• Washington Post editorial board blames ‘damage done by guns’ for murder spike.
Advocates of gun confiscation call their proposals “commonsense gun safety.” But when they confiscate firearms and ammunition, terminology can’t conceal reality. These activists claim that “gun availability” causes violent crime. Is this true?
Obviously, if guns were totally unavailable, none would be used. This was true in the Middle Ages, before the invention of guns. But the period was very violent. People feared to go out after dark, and roads were infested with robbers.
There were sword deaths, knife deaths, arrow deaths, axe deaths, club deaths, and fist and boot deaths. But there were no gun deaths, so presumably gun-control advocates would be eager to enter a time machine and be transported back to the days of “Braveheart.”
Focusing on the gun, while totally ignoring the murderer, may satisfy a naive urge to simplify things. But as Einstein reminded us, things should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.
I grew up knowing there was a Winchester Model 12 shotgun in my father’s closet. But despite being bullied and having other problems of growing up, the thought of shooting someone never entered my mind. In fact, the thought of entering my father’s closet without his permission never entered my mind.
Might there be a clue there? My father’s shotgun was “available” to me in the sense that I could physically touch it. But it was not “available” to me in the sense that I would not disobey my father. As I matured, I widened this circle to include the law and our Father in Heaven. I didn’t want to disobey them, either.
Might there be another clue there: the word “matured.” All boys mature physically. But do they all become men? Do they mature spiritually? Do they grow to be responsible? Do they strive to protect and support their family and their country? Or do some merely become sexually mature males?
When we debased the concept of a man into that of merely a sexually mature male, we lost something important, even indispensable. True, some masculinity is “toxic” – hyper sexual, hyper violent. But to believe that masculinity itself is “toxic” is to undermine the family, the building block of civilization. It is also to undermine the police and military, without whom we are open to predators.
Men don’t become murderers or robbers merely because guns are “available.” But fatherless, Godless males could become murderers or robbers even if all guns vanished by magic. Stop focusing on the gun, and spend some time looking at the guy holding it. That is, if you really want to alleviate the problem, rather than score political points.
