I Don't Know the Answer

I don’t know the answer. Not even close. Honestly, I have no idea how to solve it. But I do know the question, which is “How can we lessen the gun violence in this country?"

This little girl was Emma Nowling. Last week, at the age of 7, she was shot and killed at soccer practice, by a family friend. The shooter came to practice, and Emma gave him a big hug. A little while later while Emma and her mother were in the car about to leave, the shooter fired into the car, killing Emma and wounding her mother. He then shot himself. How horrible. Honestly, I’m not sure how many tragedies are in this one short paragraph.

Why did he do it? Nobody knows for sure, but they do know he had severe mental problems. It seems he thought someone was trying to control him through his mind. So he obtained a legal permit, and a legal weapon, and killed a 7-year-old girl. Nobody knows why. Nobody will ever know why.

I know many will say this is not a gun issue, it’s a mental health issue. In a way, of course, that’s correct. But the point doesn’t mean much. We’re told instead of having any kind of gun legislation, we should address mental health. But really, how are we going to do that? Ignoring the practicalities of it, think how much it would cost to address the mental health of every American who needs it. Where is that money going to come from? The people in government who tell us we should address it, are the same ones who will never ever vote to pay for it. Or maybe instead of worrying about every single American, we only deal with the ones who want to buy guns? No, those people vote against that as well. In other words, saying “it’s a mental health issue” is a good way to direct the attention from guns, without ever having to do anything.

But back to the first paragraph, I honestly don’t know how to prevent things like this. I’m not an anti-gun guy by any means. I don’t think we should outlaw all firearms. But I do know that America has a huge gun violence problem.

I don’t want the government to arbitrarily impose some solution to this problem. But here’s what I do want. I want to be able to discuss it. Really, that’s what I want; to be able to discuss it. Without the hatred and name-calling that normally goes along with it. I want to be able to look at meaningful ways to deal with it. I want it to move away from things like the facebook posts, which do more harm than good. And as with any honest discussion, all options should be considered, not matter how far “right” or “left” they are.

An honest discussion. That’s all I want. It won’t fix anything, at first. And we'll never stop the problem completely. But maybe, just maybe, if we as a nation can discuss it like reasonable adults, just maybe we can come up with some solutions that will help with the problem, without shredding the second amendment. An honest discussion: is that too much to ask? Unfortunately, I think I know that answer. Realistically, getting gun control zealots to sit down and talk with the likes of the NRA is probably never going to happen. In the same way, I'm pretty sure any pro-gun person who started reading this blog, didn't get past the first paragraph. Because they don't want to hear anything that might even approach "gun control." So chances aren't good. But hey, maybe, hopefully, I’m wrong.

It sure would be nice if we didn't have to read about tragedies such as Emma Nowling.