It’s like a rerun of a show you never liked in the first place.
Thursday in Oregon, there was another mass shooting. The death toll this time was 10.
It was the 45th mass shooting in the past 39 weeks in the United States. On average, that’s a mass shooting every six days in our country. A graphic on the front page of today’s New York Daily News states that 87,423 people have died from gun violence in America since Dec. 2012. Of course, that number is likely to have changed by the time you read this.
Who thinks this is acceptable?
Yet we have become accustomed to the carnage, it seems, and the reaction to Thursday’s shooting follows a predictable pattern. The debate about what can be done to stop the madness begins, with Americans falling into one of two camps: Those who say new stronger gun laws will help stem the tide of our murderous society and those who rally around the 2nd Amendment while waiting patiently for the NRA to provide the talking points they will use to argue against stronger gun laws.
A bill will be introduced in Congress to strengthen gun laws, but it will wither and die.
The only thing that really changes in all of this is the death toll.
To be clear, there is no one law, measure or change that will immediately alter the course of gun violence in our country. This is a mental health problem, too, and that issue along with access to firearms must be addressed on a broad front.
But it should be obvious to all that not doing anything is worst of all possible responses.
Which ever camp you fall into, the path forward is dialogue not diatribe. We must listen, not shout.
It is a debate in which every American should be actively involved.
There is no question that better enforcement of the gun laws we have is part of the solution, but it is not the end-all, be-all. Other reasonable measures — closing the loopholes that allow people to buy guns online or at gun shows without background checks, waiting periods for gun purchases, restrictions of the manufacture and sale to the general public of military-grade guns — do not threaten our 2nd Amendment rights; they preserve them.
“Responsible” gun owners should support “responsible” measures.
When President Theodore Roosevelt, disturbed by the number of deaths in the game of football, threatened to outlaw the sport, it was the football-supporting community that became most actively engaged in the debate. They agreed to make some changes in the rules of the game not to eliminate the game, but to preserve it.
Likewise, decent, fair-minded gun owners must be a key voice in finding real solutions to the murderous scourge of gun violence that has killed more U.S. citizens this year alone than all of the U.S. deaths in military combat over the past 60 years.
Until that happens, nothing will change.
Except, of course, the body count.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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