Here we go again... again...

I am crawling out from under my rock, and having to discuss an emotionally charged incident. So here we are again, another entry about gun control, and once again my stance is unchanged. But we need to have this conversation, and some things will be said that some will not like.

First, I am still all for the Second Amendment, that has not changed, that will not change. I still own several firearms, mostly bolt action guns that are nearly twice my age. Unlike what I and other gun owners have been accused of, we are not paranoid, we do not have blood on our hands, and we do not fantasize about killing people. I am sure, with over three hundred million people living here, there are some who are paranoid and do fantasize about killing people. Those are the people who we need to worry about, not someone like me, who collects old rifles for the history or looks. Not the person who goes to the range to shoot at paper targets.

Since the events of the Parkland shooting, I have seen more and more radicalized ideals coming from my liberal peers, and honestly I don't blame them. We have a serious violence problem here in the good ole US of A. We have a hate problem in the US. We have a respect problem in the US. We have a poverty problem in the US. And banning, confiscation, or making it nearly impossible to acquire firearms is the easiest solution, and that it would probably solve the spree shootings we see, it will lead to far worse things. Intent and ability will always exist, and if the intent is strong enough, ability will present itself.

But the problems extend past spree shooters, and that is an inability to speak logically about the problem. The most enjoyable debate on the subject I had was with a friend I do not speak to nearly enough. She reposted a Tweet about what people on the gun control side of the debate wanted, that did not include an outright ban. A ban on bump stocks and trigger cranks, background checks, closing off the “gun show loophole,” raising the age for purchase of “assault rifles,” no private sales or requiring that they have a transfer of title, and various other reasonable sounding laws. The only objection I had, and explained that it was a case of enforcement is the private sale requirements. I agree bump stocks and trigger cranks aren't something that someone needs. I can agree that purchase of firearms of any stripe should be restricted to 21 or older. We have background checks, but they can be better, and attention needs to be paid in reporting prohibited people. The Texas church shooter was prohibited, but the military failed to report he was prohibited. The Parkland shooter was reported to have had domestic violence complaints, and while I do not know if he had been picked up for them, it should have sent up red flags when he went to purchase a firearm. The system can be improved, and anyone who denies that fact should really look hard at the situations at hand. These two things alone might well slow some of this down. A waiting period isn't as horrible as some of my Pro-Second Amendment peers claim it is.

But, we need to have these conversations in a civil way. I don't care which side of the debate you are on, a civil conversation is required to achieve anything. I was once called paranoid by someone who lives in a nice gated community, who identifies as white and straight, whose neighbors in her estimation agree with her political ideology, and who find racism detestable to their very core. We are all not so lucky. I live in a place where white supremacy reigns supreme. Where the majority of pawn shops and firearms dealers openly support white power militias. Where they openly recruit for these groups. I live in a place that is proud of its oppression of minorities, that has one of the highest crime rates in the state. I live in a neighborhood where neo-nazis roam the streets giving the hail hitler salute as they drive by, where houses have bullet holes in the front facades. Where if you call the police after dusk, they won't respond. To add to this, I am Jewish. My father was beaten nearly to death in the hospital, because of his suspected Jewishness, this beating led directly to his death. I am not paranoid, I am living in a potential racial war zone, with few allies. And this war is brewing, every week the “heritage not hate” groups hold various rallies, at this point they are selling items to acquire firearms. And if a ban were to be enacted, one that required people to forfeit their firearms, I doubt those arms would be acquired by relevant parties, and I doubt those parties would really even try. And this place is not unique, and no amount of saying the police will act can dissuade my view. If we cannot trust the police to not shoot or abuse someone who is armed or unarmed, how can we trust them to actually ensure that all known parties are unarmed?

I have been accused of having blood on my hands, and yes I do. I have put animals down using firearms. I have shot coyotes menacing my livestock. I have on occasion shot deer for food. I once shot a bear in self defense (using a beanbag round). I collect rifles that have likely killed more than one person in their lifespan. I am not alone in these things, people hunt for food, some hunt for sport, some of us collect rifles because of their history, and some of us just enjoy going to the range, just to practice a skill set. Others yet live in areas where personal protection is needed. I happen to live in an area where hunting is big, and self protection is required. Personal protection from criminals, personal protection from those who would burn my home down with me in it, if given the chance. That is not paranoia, that is just a fact of life for many people these days.

Remember, when trying to find a solution, you have to take into the opinions of others, and insulting does nothing. I don't like trump, I think the man is pretty dumb, and many of his supporters aren't much better. They refuse to look at things objectively, they see anything they don't like and label it as “fake news.” It's all propaganda to taint a “great” president. But, to label a whole group of people based on their views, to deride them or shame them only closes off the ability to have meaningful dialogue to create solutions. It is easy to insult, it is easy to attempt to shame, or otherwise deride gun owners. But I hear that moderates on the matter, like myself should speak up, be the voice of reason, but how can we? We get shouted down by the ardent conservatives and libertarians who want zero restrictions, and we get shouted down by the ardent gun control/gun ban crowd who feel that firearms should be legislated into oblivion, regardless of why someone has them. Because nobody is willing to listen to the moderate views, the moderates in this mess either withdraw from the debate, or they get pushed into one side of the debate. And I can tell you, it's not easy maintaining a reasonable view of this. You might think that is a good thing, but it isn't. Of all the people I have encountered in this debate, only a small handful have fallen into the extremely strict gun control side of things. I have only seen a small handful of people who willingly destroyed or turned over their firearms.

