Guns - Comments From the Commentators

(Note: On 1/12/13, only one month after the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, I wrote a post entitled "Guns." As with all my posts, that post is still up on the blog, and the points discussed there are just as pertinent today following the latest school shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Reading of that post would be a good intro, if you will, to the current post. In case those who disagree with me on the issue think that I do not care, let me state how horrific and terrible any school shooting is, and any murder is.)

After the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, it appeared that many took up their usual positions on the issue of guns. I read and heard countless opinion pieces, letters to the editor and stories from people about how evil the NRA is. I have heard it said that NRA members should have to suffer the loss of a child. What a terrible thing to wish on someone. Here is what I have not heard from many on the Left - an actual analysis. The first question that I would ask is are there in fact more school shootings today than there were before? Assuming that there are, the next logical question would be: why?

Frankly, I am amazed at the amount of venom directed at the NRA, with virtually none directed at the actual perpetrator. Not only is religious affiliation and attendance at religious services down in the US, but the religious belief that we are responsible for own actions seems to have vanished from our society. The Ten Commandments give us some basic instructions on proper behavior. But the Ten Commandments are no longer allowed in public schools nor anywhere in the public square. Beginning in the 1960's, we started to blame "society" for the misbehavior, and even criminal behavior, of offenders. Also worthy of note is that in the year 1960, only 5% of all births were outside of marriage. However, by the mid-2000's, that number had jumped to 40%. Does any of this matter?

In an interesting Op-Ed in the 3/2/18 Ventura County Star, Jay Ambrose tells us that the shooters in Parkland, Newtown and at the Charleston, South Carolina church were all carried out by young men raised without involvement from their fathers. Ambrose cites a CNN report regarding the "deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history," noting that seven of the killers were under the age of 30 - and only one of them was raised with a father throughout his childhood. Ambrose cites a federal study concluding that suicides by young people mostly occur in fatherless homes - 63% of the time. Many of us recall the TV show Murphy Brown (played by Candace Bergen), with Brown, as a single Mom, giving birth to a baby boy. Then Vice President Dan Quayle said that by giving birth as a single Mom, Brown was "mocking the importance of fathers, by bearing a child alone, and calling it just another 'lifestyle choice.'" Quayle was heavily criticized by the Left. Of course, countless studies since then have demonstrated the importance of fathers being in the home - from lower poverty rates, lower school dropout rates, less drug involvement, and so on.

In a 2/27/18 Op-Ed in the LA Times, Devin Hughes and Mark Bryant opine that: "In reality, the best research shows what common sense tells us: More guns mean more crime and more death." Except, that does not appear to be the case. The number of guns in private hands in the US is at an all time high, yet the murder rate and overall crime rate has been going down. Following the Sandy Hook shooting in December, 2012, the liberal magazine, The Atlantic, reported that 75% of the guns used in the US in mass shootings were obtained illegally. And Fox and the WSJ reported that only 11% of the time were legally obtained guns used in gun crimes. But how surprising should it be that someone intent on doing evil is also willing to break the law in order to obtain their instruments of killing.

Peggy Noonan had a different take from Messrs. Hughes and Bryant in her weekend (2/17-2/18/18) column in the Wall Street Journal. After asking what has changed in society in the last 40 years that would account for all these mass killings, she declares this: "The family blew up - divorce, unwed childbearing. Fatherless sons. Fatherless daughters, too. Poor children with no one to love them. The internet flourished. Porn proliferated. Drugs, legal and illegal. Violent videogames...The abortion regime settled in...An increasingly violent entertainment culture..." Some of us recall the Westerns where, when the bad guys got shot, say in the stomach, they would grab their stomach and fall. We never saw a single drop of blood. Now, we can witness the most horrific gun violence, with blood spurting everywhere, as if it was all real. I fail to see the benefit of that, as it undoubtedly hardens at least some young people to the effects of such violence.

In yet another Op-Ed, in the 2/21/18 NY Times by Amy Barnhorst, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at UC, Davis, we are told that "The mental health system doesn't identify most of these (potentially violent) people because they don't come in to get care. And even if they do, laws designed to preserve the civil liberties of people with mental illness place limits on what treatments can be imposed against a person's will." Then, she makes this telling comment: "But there are no reliable cures for insecurity, resentment, entitlement and hatred." Maybe not, but religion can teach that we do not get to do whatever we want against whoever we want. And "entitlement?" We have seen far too much of that attitude in our society. It is now passe to say that one should have to work for what they get. Even more importantly, one should always be grateful for what they have, not stress over what they do not have. But religion teaches that.

Karen Lehrman Bloch has a regular column in the LA Jewish Journal. She writes that: "In New York City, so-called progressive groups are succeeding at removing metal detectors from high schools. Why? Because they consider them 'racist.' That's right. Racist metal detectors." (As an aside, and not to make light of this serious topic, my doctor just put me on a "no whites" diet - no white bread, no white rice, no white flour and the like. Nothing white. Racist?)

I cannot end this post without noting the failure of the "if you see something, say something" maxim. So many people said something- to the school, to the local police, and even to the FBI. Then again, the FBI has failed us so many times before it is hard to keep track. And what about the sheriff who was on the scene and the three who arrived shortly thereafter - yet failed to confront the shooter. My friend who is a retired cop, explained that during the time a shooter has to turn his weapon away from the victims to the person shooting at him, gives precious seconds to the students allowing them to run and escape. That same friend asks this: "Who would you rather have carrying a gun during the Florida incident? The three police officers who cowardly hid while the shooting was taking place and kids were being massacred? Or, the coach who bravely went after the gunman without being armed?"

You see, that friend was involved in 4 shootouts during his career. He has seen cops conveniently arrive late to the scene of an active shooter. Therefore, when many on the Left say only the police should be armed, he gets infuriated. He knows that "when seconds count, the police are minutes away." And, even then, it is quite clear that we cannot always rely on the police.