Hi hank,
I fully realize that I seem to be out of step with the general understanding of the American population regarding the ownership of firearms, but since you asked....
Because someone can't always stop a mass shooting does that mean that people should not own guns to protect themselves and others in their own home?
My answer would be yes and there does seem to be a veritable avalanche of evidence that suggests that it is the only answer to solve the problem. Our nation has spent at least the last 40 years trying to legislate safe gun ownership and ways in which we should vet prospective gun buyers. It just doesn't seem to be working. Over those same 40 years, violent and regular gun deaths in this country have just continued pretty much as if we've not been able to make even the slightest dent in the problem through the legislative means of coming up with some way to vet gun ownership. In fact, despite all of these hundreds of different laws to address the issue, the issue itself has gotten progressively worse, according to the evidence of numbers of gun deaths and regularity of mass gun violence in this country.
There just isn't any way, short of our having a crystal ball and calling upon the gods of prophecy, to regularly and successfully determine when a person gets angry and what kinds of things rile their anger. Thousands of people have purchased firearms legally and then something snaps one day and they go off the deep end. There isn't anyway to predetermine that. We aren't that smart or all knowing. We're all just people trying to do the best that we can with pretty much only a mind that can deal with the here and now.
Some folks get cut off on the freeway and start waving a gun around or actually shooting at others. Some people get caught up in a divorce and their anger drives them to take a gun, which they bought when they were perfectly legal and sane, and kill someone. We are the only civilized nation that waves guns around and carries them around pretty much in the same way that people carry around their car keys and the evidence is clear that such freedom is costing us thousands upon thousands of lives every year. People are suffering deep loss for their loved ones because we're just afraid to do the only thing that's really going to stop the problem.
Now, I imagine that we will continue to debate and squabble over all sorts of laws and procedures that we think will resolve the problem. We'll see how that works out, but mark my words, the only way to fix the problem is to take firearms out of the hands of the general population. I fully understand that our Constitution gives us a certain right to the ownership of firearms and if everybody wants to stick with that, it's ok with me, I don't run the world. But it seems painfully obvious to me that we being the only country that has such a constitutional right may well explain why we're also the only country with a mountain of bodies that we bury every year. Why families have to live in fear of gun violence which then begats the purchase of more guns. To me, it's a sickening spiral that isn't going to end with the current mindset that our nation has. We'll see.
God bless you
In Christ, ted
