Fringeville #207: We’re Doing It Wrong

Have we reached a tipping point on gun violence in America?

Maybe.

But we have a curious capacity for tolerating the slaughter of others. The pattern after each mass shooting is the same: Shock. Calls for thoughts and prayers. Demands for action. Then comes time, that unstoppable thing that puts distance between the last horror and the next. Hence the “maybe.” If nothing has changed a year from now, you’ll have the answer.

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On thoughts and prayers: I offer them. Every time. I also believe the Lord is wondering when we’ll hold up our end. People are slaughtered. We pray. Then we do nothing. The cycle repeats as it has for as long as I can remember.

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We are divided on gun ownership, as we are on almost everything in America, and the extremes cancel each other out. Nothing gets done. We seem incapable of finding middle ground; a place to start from which, over time, real change can come.

The 2nd Amendment is here to stay.

Here in Pennsylvania, the state constitution states is plainly worded: "The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State shall not be questioned."

That doesn’t mean nothing can be done to slow the slaughter.

A starting point would be banning high capacity magazine (HCM).

Only a handful of states ban them, and the definition on what HCM’s are vary. It is, to me, a logical place to start a serious discussion. Start simple. Define HCM’s. Next, buy them back, no questions asked. They are not firearms. They are attachments. You can’t buy certain cold medicines in some places without ID, yet you can purchase HCM's in most states.

Pennsylvania does not prohibit the sale or possession of large capacity magazines. The PA House and Senate couldn’t even agree on the definition of HCM’s the last time legislation was introduced in 2013 (the House bill said greater than 15 rounds, the Senate 10). If the United States Congress is content to let the slaughter continue, let Pennsylvania take the lead.

Perhaps banning HCM’s will be an inconvenience to some law-abiding firearm owners. Better to be inconvenienced than to have a trooper at your door telling you a family member has been lost in a mass shooting.

I’ve read articles that state smaller magazines wouldn’t affect rate of fire, and that changing magazines requires just 2-4 seconds. It is also not uncommon for a mass shooter to have multiple weapons. But if they must change magazines more often, a few extra seconds may save lives. If a shooter's long-gun jams, and they switch to a pistol, that also levels the playing field for anyone nearby who may be armed, be that law enforcement or civilians.

Anything that buys time for potential victims is a good starting point.

I’m not going any deeper into the weeds on this. My point is that something must be done because what we’re doing right now clearly isn’t working. Banning HCM’s will open the discussion.

Banning guns altogether will always be a non-starter in America. Throwing up our hands and saying nothing can be done should be a non-starter as well.

I know I’m going to upset some of my friends on the right and left with this post.

So be it. I’d rather have you alive and mad at me than dead after a mass shooting.

The fact is, again, we’re doing this all wrong. We go into the weeds, time passes and then there’s another mass shooting. Over. And over. And over again.

 

Change must come and it must come now.

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Please, please, please…. Be good to each other.

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