I know many gun control advocates list statistics, and that is a good way to go about things. They talk about how the NRA has donated to most of our federal government. Our elected officials have been given money by the NRA. They aren't wrong to list the members of our Congress have gotten money from the NRA, they are not wrong to give the amount of money the NRA has deposited into war chests for reelection. I have no use for the NRA, they do not represent me, for that matter, there is a large group of people the NRA does not represent, and they are gun owners. I know of several thousand gun owners of various stripes of liberal. Some are proudly self claimed communists, some are socialists, some are merely liberal, and many call themselves centrists (most are moderate or just left of center). There is even a gun club for liberals (The Liberal Gun Club), there are Facebook groups for liberal gun owners (Liberal Gun Owners and LGO Polstat). We aren't all racist redneck swine. We aren't all for government based religious abuse. Some voted for Clinton or Stein, others wanted Sanders, most voted for Obama.

Some claim that it is easier to buy an AR15 than it is to vote. That is a scary thought, really it is, and I am not being sarcastic, that scares me, it should scare you. But what isn't stated is that those are private sales. I can go to the local trading magazine and go to the firearms section, pick one of them, call the person, show up with cash in hand and buy the firearm, if I want to. But I don't really want to. I'd rather just go to one of the two shops I normally deal with, go through the paperwork, and not have to worry about having a red sheet gun (a gun that has been reported stolen or was used in a crime). But some people don't think like I do. I will also point out some other things about this. If you have never attempted to purchase a firearm, its not easy, but it isn't hard. Difficulty if you can read and write is easy, dealing with an employee or owner is not that hard if you know to keep your mouth shut. At any point from the time you enter the store until the sale is finalized the process can be stopped dead. One comment that they person you are dealing with doesn't like can be the end of the deal. Recently in Chesterfield and store owner refused to sell a firearm to customer because he felt the customer was a straw buyer. Now, many of us believe that the owner only refused to sell to the customer based on race. But he swears that he believes the customer was a straw buyer, and even though many people pushed for this owner to be investigated for his potential discrimination, nothing has come of it, because he has the right to refuse service. I have seen lawyers in good standing with their respective state bar have to wait days for approval to purchase firearms. The first time I bought a firearm, nearly a decade ago, I was held up for a week waiting for a background check. The truth of the matter is, I was probably cleared within a few minutes, but the owner of the store decided that I should wait. Now, I don't have a complaint with it, its just the way things are, he was doing his job, making sure that I had a cooling off period, even if I didn't believe I needed one. He didn't know, and made a judgment call on the side of caution.

People on the gun control side of the debate like to point out that if you own a firearm, you are more likely to be the victim of a crime, or use it to commit suicide. Personally, if you live in an area with a high crime rate, you are more likely to own a firearm, and do we really have to go through the correlation is not causation debate? They point out that Australia has had no mass shootings since their buy back. And they aren't wrong, but Australia now has more firearms than they did before the buy back. People like to point out that mental illness doesn't shoot up schools or offices in Canada, Australia, of the United Kingdom, but they also have good to excellent mental health treatment. Something lacking in the US. They also enforce their laws better than we do. We have people proudly claiming that arming teachers, sending former military, or more police into a school is the solution, and I disagree. Police have proven that they aren't to be trusted, and many former military personal become police officers, its almost an instant hire. Teachers are underpaid as it is, and now we want to arm people who have a hard enough time controlling a classroom when they are unarmed. What could possibly go wrong? In the direct aftermath of this last shooting, I literally saw people online and on CNN claiming that the militarized police is in response to people having access to semi-automatic weapons. Things that have been around for several decades before police started acquiring armored personal carriers.

I see many students rallying to get assault weapons banned. I am glad that they are becoming politically aware, I am glad they are finally waking up and voicing their opinions. They certainly have that right, and they should use it. They are not crises actors, they are not idiots, and they shouldn't be attacked based on those assumptions. They are expressing something that many people feel, that we have a problem. And we do have a problem. We have a people problem, we have a violence problem, we have a mental health problem, we have a bully problem, we have a hate problem, and we have a respect problem, a healthcare problem, a poverty problem and a drug problem. We hate those who don't agree with us entirely or are born different, so many do not respect life or others. We have children bullying other children, and when these children defend themselves they are the bad guy. Their message isn't all that cohesive. Some want a ban on “assault rifles,” actually from what I am hearing a ban on all semi-automatic guns, some want better mental health treatment, others want the age to purchase raised.

Well, Trump finally is acting, and I am not entirely opposed to it. One executive order he signed banned anything that could take a semi-automatic firearm and make it fully automatic. He wants to expand background checks, and he is talking about increasing the legal age to purchase firearms. Good steps, now lets see if he follows through with them. But in the meantime, now is the time for discussion, now is the time to have realistic discussions on how to stop these massacres. And now is the time to fully get to the root of the problem.

I have heard multiple tales about this Parkland shooter. DV complaints, white supremacist, anti-semetic (something that is not discussed nearly enough), severely depressed, behavioral problems, violent outbursts in school, threats, stalking.... He should have been red flagged when he purchased that rifle, and it should have never happened. That can be improved. But there are the other things, was he bullied, that needs to stop, bullies should be punished. His violent outbursts, threats against other students, stalking an ex-girlfriend and other behavioral problems should have warranted more than than the response it was given. The fact that there were multiple domestic violence calls to his home about his actions should have gotten a reaction. Worse yet, the FBI was repeatedly notified about his online threats and activities, and no action was taken. Any number of things could have prevented this shooting, and they all went ignored. In this instance the laws didn't fail, those who could have triggered enforcement of the laws failed, and that makes it all the worse.

But as it is right now, we are going to throw ourselves headlong into the “easy solution,” and then fail to understand why things are worse.  And we have to address the root causes of violence, because if we don't it will only get worse.