Blog
The Problem
Isn’t Guns;
It’s People
It’s been a week and the shock, the outrage are fading . . . or have faded entirely. Young people and a teacher were killed a week ago at a Wisconsin school. A second-grader made the 911 call to report that a shooting was going on.
We live in a world where a 6- or 7-year-old has to make that kind of call? Where they have to live with that kind of reality?
In the wake of the most recent – AND FAR TOO OFTEN – school shooting, we all heard and watched the politicians, including our president, call for more gun control laws.
“It’s shocking and unconscionable,” Pres. Biden said. “It is unacceptable that we are unable to protect our children from this scourge of gun violence . . . Congress must pass commonsense gun safety laws: Universal background checks. A national red flag law. A ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
“My administration has taken aggressive action to combat the gun violence epidemic. We passed the most significant gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years, I have taken more executive action to reduce gun violence than any other President in history, and I created the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.”
According to CNN, Madison was the 83rd school shooting this year – breaking the record of 82 from the year before –which broke the record of 79 from the year before that – which broke the record . . .
83 school shootings.
38 dead
115 wounded
Just this year.
Just! This! Year!
How’s that gun control thing working out, Mr. President?
School shootings are increasing, not decreasing. We’re averaging more than one a week. One a week!
I ask again, how’s that rhetoric working out for you?
Could we shut down the damn political talk just this once?
38 dead.
What else do we need to know?
Will taking guns away really solve this problem?
Will taking cars away solve drunk driving?
Will taking No. 2 pencils away solve poor test scores?
Will taking my fork away solve my weight issue?
The problem is not a gun. The problem is people.
People who don’t parent their children. People who abdicate parenting to video games. People who don’t crack open the door to a church. People who don’t crack open their heart to God. People who value power over legislating. People who think talking solves problems.
Guns. Cars. Pencils. Forks.
Not. The. Problem.
People. People. People.
How do we solve that? How do we step back from the abyss we’re staring into in today’s world?
I can’t tell you the long-term answers, but I can tell you where they start. At home. At church. It really isn’t that complicated.
Two cents, which is about how much Timmons said his columns are worth, appears periodically on Wednesdays in The Paper. Timmons is the publisher of The Paper and can be contacted at [email protected].