The massacre in Las Vegas is a classic argument for banning civilian access to firearms.\u00a0 \u00a0If you believe, as many do, that such a ban will be unsuccessful, then the recent church shooting in Tennessee<\/a> lends itself to arguments in favor of citizens carrying firearms for defensive use.<\/p>\n How serious is America\u2019s gun death problem?\u00a0\u00a0The Washington Posts lists all the fatal shootings in the US on Sunday.\u00a0 It\u2019s a long list<\/a>.<\/p>\n It is therefore understandable that people would like to get rid of guns.\u00a0 It\u2019s an obvious go-to option, especially for those who have no particular use for the things.\u00a0 The question of course is: What will actually help?\u00a0 On that point,\u00a0 DarwinCatholic writes about the importance of using facts if you wish to learn the truth<\/a>.<\/p>\n Leah Libresco, no fan of firearms, writes for the Post<\/em>: \u201cI used to think gun control was the answer. My research told me otherwise<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Her comments fit with my observations here<\/a> after glancing at the CDC statistics on gun deaths of minors.\u00a0 It is not that gun laws can\u2019t help.\u00a0 It\u2019s that complex problems \u2014 really a set of problems \u2014 require complex, varied, time- and labor-intensive solutions.<\/p>\n An aside:\u00a0\u00a0Five Thirty Eight reports on the difficulty in classifying (and therefore understanding) the nature of gun deaths<\/a>.\u00a0 The numbers involved in ambiguous cases are fairly small, though.\u00a0 We end up back at the classic problems of murder, suicide, and accidents.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n A difficulty Americans face is that our laws have to take into account the actual way that Americans act.\u00a0 This\u00a0poem from Joe Long at American Greatness<\/em> captures the cultural divide<\/a> between what the mainstream political elite wants people to want, and what they actually want.<\/p>\n In dialog with friends, the importance of mental health care and of keeping weapons out of the hands of the mentally ill both came up as related challenges.\u00a0 Difficulty: There is a portion of Americans who would sooner avoid treatment for mental health problems than risk losing their right to bear arms.<\/p>\n How firmly\u00a0do Gunlandians cling to the 2nd amendment?\u00a0 As per usual, stock in gun companies went up<\/a> after the massacre.\u00a0 It\u2019s a painfully predictable series of events: Notorious shooting \u2013> calls for gun control \u2013> rush on gun purchases.\u00a0 It is as reliable as running out for bread and milk before a snowstorm.\u00a0 The stock market knows it.\u00a0 This round, bread-n-milk is \u2018bump stocks\u2019<\/a>, the particular item which Gunlandians fear will be banned.<\/p>\n You can be certain that the stronger the rhetoric in favor of gun control, the stronger the turnout will be for candidates who oppose it.\u00a0 Hence we have Trump.\u00a0 (See how he spoke to his base and didn\u2019t mention guns in his Las Vegas talk?\u00a0 He knows who elected him.) Thanks team.*\u00a0 Sheesh.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to think these people are right.\u00a0<\/strong> You do have to understand that these people live in this nation, they vote, and they already own the guns.\u00a0 Wishing them away will not fix anything.\u00a0 Writing legislation as if these people aren\u2019t there or don\u2019t count will only exacerbate the problem<\/strong>.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n How hard is America\u2019s murder-suicide problem to solve?<\/strong> Take a look these articles:<\/p>\n There is no deep-seated culturally entrenched belief in a right to drugs.\u00a0 The laws on drug trafficking (for heroin) are unambiguous, and enforcement is intense.\u00a0 And yet this problem is completely out of control.<\/p>\n If we wish to understand the homicide-suicide problem, we first need to get a handle on much, much simpler problems.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n I wrote last week<\/a> about the challenges (and some techniques) for preventing accidental deaths.\u00a0 In this area again, I think the polarization of the gun-divide does not help.\u00a0 I have nothing further to say (Review: If you can\u2019t store a weapon properly, you should. not. own. one.<\/a>), but I do want to share some links on the problem of accidental death in general.<\/p>\n My hardline stance on responsible gun (stove, pool, automobile) ownership is not incompatible with a vivid awareness that accidents can happen even when you do everything right<\/strong>.\u00a0 And thus:<\/p>\n One thing the New Yorker<\/em> article mentions is the dearth of literature dealing with the trauma of manslaughter.\u00a0\u00a0Michelle Buckman\u2019s novel\u00a0Rachel\u2019s Contrition<\/em><\/a> is specifically about the aftermath of an accidental death.\u00a0 I recommend this book.\u00a0 Even if it isn\u2019t your usual genre, the storytelling will suck you in sufficiently.\u00a0 It is by no means a facile treatment of the topic.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n On the topic of suicide, here\u2019s the\u00a0National Review<\/em>:\u00a0Pushing Euthanasia for the Depressed<\/a>.<\/p>\n We will not succeed in ending suicide so long as we are busy encouraging suicide<\/strong>.\u00a0 Forget guns.\u00a0 Let\u2019s outlaw doctors?<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n In my post-Las Vegas post at the Conspiracy,\u00a0\u201cThe Problem of Evil Revisited\u201d<\/a>, I wrote this week my usual thing that I write after massacres.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s something similar I wrote after the Paris attack in 2015<\/a>.<\/p>\n In that Paris post I linked to an article at\u00a0The Nation,<\/em> \u201cWhat I Discovered From Interviewing Imprisoned ISIS Fighters.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n I maintain that while tactics are necessary in order to mitigate the effects of evil (and hence the gun debates), ultimately what you have to battle with, really truly battle with, is evil itself.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n What is the state of affairs concerning evil in the US?<\/p>\n We\u2019ve talked about the heroin problem.\u00a0 \u00a0I think something many Americans in the voting classes don\u2019t understand is how intensely corrupted life is among the have-nots<\/strong>.\u00a0 Wealthy people manage to cover over these problems and present a good veneer, even though we, too, have addictions and children dying of overdoses.\u00a0 When our kids go astray in other ways, we hold together as fair a face as we can.<\/p>\n But things are bad.<\/p>\n My daughter\u2019s chief complaint about her local public school is the girls (the girls!) who listen to songs about rap<\/strong>e.\u00a0 I googled \u201crape music\u201d and the results were . . . informative.\u00a0 In addition to the fact that this is a genre you can get playlists for, there\u2019s this quote from an article on rape at music festivals<\/a>:<\/p>\n I was at Secret Garden Party\u2013a four-day Cambridgeshire festival that\u2019s as much about hedonism and dressing in costumes as it is about music\u2013a few weeks back. After wearing a nipple-flashing outfit and voguing on a podium to electro, I staggered back to my tent alone in the dark without considering that I might be in danger. A few days later, I found out that a girl had been allegedly raped at the festival just the night before.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Try parsing that one out.\u00a0 This is where we are.<\/p>\n People think I\u2019m all pie-in-the-sky when I say we need to battle evil.<\/p>\n No. Really.\u00a0 Evil is our problem.<\/p>\n If you want my first step: How about we eliminate rape music?\u00a0 Can we even agree on that?<\/p>\n \u00a0Artwork: William Blake [Public domain],\u00a0via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n *New readers: My opposition to Trump is longstanding and you can search this blog for more details.<\/p>\n\n
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