To start with let me be clear, I do not want to take your guns (well most of you, anyway), nor am I saying that guns kill people (they don’t, people do), but what in God’s name does it take to have a civil conversation about the steps that we as a society can take to try ensure that tragedies such as Sandy Hook do not happen again? What steps do we have to take to ensure that our babies don’t die in a hail of gunfire, whether it was from a legal, registered gun in a quaint New England town or an illegal gun bought on some street corner in a city?
There is a beautifully written piece circulating on the internet that was written by a woman with a mentally ill son who has tried to kill her. It brings up the issue of mental health and our healthcare system’s inability to appropriately address it. I honestly think that changing the way we treat the mentally ill is a huge part of the conversation. However, I think it also brings up another issue and that is personal responsibility. This mother, knowing that her son was violent had collected all the sharp objects in the house (i.e. potential weapons) and carried them with her. There is a lesson here, which we as a society, could learn from her. If you have a loved one that you know or suspect has mental issues, why would you have a weapon of any kind unsecured in your house? Isn’t it your responsibility, whether you are a gun owner, a knife collector, etc. to make sure that someone who has no business being around such weapons can not access them?
Why is it that we can’t even begin to discuss the issues of personal responsibility, weapon safety and the mental ill? Just like we encourage parents to lock up their firearms around small children, shouldn’t we be encouraging people to secure their weapons to keep them out of the hands of mentally ill or unstable? I would like to see the NRA and the gun control lobby come together to produce Public Service Announcements that encourage and educate people on the steps they should take to be a responsible gun owner.
In 1997, I lived in Richmond, VA. A new program called Project Exile had just begun. The purpose of Project Exile was to get illegal guns off the street. It was supported by the NRA and the Brady Campaign. I remember it vividly for two reasons. The first was the brown public buses that had painted in HUGE white letters on their sides “an illegal gun will get you 5 years.” The second reason was that I lived in a downtown neighborhood that had seen its fair share of gun violence and the police officers in the neighborhood told me that since the program’s enactment that they had noticed the drug dealers were not carrying guns as often as they had in the past and that shootings were down. Project Exile has now become Virginia Exile. (http://www.co.henrico.va.us/com-atty/virginia-exile.html I believe that programs such as these are blueprints for the kinds of laws that are needed nationwide.
I believe that the majority of gun owners in this nation are responsible, law abiding citizens who have every right to own a gun, whether it is for hunting, self defense, sports, etc. As a survivor of a senseless act of violence, I will be the first to say that people have the right to self defense. As someone who has earned two belts in the self defense system Krav Maga, I also believe that self defense is something that is learned and practiced. The NRA and many other organizations have excellent curricula on gun safety, gun knowledge, etc. that I would like to see every prospective gun owner be encouraged to take prior to owning a gun. To be honest, I would like to see it become mandatory. If you need to pass a driving test in order to drive a car, shouldn’t you be required to pass a basic gun knowledge and safety test?
I sincerely hope and pray that in the coming days and months this nation can have a civil conversation about the tragic events in Newtown, CT and all of the others that have occurred since Columbine and how we can prevent them in the future. I will be honest; I do not have much faith in our polarized political system’s ability to get much accomplished. However, I do have faith that if enough reasonable people make their voices heard that our politicians can no longer kick the can down the road. There are a lot of reasonable ideas that should be addressed. My personal belief is that gun safety and education is a starting point but I would also like to see assault weapons addressed as well as high capacity magazines. There also needs to be a national conversation on mental health and how we address it in this society. I hope people will call their elected representatives and let their voices be heard. We can not afford to be silent any longer.
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