Guns – Here Today, Here Forever

The assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk allegedly by college dropout Tyler Robinson has once again triggered the hue and cry for gun control.

“People don’t kill people. Guns kill people.”

How to stop it? Experts say tighten background checks. Don’t sell to anyone under 21. Ban sales of automatic weapons. Harden schools. Seize guns from the mentally ill. Arm teachers and priests. Impose felony laws for unreported weaponry. Legislate lock-up of firearms. And on and on.

None of that is going to help. Not any of it.

Why? There are many reasons.

For starters, gun violence is nothing new. History shows that pairing weapons with political extremism is a dangerous combination and always has been. Four U.S. presidents have been assassinated – Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield. William McKinley and John F. Kennedy. Ronald Reagan was wounded while in office. Donald Trump survived two assassination attempts. A Minnesota state legislator was recently gunned down. Rep. Gabby Giffords was shot in 2011 and Rep. Steve Scalise in 2017. The list goes on and on.

Why does this happen? Sociologists blame the mentally ill or the products of broken homes or bullying in school. Others say, no it’s left-wing teachers who twist the fertile minds of youngsters. Sound politicized? You bet. Republicans want to protect Second Amendment rights while Democrats want legislative relief.

There are other problems. In Florida, open carry has just been reaffirmed by the courts. Citizens can now carry firearms in public without fear of arrest. (It’s not just Florida. Forty-four other states have some form of open carry.) After all, guns allow people to defend themselves and their families. “Stand your ground” has become a rallying cry.

And let’s not forget the criminal element. Law-abiding citizens can usually be counted on to do the right thing, but much of the shooting comes from gangbangers, many from criminal cartels in Mexico. Illegal migrants by the millions have been allowed to pour across our southern border. Many remain here, fully armed.

But regardless of the shooter, where he comes from, his nationality or his incentive to kill, the shootings continue at a record pace. Here’s a sampling from a three-month period in 2023.
• Wisconsin – Twenty-one shot on a city street.
• Arkansas – Over two dozen injured at an auto show shooting.
• California – Six killed and 12 wounded in a street gun battle.
• South Carolina – Fourteen injured during a shopping mall shooting.
• New York City – Ten gunned down in a Brooklyn subway.
• New York State – Ten killed and three wounded in a supermarket shooting.
• Texas – Twenty-one killed and 13 wounded in a school massacre.

The courts have weighed in. Several years ago the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “Americans have a constitutional right to carry a handgun for self defense outside the home.” Nearly all states agree, bolstering the right to bear arms.

The deck is stacked against any kind of gun control.

And here’s the real kicker. There are already so many guns out there, a massive arsenal, that any kind of gun control is virtually impossible. Over 400 million guns are already in private hands along with an unlimited supply of ammunition. That’s more than one gun, on average, for every U.S. citizen.

Buy-back, draconian legislation, even outright confiscation – which is nearly impossible without civil war – won’t make a dent. The problem is baked in. We may be able to slow the shootings, but the potential for gun violence will always be there. Always.