians, who have no legitimate need for them.
I don’t worry about the government coming after the citizenry. Assault weapons aren’t going to help much against military firepower. If it ever comes to that, we’re toast. As for guns in general, I was given a rifle for my 12th birthday. ‘Nuff said.
johnthecook…THANK YOU for your reply to the horrible addiction we Americans have when it comes to guns in general, and their illegal use. I have a gun, and it sits out day after day, week after week, and month after month. It NEVER moves, NEVER…until a real live P-E-R-S-O-N- picks it up!
Not sure what you’re thanking me for. I’m not unfamiliar with guns. I went hunting as a kid. And if not for a scheduling conflict, I’d have been on the U of Colo. rifle team. That certainly doesn’t mean I condone the presence of 400-800 million guns in the hands of US civilians. And it is still an indisputable fact that a person, any person, needs a gun to cause a gun death or commit a mass shooting.
I see, John, that you have a more than somewhat right-wing stance on a number of issues.
Also that you Have Faith.
Imo your logic is defeated by applying the chicken and egg conundrum.
You are I are separated by more than merely topographical distance.
johnthecook…If logic and critical thinking are indicative of having a right-wing stance, I am guilty as charged. There is no conundrum between the chicken and the egg. The chicken came first! The “gun” is an inanimate object. The catalyst that gives it the power to take a life, is the real live person. Please, have a nice day. PS, and yes, I do Have Faith.