My Response

       “Well, what’s your solution?”

        That would be a fair response to Thursday’s post. In it, I criticized the left and the right for their predictable response to the Charleston shooting and lamented that no solution would be found in time to prevent another tragedy we’ve seen far too often.

        What would I do? First, we have to look at the mental health angle of gun violence and count suicides by guns in our discussions. So many of the mass shooting gunmen take their own lives, we should recognize the thought of taking many lives often starts with the thought of taking one.

        So part of my solution would be a heavy investment and destigmatizing of mental health care. But that is really part of the general health which leads to healthcare which leads to how individuals pay and have access to it and now suddenly the issue of gun deaths now includes health care and public expenditure.

        That’s why so little progress is made, because once you get past the sound bites into real causation and prevention, it suddenly is linked to issues that were beyond the scope of the initial problem.

        My semi-original thought is to stop trying to limit the guns themselves and start licensing people for different levels of gun ownership, like driver’s licenses. A license for a single shotgun would be simpler to obtain that a license for a machine gun. The applicants would have to demonstrate responsibility, security, and sanity as they progressed in the quantity and quality of gun ownership.

        I can hear some percolating at the mere mention of paperwork. But every “Freedom of” has and exception. There is the high school social studies chestnut of yelling “Fire” in a crowded theater exception to Freedom of Speech. Libel, though often difficult to prove, prevents some excess of the tabloids, despite their cry of Freedom of the Press.

        I think even the most vocal opponent of gun control would have no problem denying someone convicted of murder from owning a gun, but that IS gun control. We just need to find a middle, rational ground. 

       Will emotions fueled by the Charleston tragedy and long held fear of losing one’s firearms be able to come together to find a solution that just slows down these tragedies? Unfortunately, we already know the answer.