The Colorado Shooting: A Response

And so the debate heats up once again.  As more than one pundit has observed, it happens every time there is a mass shooting like the one this past weekend in Aurora, Colorado.  Gun control proponents and those who are opposed to any suppression of gun rights trot out all the arguments, pro and con, and we hear anew how we need to get rid of guns or we need to keep them.  And, we don't really get anywhere.  And things quiet down.  And we wait for the next time.

I am reminded of the abortion debate, and how it often falls into the same pattern of all or nothing.  But the truth is there is a middle ground in both debates. 

While I can't personally imagine owning any sort of gun myself, I can get behind the right of folks to own a shot gun for hunting.  I can even understand why some people might want or even need a handgun for personal protection.  But an assault rifle?  One designed for killing many people in an incredibly short amount of time?  One capable of firing off one hundred rounds of ammunition in no time at all?  No one needs such a weapons. 

Even a gun proponent like Cameron Hopkins, former editor-in-chief of American Handgunner, acknowledges there are limits.  "If zombies were coming over the horizon, and I wanted to massacre thousands of zombies, I still would not use a 100-round magazine," he told Bloomsberg Businessweek reporters (Businessweek.com).  Such magazines, he said are bulky and unreliable.  (He does say he'd rather use 30 round magazines. We're not exactly on the same page, but still . . . . there are limits even for him.)

Here's the bottom line.  In Colorado, carrying a loaded assault rifle is legal.  In Colorado, requiring gun registration is illegal.  Something's wrong with this picture!  If you are law-abiding citizen, a hunter or a homeowner, how does carrying a loaded assault weapon advance your cause?  And how does registration hinder it? 

It's time to recognize that the context of the adoption of the Second Amendment is a vastly different context than that of our day and age.  It's time to let go of the polarized positions.  It is time to recognize that while it is true "Guns don't kill people, people do"--it is just as true that the more guns (loaded or otherwise) that you have circulating in society, the more likely they will be used for ill. 

I, for one, am tired of waiting until next time.  How many more lives need to be lost before we do something?  Let's get serious about gun control and responsible gun ownership.