This morning, in the hospital where I work three college students - three young adults, ... no, three children basically, they are the same age as my oldest child, all lie in a hospital bed with gunshot wounds. A fourth student, a young adult, someone's child, is now in the morgue because our country can't get its act together when it comes to guns and violence.
In yet another school shooting; this one at my alma mater – Northern Arizona University, outside a dorm that I drive past every day on my way to work, 4 students were shot.
This was not a premeditated act.
This was not a gun free zone, as on the NAU campus guns are allowed in a locked case in your car.
This was not a case where better mental health care would have identified the shooter.
This is a case where the shooter was just yesterday a potential good guy with a gun. He was presumably a responsible gun owner.
This is another case like in Oregon where having guns on campus could not have prevented the violence, in fact in this case it turned a stupid student, possibly fraternity based argument into a shooting that ended one life, and will forever change four others, with out even mentioning the rest of the student body.
I firmly believe that there are many, many community actions, social and economic policy changes, jobs bills, healthcare improvements and other non gun specific changes that we can address in this country that will help reduce gun violence, and all violence in potentially significant numbers. But it is inarguable that the prevalence of guns, the easy access to guns, the acceptance of guns as a cultural icon, has lead to the willingness to use a gun to solve our problems. Whether a gun is used to take one's own life, to intentionally take another's life, or is used in negligence or by accident to take someone's life. Enough is enough, and we are well beyond that point. We have reached insanity.
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