The Gun Control Debacle

My apologies for the unannounced two-week hiatus. This blog already has something of a feast-or-famine tendency to it. Some days have enough to say that I can generate enough posts for a few days. On others I don't have much to comment on and I don't try to force it too much. I should probably go back and review, as I know I've promised several posts now that I have not yet delivered on.

Added to that effect, I just really tune out when the debate turns to gun control, as it's been the last couple weeks. It's not that I don't care, it's just that it can be such a worthless debate. The left, of course, cannot be reasoned with or coerced into admitting the actual statistics. They think the answer is to ban guns when the government can't even ban people, or keep hard drugs out of its own prisons. The idea that they could possibly ban guns without creating worse problems is a joke. Like one of those really crude jokes that involve children dying. It's not that the government shouldn't be able to ban guns. I think they should be able to take strong action to keep guns out of the hands of murderous psychos. It's just that they can't, and the second they take the kind of strict decisive action necessary actions to implement the law, well we know who will be doing the shrieking about police brutality. If liberals can't acknowledge that the first steps of gun control would be a wall on the southern border and throwing loonies into padded cells, then there really isn't much conversation to have.

Many on the right annoy me too when it comes to gun control, even though I'm on their side of the issue. I think the notion of arming kindergarten teachers is ridiculous, and even more so it sounds ridiculous. I think of all the teachers I've had in my years, from pre-school all the way up through grad school. Many dozens of teachers in various classes...likely over a hundred. I can only think of about three whom I would trust to be competent to handle a firearm in an active shooter scenario. Most I wouldn't trust to stand next to at a gun range. The idea that the solution to mass shooters is to arm everyone is naive. Miss Jones and her 9mm aren't going to do much against a rifle at a distance. It's hard to imagine an armed country fan doing much about rifles from the hotel balcony either. There are just too many scenarios where an armed populace doesn't solve the problem.

What's interesting about the Florida shooting is that it demonstrates failures on both sides. For one, there were all sorts of government failures. It's amazing how often these shootings involve gun violations that are already on the books, and how often the culprit should have failed a federal background check from the same federal government that liberals think can solve the problem. On the other hand, the right had what they wanted too: an armed guard at the school. The coward didn't even make an attempt to intervene. Neither federal laws nor an armed guard prevented kids from being shot by a social reject whom everyone knew was a dangerous psycho.

So where does that leave us? If laws and armed guards don't work, then what will? I can only think of two possible paths. One is strict authoritarian gun control, coupled with border control, invasive policing, and harsh penalties for violators. [That we can't get the captured school shooter a swift public execution is a sure sign of a tragically flawed society.]

The other option is that we take back what so many of on the right want: freedom of association. We want to go back to living in a high-trust society, and that means keeping out the people we can't trust. Not keeping them out of our country. It would be nice, but that ship has sailed. But keep them out of our towns and neighborhoods. How often do we hear of mass shootings at private schools? A degree of exclusion goes a long way. Really this is similar to the first solution, but on a more local scale.

Neither of those options are particular pretty, but I don't see what other solutions there could be. Certainly noting reasonable is being proposed by the left. It's all finger-pointing and hyperbole from them. One thing is certain, is that the question of dealing with these kinds of shootings is a much bigger societal puzzle than mere gun control.