There is one, and only one, common denominator involved in all mass shootings, and that, quite simply, is the gun, or guns which, alone, enable the tragedy to happen. It is not the specific mental derangement of the shooter. We don’t always know what drove him to such an extreme. He is not normally available for a post-shooting interview because he is appropriately dead. And it is certainly not any collective sin of those who end up as victims deserving punishment. No. The common denominator is the gun! The whole event is impossible without it. Why else would anyone need these murder weapons if not to kill? Why does anyone need any kind of murder weapon if not for killing? Self defense? Against what? Another gun? Does the entire citizenry need to be armed? Or would we all be safer, in less danger, if no one were armed? That’s the really big question right now. Can America survive as a democracy if the only guns anyone is allowed to possess are for hunting and target shooting? Do we, as a community of free people have the courage to say “NO” to any type of murder weapon be it handgun or military rifle? We can dodge this question for now and continue to add numbers to the total of victims of mass shootings, or we can pass strict legislation the effect of which would be: “carry a gun, go to jail”?
Howard F. Sosbee 1400 Weston Ridge Road Scotts Valley CA, 95066 831, 335, 8401 hfs@sosbee.com <mailto:hfs@sosbee.com>