Thoughts On the Newtown Incident

December 20, 2012

Like all of you, I was shocked and saddened by the events in Newtown, Connecticut at Sandy Hook Elementary. I listened to President Obama speak at the memorial service and I was disappointed in what I did not hear him say. There were no specifics. After considering the amount of gun violence in this country, the awful mass shootings of the last four years, and terrible incidents like the Trayvon Martin shooting. The President of the United States did not specifically state that we need stricter gun control laws, up to and including a ban private ownership of assault rifles and strict limits on ownership of hand guns in this country.

I have heard the arguments that everyone should have the right to own a handgun for protection. Or that guns don't kill people, people kill people. Who are we kidding? Assault rifles and handguns, like those used in mass shootings, are tools designed for only one purpose. To kill people. The only reason to own a handgun is if you plan to kill someone. It is clear that we cannot control who is likely to buy, borrow, or steal one of these tools, and the only way to make our country safe is to outlaw or severely limit the ownership.

If you took two rooms, in one you put a hundred people, all with handguns and in the other one hundred people with no handguns. There is no guarantee that violence will erupt in either room. But, the people in the room without the handguns is always going to be safer from gun violence. Owning a handgun or assault rifle does not make you safer. Gun owners are more likely to be the victim or perpetrator of gun violence than non-owners. Gun ownership is a recipe for disaster. Ask George Zimmerman if owning a gun has made him any safer. Owning a handgun or assault rifle might make you feel safer or more secure, but you aren't. These tools are dangerous, and these repeated incidents show that we cannot control their use or spread. Would possession of a handgun have made anyone killed by gun violence in the last decade safer?

We claim that our nation is founded on the concepts of liberty, independence, and freedom. This is not true, pure liberty and freedom is a state of chaos. In reality, our nation is a balance. Community interests balanced against self interest. We have come together to form a "more perfect union." As citizens, we have agreed to surrender some of our freedom and self interest for the security of living in a community. The keystone of our nation and society is trust, not liberty. Trust in our fellow man. We have to trust our families, neighbors, communities, and government.

Handguns and assault rifles have created a spirit of distrust. The extent of gun violence in our country has made us inherently distrustful of our fellow men. We want guns because we are afraid of the other people with handguns and assault rifles. This is an arms race where increasing numbers of people buy a gun because the people around them have a gun. In the end, this path leads to mutual destruction and chaos.

In the interest of liberty and independence, we have allowed the balance between community interest and self interest to slip. We have created the myth that true independence requires every man the right to own and carry a handgun or assault rifle, and in doing so we have allowed the desires of individuals to stop us from making laws that will guarantee us secure communities, guarantee us safe schools, guarantee us that we will not be shot by some lost soul on our next shopping trip.

This is what I want to hear from the President of the United States, the governor of every state in this country, and every other elected official in this country. Because we have surrendered too many lives on this altar. Freedom and independence of mind and spirit do not require the ownership of handguns and assault rifles. Self protection does not require the ownership of handguns and assault rifles. We must limit the ownership of automatic handguns and ban the private ownership of assault rifles by anyone.

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