Newtown and Elliott Rodgers

Does anyone remember the name of any of the twenty two children murdered at Newtown, Connecticut in December, 2012? For that matter, can you recall the name of the killer? I would wager a multitude of pounds or dollars that most readers would lose the bet. Likewise, in a year’s time, will you remember the name, Elliott Rodgers, and what he did last Friday night in Santa Barbara, California? He was the student who murdered six people in a shooting drive-by.

Richard Martinez, the father of one of those murdered, gave a grief-stricken statement to The Washington Post. He said:

"Today, I’m going to ask every person I can find to send a postcard to every politician they can think of with three words on it: ‘Not one more.’ People are looking for something to do. I’m asking people to stand up for something. Enough is enough. I don't care about your sympathy. I don't give a s--- that you feel sorry for me. Get to work and do something. I'll tell the president the same thing if he calls me.”

I have every sympathy with Mr. Martinez and the parents of all children who have been assassinated in the hundreds of school and drive-by shootings this century. As for Rodgers and the latest of this long, shameful line of atrocities, according to press reports he was mentally unstable and in therapy. How in heavens name did he get to own a gun? The weapon he used was not stolen or “borrowed” from his parents. Where did he buy it? How did he pass the checks?

Who is accountable? The gun lobby, led by the National Rifle Association, is in the frame. These people ought to be standing before America, hands raised in surrender. It is interest groups like the NRA who believe the right to gun ownership is more important than life itself. How does this square with the pro-life lobby? I wouldn’t be surprised to find that many of the latter are also members of the NRA.

The American public is also responsible. According to Gallup polls conducted both last year and a few weeks ago, a plurality of Americans are satisfied with the status quo on gun laws. Evidently, gun holders want to keep guns at home for their protection or for legitimate leisure purposes, such as hunting. Something’s missing here, such as an awareness of the danger of gun proliferation, of the folly of meeting violence with violence, or of the innocent lives placed at risk because of the desire to own a gun.

Here’s the rub: a change to the gun laws is evidently regarded as a vote loser. Thus Congress looks upon new gun control laws as the third rail of politics. Touch it and you die! Could the laws be changed to make them effective? Maybe something truly radical could be a vote winner. I suggest the following, although many Americans would regard my proposals as pie in the sky:

First, scrap the Second Amendment and replace it with a new Amendment which states that all gun ownership is illegal unless permitted by federal law. This removes all doubt and argument on concealed weapons and the type of permitted weapons, not to mention the right for individual states to legislate on the subject. The “live free or die” mentality needs to be challenged, as do the entrenched lobbies of power who would resist any change to gun law.

Second, Congress passes a new Gun Control Act which permits ownership and use of guns by members of the armed services, the secret service, the police and other such institutions. The Act will also permit professionals, such as veterinary surgeons, to carry appropriate weapons used in the course of their work. Hunters will be permitted to keep hunting rifles, provided they hold a licence and the weapons are held under lock and key. Marksmen will be allowed to own their guns, provided they are held at a gun club.

I suggest the Act requires all unlicensed guns to be given up. There will be a moratorium lasting several weeks during which time gun owners will return their guns to appropriate authorities for destruction. A compensation scheme would be created for people obeying the law, to be balanced by stringent penalties for those who don’t obey.

Without these steps, Mr. Martinez and parents like him will continue to be frustrated by the lily-livered politicians who, by their inaction, continue to support the useless American gun laws. If one of their own, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, can be gunned down in the street without action being taken by legislators, what hope is there?

If you throw a pebble into a pond, not only do you disturb the surface where it lands. Ripples emanate everywhere. So it is with shootings. Not only is the victim’s life destroyed or damaged but those close to the victim have their lives altered for all time. I’m pleased I live where gun ownership is strictly controlled, where pebbles in ponds are not a regular aftermath of an arsenal and where any nutcase can tote a gun.