What happened in Orlando, one of the deadliest shootings in US history, is part of a larger trend of fear and anger that has no immediate solutions. But when these tragedies happen again and again, we need to look at the world we live in today and accept that 1.) These things will happen, but 2.) we do not have to make it easier for them to happen, by turning our grief stricken cheeks to cold slaps of ignorance.
Everyone has a right to hunting guns, hand guns, and concealed weapons. This freedom has been caught in a chokehold by Lady Liberty since our country was first established. How comfortable you are with your friends and neighbors buying a shiny new pistol has to do with where you were raised and how comfortable you are around guns. These simple hand guns are not what this article will focus on. What I would like to consider tonight is assault rifles.
I will never, ever believe that civilians should have easy, legal access to semi-automatic weapons. Yet somehow, the Orlando shooter and Sandy Hook shooter had legal access. The Sandy Hook shooter pressured his mother to purchase guns for him. The more recent Orlando shooter legally purchased his weapon of choice a day before breaking it in. You and I probably both know individuals who have the right to a gun, but should NOT (for their own sake and that of others) own an assault rifle. In the society we live in, we are currently not able to differentiate from the psychopath next door and the good Samaritan. We gave a Florida citizen, who had frequent fits of anger and used to beat his (ex) wife, who pledged alliance during the shooting to groups who despise one another (effectively nulling any real allegiance) a semi-automatic weapon.
Take mental illness out of the picture. Mental illness is so common yet so rarely spoken about in a professional manner that it is misunderstood, and often feared. But the masses of people diagnosed with mental disorders are now suffering increased stigma, thanks to a half-hearted attempt to blame mental illness for mass shootings. Let me make this clear to you- mental illness can cloud the mind beyond rational, expected behavior. Those facilitating mass shootings, cold and calculated, should not be treated as mentally ill. They should be treated as criminals, terrorists (domestic and international) and mass murderers.
The answer is not simply this, but this may help: the answer to preventing bomb threats is not to arm innocent civilians with their own bombs (shutter at the thought of your idiot neighbor blowing up his own home by accident)- so why do we continue to supply to the general public a weapon of mass destruction, and encourage sale of such an item to protect ourselves? We make it so easy for the bad guy to get their weapon that before we could draw the same or different guns to protect ourselves, too many lives would be wasted (in seconds!) to justify the equal access. And we can't keep an eye on every person, everywhere, all the time, although new security measures in crowded public places may help protect us.
The Orlando shooter was under two prior investigations, both of which were dropped. To start with, after having potential terrorist connections, he should not have been allowed to purchase a semi-automatic weapon. The store he bought them at was not at fault, because they legally supplied a weapon that could kill almost 50 people and wound just as many. But the laws surrounding gun ownership are so loose- if this guy had been put on local police radar, and the shop was allowed to take more time to question the purchase and get legal clearance, maybe this catastrophe might have been prevented. Even so, it's time to look hard at our strange, overly attached relationship to any and all firearms in this country.
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