My intent with this column is not to be political, but rather practical. Writing this is going to be a tremendous challenge for yours truly, attempting to pull from my heart and brain what I am feeling at the present time.
For those of you expecting a column about sports, I’m planning to write about baseball in my next column, which will be published Saturday. I actually intended to write about the inconsistent Cincinnati Reds and the upcoming All-Star Game today, but when I sat down at the computer, this is what came out.
This subject has dominated my thoughts for the past several days, and I feel it’s important to share a few of those today. Whether you agree or disagree with my viewpoint is really not my concern; the point is I feel this has to be said. This may be considered selfish, but writing is a form of therapy as well as expression. With this missive, I’m merely trying to express my thoughts, and if doing so makes me feel more at peace, well, that’s just an added bonus.
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GUN VIOLENCE HITS CLOSE TO HOME – Most of you are aware of the most recent horrific act of gun violence, which occurred last weekend just up the road in Florence, in a quiet suburban neighborhood where my son resides.
On what was supposed to be a joyous 21st birthday celebration, the occasion quickly turned tragic when a deranged person interrupted the party with gunfire. The result was the senseless murder of four individuals, with three more rushed to the hospital with various injuries.
The impact those few moments will have on the survivors, families, and friends – including my son — of the people lost will never end. The other attendees of the event will be emotionally scarred forever.
I cannot even imagine how much those folks are suffering right now as they search for answers that are not there. Losing a loved one for no reason is the saddest reality any family member can ever face.
There is no logical explanation for mass murders. The Cincinnati television stations reporting on the situation in Florence continue to wonder exactly what the shooter’s motive could have been. For the life of me, I don’t understand why. Giving something like this a motive seems to be a futile attempt to explain why this occurred. I suppose we have a desire to make sense out of the senseless, but this makes absolutely no sense.
None of us knows what was going through the killer’s mind. We do know he had a criminal record, but for an individual to be this mentally ill and violent is unexplainable. Using mental illness, and mental illness alone, is an attempt to legitimize gun violence in some cases, and that is simply not acceptable. Keeping the guns out of the hands of those affected by mental issues is the real challenge, and one that is increasingly difficult in a society that has been enamored with guns for centuries.
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STAGGERING NUMBERS ON THE INCREASE – I was born in 1954, when the population of the United States was 158,205,873. As of Monday, July 8, 2024, the current population is 341,849,328, more than double what it was 70 years ago.
I remember learning in Civics class at Norwood High School being warned of the impending problems we would be seeing in the future due to the “population explosion.” I don’t recall anything said about how that would affect the problem of gun violence, but perhaps the sheer increase in our population is one factor.
Times were much simpler in 1954, and mass shootings – defined as an incident in which four or more people are injured or killed — were practically unheard of, outside of actual wars. Today, there are nearly two mass shootings daily across the country, with more than 600 occurring each of the last four years. Certainly, the increase in
population has something to do with that, but when you see that there were more than twice as many mass shootings in 2023 compared to 2014, the problem becomes even more alarming.
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COMMON SENSE APPROACH NEEDED – The political atmosphere in the United States is one of contention, disagreement and even anger. With so many people taking sides and unwilling to budge at all on the particular stance they support, very little gets accomplished when it comes to curbing mass shootings.
You have the NRA and their powerful lobbyists digging in on one side, and the outnumbered gun control folks feeling rather helpless on the other side. There are just so many guns in this country that there will never be a shortage, whether obtained legally or illegally.
Gun ownership in the United States far surpasses that of other countries around the world, and the number of homicides does as well. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, even though there are many folks who use the old adage that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” The simple truth is that guns remain the overwhelmingly preferred choice of those who commit murder.
Mental illness is certainly a factor as well, and again, I am not intelligent enough to come up with an answer on precisely how to keep weapons out of the hands of these individuals. However, the least lawmakers can do is make it as difficult as possible, and to keep violent criminals behind bars.
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ACCEPTANCE IS NEVER THE ANSWER — Americans hear of mass shootings so often these days that many of us have grown numb when we hear about the most recent occurrence, whether it’s in a school, a workplace, a shopping center, or wherever.
I am not nearly smart enough to pretend to have the answers in preventing these senseless acts from happening time and time and time again. It seems that for a start, our lawmakers need to prioritize
the issue. Congress, whether on the state or federal level, needs to quit bickering and get positive things accomplished for once.
Innocent victims being gunned down repeatedly is unacceptable, but many have grown to accept it in this country.
You don’t have to be a genius to realize that automatic weapons have no place in today’s society. I realize there are laws on the books already, but there needs to be even more stringent and enforced laws to keep these weapons out of the hands of people who are only intending to use them to murder innocent people of all ages.
The gun lobby in this country is far too powerful for the good of the people, and gun manufacturers continue to profit from people being shot and killed day after day after day.
As horrible as the increased rate of mass shootings represents, they remain a small fraction of the gun violence epidemic in what is a uniquely American issue. Homicides and suicides greatly outnumber mass shootings, more than 300 people are shot every day, with nearly half of those killed, and Americans are 26 times more likely to be shot and killed than in other high-income countries.
Doing nothing isn’t working; it is long past time that our lawmakers do whatever they can to keep firearms out of the hands of law breakers. Many other countries have already accomplished this by tightening restrictions and enacting new laws.
It is time for America to do the same.
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“When the Second Amendment was written, guns fired one round a minute. Now they can fire over 100. Guns have evolved over the years. So should our gun laws.” – Shane Claiborne, author
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“The real problem, both in discussions of mass shootings and in discussions of gun control, is that too many people are too committed to a vision to allows mere facts to interfere with their beliefs, and the sense of superiority those beliefs give them.” – Thomas Sowell, economist and author
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