[Peace-discuss] ON THE GUN FETISH

[Szoke, Ron]

The gun nuts keep telling us things like “Guns don’t kill people; it’s (mentally sick?) people who kill people.”  They are right in this respect: an armory of a thousand untouched guns, will not, spontaneously and by itself, harm anyone.  But neither will a crowd of a thousand randomly chosen unarmed people fatally injure anyone unless some of them are actually psychotic and happen to also be carrying weapons such as knives, swords, clubs, or possibly to be thinking of their vehicle as a lethal weapon.  
	So, it’s overwhelmingly people WITH GUNS — not crazy people without guns — who engage in gun violence and kill numerous people.  The problem then, if you want to decrease massacres of groups of people, is to adopt policies such as:  (1)  keep people and guns apart as much as possible, as is already done with military weapons; (2) implement frequently mentioned “common-sense” policies such as “Red Flag” laws; (3) registration of all guns, gun owners, & gun users; (4) proficiency training & testing to at least the level of automobile drivers; (5) require proof of liability insurance; and (6) since so many seem unable to understand  it, repeal the Second Amendment, as was done with the Prohibition (18th) amendment when it was found to be intolerable by the great majority of Americans.