No More Polite Nodding

It was a god awful day in Seattle yesterday. A man described by his family as mentally ill carried a gun into a neighborhood cafe and shot 4 people dead, critically wounding 1 other. He then made his way downtown where he shot and killed another woman. After an intensive citywide hunt, he shot himself when cornered by the police.

I heard the first reports in the morning, half listening, about a shooting in the University District. Hearing that the shooter was still at large, my first thoughts were about my family, of course, and while my daughter's school is only about 5 miles from there, it wasn't close enough for concern. I know several kids at nearby Roosevelt High School, however, and I figured they were on lock down, but then went about my business. Later I heard about an "apparently unrelated" shooting downtown, a mile or so from my wife's office, closer, but still not cause for panic, although the skies were filling with helicopters.

Then I received a text message from my daughter Josephine: "Guy with a gun at (school). On lock down."

Holy crap.

Four of her classmates, two of whom I've known since kindergarten, had been working on a group project at a small park with a view of Lake Washington across the street from campus when they'd been approached by a man dressed all in black, including gloves, wearing dark sunglasses, carrying a gun. They ran, making it back to school to sound the alarm.

It turned out that this armed man wasn't the killer who was on the loose, but rather a man who had heard about the shootings and had decided to carry a weapon, for which he had a license, in his hand, to a school, I can only assume with vigilantism in mind. Josephine, who is friends with all of the student witnesses, said that the police had indicated they felt the guy was, you guessed it, mentally ill: another mentally ill man with a gun, this one hanging around my daughter's school.

News mentions about this second guy have dismissed him as an overly worried jogger. In fact, I've searched the SPD online "blotter" and found no mention of this incident. Am I to assume they just let the guy go?  I hope not, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did. After all, this is America, a place where mentally ill people are allowed to walk around with guns, even around schools, even around my child and her friends. And there are gun industry lobbyists, politicians, and others out there who aggressively support their right to do so.

More children die from guns each year than the death toll of 9/11. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. The Children's Defense Fund found that during 2008 and 2009:

• The total number of preschool-age children killed by guns (173) was nearly double the number of law-enforcement officers (89) killed in the line of duty.
• African-American children and teens represented 45 percent of all gun deaths in their age group, but only 15 percent of the total US population of children.
• The top cause of death for black teens ages 15 to 19 was gun homicide.
• More children and teens died from gunfire (5,750) than the number of US military personnel killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
• Among the 23 highest-income countries in the world, the US was home to 80 percent of all gun deaths, and 87 percent of all gun deaths of children younger than 15.

Every American head should hang in shame, and every heart shout burn with rage. I will no longer sit politely and nod as earnest people try to tell me about how guns are part of the American tradition. Look what your damn tradition has wrought. Slavery was once an American tradition. So was lynching.

Guns in the hands of irresponsible people kill children. Guns in the hands of criminals kill children. Guns in the hands of mentally ill people kill children.  I have no illusion that we will become a gun free society any time soon, but it is time for across-the-board common sense gun control, a position that is supported by 2/3 of Americans.  Guns should be exceedingly hard to get. Gun owners should have to prove they know how to use and store them safely, that they are not criminals, and that they are mentally and emotionally stable.  I know there are already background check laws in some places, but there are so many loopholes they've been rendered meaningless.

Stolen guns kill children. Virtually all gun crimes are committed with stolen guns (80-90% according to estimates), while most of the gun crimes committed with legally owned guns stem from domestic violence. I keep hearing about "responsible gun owners." How about this: if your gun is used to kill someone, even if that gun as been stolen from you, even if that gun was used by an angry spouse, you should be considered at least partially guilty for that death, because as everyone knows, part of being a responsible gun owner is keeping your weapon secure. That failure of responsibility should make you an accessory to the crime.

Guns kill children.  The simple fact is that the countries with the strictest gun laws have the lowest gun death rates. Yes, I know that there is a theory out there that a well-armed population prevents crime, with Switzerland, where male citizens under 30 are required to keep government issued guns in their home, often trotted out as an example. Believe me, those guns are strictly regulated. They are issued to citizens in lieu of a standing army (which was the real intent of our 2nd amendment). Those citizens undergo rigorous military training. Yes, like the rest of Europe, the Swiss gun crime rate is quite low compared to the US, but it's far from clear that widespread gun ownership has anything to do with it. Experts say it is not an accident that Swiss gun crime has fallen since the 1990's when stricter gun control laws were enacted.

Please don't bring your 2nd amendment argument around here, not today; I'll jump down your throat. Frankly, I don't give a damn about your right to own a gun. I don't give a damn about your right to shoot animals. I don't give a damn about your fantasies of protecting yourself with a gun: that's the thinking of a mentally ill man in black who carries guns around high schools.

Guns kill people. Guns kill children. No more polite nodding.

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