The tragedy in Connecticut is just that an unbelievable tragedy. However, now is not the time to politicize gun control by exploiting it. Now should be a time for healing and support for those affected.
Those who continue to use every tragedy they can to drive home their point should stop and reflect. These people continue to ignore the two most important facts. First, the guns are simply the murder weapon, in the absence of guns crazy people will find another weapon to do their evil. It is an old adage but it still true; “Guns don’t kill people, People kill people.” Second, another old adage “Outlaw guns and only outlaws will have guns.”
A few weeks ago when a Kansas City Chiefs player killed himself and his girlfriend, Bob Costas took the opportunity to editorialize on the Sunday Night Football that this was just another reason to step up gun control efforts. I thought at the time, “Really, this was a sick and mentally troubled person. If he didn’t have a gun he could have used any number of other ways to commit this horrible act.” People kill each other all around the world every day without guns. In fact the same day the Connecticut shootings occurred another crazy in China stabbed 22 people at a school.
Guns are not the problem, people are. If we want to slow down this increase in violence maybe we should be looking at our culture as a whole. Violent video games, movies, T.V. shows and music that glorifies violence, murder, rape and criminal behavior probably does more to negatively influence those that feel disenfranchised. This stimulus probably leads these individuals further down the path of destruction then access to a gun. The gun is just a tool to accomplish their objective and in its absence they would find something else.
In the end responsible gun owners should not have our second amendment rights taken away or reduced because of the reckless and deadly acts of a minute minority of the population. The government can not fix what happened in Connecticut with regulations. We need to address the root cause. This will take families, churches and people working to improve the moral fiber of our communities. In the end the problem is people, a gun is just a tool easily replaced with a knife, a club, poison, rope or any number of common items that can be made deadly in the wrong hands.
I will end with; my heart goes out to all those affected by this tragedy. It is an unthinkable crime committed against the most vulnerable among us by a clearly sick individual. Now is not the time for debate, now is the time for healing and reflection.
Uncommon Sense 