I woke up this morning and booted up my laptop to see a headline about yet another mass shooting – this one in Newtown, CT.  The death toll kept rising.  To make things worse, most of the victims were children this time.

While I was watching the coverage, I started writing feverishly.  I wanted to know if this would be enough to bring about a rational discussion of guns and the number of Americans who see themselves as erstwhile Rambos.  I wondered if the NRA and its minions would trot out all their usual platitudes and get outraged that anyone would politicize such a tragedy.  

Then I stopped.  I saw that I was writing all the same things I did after the shootings in Aurora, CO in July.  That was less than five months ago and since then we’ve had shootings in a temple in Wisconsin and a shopping mall in Oregon, yet we’ve made no progress in even discussing what to do about the gun culture in America.

Will we ever?  Will anyone who brings up the subject be demonized by the gun lobby and the pols it owns?  Will they be falsely accused of wanting to take the legal guns away from law-abiding citizens?  Will the Democrats man up and fight or will we continue to silence ourselves?

If 26 people had died of tainted food, no one would call it politicization when we demanded an investigation and stricter food and drug laws.  When a handful of people were killed by a nut who poisoned Tylenol, the outrage and fear weren’t criticized.

Why are guns different?  Because the Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms?  Doesn’t the Constitution also guarantee life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?  Does the Second Amendment trump these rights?  Am I only entitled to them if I’m packing heat?  Is that why 20 school kids and six adults were denied theirs today?

As I said in that July post, I’m not anti-gun.  I grew up in a hunting household.  I don’t begrudge anyone who wants to hunt or go to a shooting range the enjoyment they get from those activities.  I do think the original intent of the Second Amendment has been bastardized almost beyond belief.  I also think anyone who thinks the answer to reducing gun violence is for more people to carry weapons is completely crazy.  The events in Newtown and those in Aurora are almost the worst scenarios I could imagine.  Still worse would be 20 or 30 or 100 self-identified yet untrained and unpracticed Dirty Harrys opening fire in return.  Certainly they would all think they could take the bad guy out, but how many more innocents would be hit as well?

Guns are a responsibility, not just a right.  They have to be cared for.  Users need to practice using them regularly.  Even Dirty Harry did that.

I, for one, don’t want to encourage more and more guns.  At the same time, I don’t want to try to ban them altogether.  There is middle ground.  We can reach that if we allow rational voices to be heard.  We can reinstate a ban on assault weapons – which would not be the beginning of any kind of slippery slope to outlawing guns entirely.  We could also enforce more stringent background checks – also without harming the rights of citizens.

We need the moderates on both sides of the issue to speak up.  We need to disregard the wailing of both the NRA on the right and the extreme pacifists on the left.  We know what they have to say; we’ve been listening to them for years.  They do not have the answer.  We need to make room for the people who know that semi-automatic weapons with 100-round clips have no place on the street, but who also understand that a well-tended hunting rifle or even a pistol can be handled safely by a responsible person.

Guns don’t kill people.  People with guns kill people.  And people with assault weapons kill many, many people quickly and efficiently.  Not bears, not deer, not rabbits.  People.

Yes, even if we do come up with an answer – legal or otherwise, we will still have the problem of criminals getting guns illegally.  So what?  We have to stop allowing this to be an argument.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:  If the fact that people might break laws was a reason not to have them, we’d be a lawless society.  It’s not a legitimate reason and we shouldn’t let it stop us now.