The Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, was yet another case in which assault-style weapons were used to murder American students.
While pondering this and the subsequent reactions, the phrase “a child shall lead them” comes to mind. It’s actually a reference to the prophesied birth of Jesus in Isaiah 11:6, but it seems appropriate with the youthful protests sparked by the surviving students at Stoneman Douglas.
On the one hand, we have the energetic, angry reaction by students proclaiming “enough already” and demanding meaningful action. On the other hand, we have adult elected officials who once again do little more than ask for a moment of silence and prayer for the victims’ families. Might the children finally lead us to a solution to this mounting crisis?
I applauded President Trump when he said it was time to stand up to the National Rifle Association (NRA). I was not surprised, however, when he walked it back and merely supported the steps proposed by that organization.
The president’s proposal to militarize our schools by arming teachers is ridiculous. It represents a juvenile fantasy of the good guys saving the day with their six-shooters. Is the president unaware of the rate of friendly-fire casualties suffered in our well-trained military? In World War II and Vietnam, the percentage of casualties caused by our own troops was estimated to be as high as 14 percent. It is no wonder the vast majority of our educators want no part in the Trump/NRA proposal.
The NRA’s latest response to the mass shootings is a tweet: “We will control our own guns.” This is from the people who oppose banning silencers and so-called cop-killer bullets and opposed prohibiting people on the no-fly list from gun purchases.
Gun lobby spokesmen say the problem isn’t guns but rather the influence of violent video games and not enough being done about mental illness. Yes, those exacerbate the situation, but the problem is still the easy availability of a weapon whose sole purpose is to kill people in a rapid fashion.
Avid sportsmen readily admit these are designed to kill people, not game animals. Despite NRA claims to the contrary, gun control laws have been effective in greatly reducing overall gun deaths as shown by FBI studies. Yet since Congress allowed the assault weapons ban to lapse in 2004, we have witnessed a significant increase in mass shootings with such weapons. It is vitally important that the upswing in mass shootings, especially in our schools, is stopped.
I would like to see AR-15s banned and owners recompensed. The Supreme Court ruled that certain weapons can be prohibited constitutionally.
The potential trap springing from that ruling is the wording that “dangerous and unusual” weapons can be prohibited. Assault-style rifles are dangerous, but with an estimated 3.8 million AR-15s in circulation within America they are not, unfortunately, unusual.
And here is the catch-22 of gun control: the more assault-style weapons are used in mass shootings, the greater the public’s desire to ban them. The more that people want them banned, the more AR-15s are sold. The more that are sold, the tougher it gets to pass effective legislation against them.
Nevertheless, ridding the nation of weapons designed to kill as many people as possible in a short time is an action needed and wanted by the majority of Americans.
Our elected officials may continue to allow the NRA to trump the lives of our children, but let us not forget that no revolution has ever occurred without the impetus of outraged youth — and that includes our own American Revolution.
Michael Adkins is the former chair of the Hancock County Democratic Party. He lives in Greenfield. Send comments to [email protected].
