Many people insist on gun control legislation any time there is a shooting. It is politically hard to sell and as a life-saving measure it is a waste of time and resources. Time, resources, political capital and energy spent on a fruitless effort to control a significant minority of the population could instead be productively used to actually save lives.
When we get news of a random mass shooting, it is as good a time as any
to oppose senseless death. It is not such a good time to make rules for hundreds
of millions of people. Maybe things should change, but not by angry actions in
the heat of the moment. This is not the time to design public policy.
More than five thousand
people die in the United States
We already know things that
will both save lives and make life better. Those things are supported by sensible evidence.
Consider this: "Historically,
every other developed nation has achieved universal health care through some
form of nonprofit national health insurance. Our failure to do so means that
all Americans pay higher health care costs, and 45,000 [annually] pay with
their lives." -- Steffie Woolhandler, MD, MPH, staff physician and
Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS).
If you fight to get absolute
no-brainer fixes like Universal Health Care you will save lives.
When it comes right down to
it, it seems that people don't really want to help. It is every man for
himself. They can help, but in practice they just won't.
The Second Amendment allows the
people at the bottom to be armed against despotic oppression from the top. Gun
control would be fine if done at a local level such that people could gain back
control of their government if needed.
It is weird how invasive and
tyrannical the U.S. Federal government has become. I think it would be a very
bad idea to disarm while central government continues to expand its control.
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