Number One with a Bullet

There we were, thinking that abortion would be the issue that drives the mid-term elections. Surprise! It just might be gun control.

We are in the middle of civil wars on multiple fronts. The bloody battles of the original Civil War took the names of otherwise ordinary American towns and turned them into historical symbols: Antietam, Chancellorsville, Shiloh, Gettysburg. Now, mass shootings have given us Uvalde, Parkland, Newtown, and Littleton.

We all understand what needs to be done here. As far as I know, average citizens are not allowed to drive a tank to work or launch ballistic missiles from their backyards, so why do they need functioning military-grade assault rifles? Why should background checks not apply to gun shows? Couldn’t there be a universal red flag law to stop attacks before they happen? Remember after 9/11 when the mantra was, “If you see something, say something?” The police would then have to take that “something” seriously. Police, by the way, can’t be everywhere, and social media companies obviously can’t catch every wacko-in-development. They need users’ help.

None of these steps, of course, is foolproof. Bad guys can always find prohibited weapons. Talented psychopaths flagged before a gun purchase can convince a shrink they are perfectly sane. But if simple, reasonable measures slow down repeats of Uvalde, that would be an accomplishment.

All roads lead to the same place: it’s not about legislatION, but legislatORS. We can wail on about how lobbies are too strong and how it’s impossible to change the Senate filibuster or other elements of the status quo. We CAN hang lawmakers’ refusal to address the gun issue around their necks and turn them out of office if they don’t act. Yeah, that’s the slow, hard part, but there is realistically no other solution.

Culture doesn’t change overnight. Tobacco is no longer cool, but it has taken the better part of 400 years to get there.  It may take decades to end the American love affair with guns, which, like it or not, is part of our history. But since these long journeys begin with a single step, as the saying goes, we might as well put one foot in front of the other and start walking. There is no free ride.