I'm an Indiana farm girl, I know people can be responsible gun owners. This isn't it

Minutes after the Texas shooting, tropes of carnage past sprung to new life. Charlton Heston’s mantra from May 20, 2000, echoed in my head, “You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.”

Governor Greg Abbott of Texas brought out mental illness as a cause. We’ve heard that familiar song…. “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.”

Yet the national advocacy group Mental Health America defies that. In a Gun Violence and Mental Health report, MHA stated the U.S. doesn’t have significantly higher mental health rates than other industrialized countries. But we do have significantly higher rates of gun deaths.

As Dr. Phil would say, how’s that working for you?

I grew up in a farm country where many people had firearms. Farm families supplemented larders with venison and wild turkey. Living in a rural area came with dangers, including coyotes, bobcats and even copperhead snakes you couldn’t kill with a hoe. I understood that reasonable people could be responsible gun owners.

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Yahoo reports that 17,000 people have been killed by guns in 2022, including more than 600 children. 1999, the oldest year for which I found data, had about 30,000 gun deaths.

That increase in deaths does not seem reasonable.

• Is it reasonable for anyone to purchase a military-style weapon with no background check?

• Is it reasonable that there is no waiting period to buy a gun or a large amount of ammunition?

• Is it reasonable that we burden our schools to train children how to hide from killers?

• Is it reasonable that the survivors of the Uvalde shooting will likely suffer trauma and fear for the rest of their lives?

The Second Amendment is one of 10 written by our founding fathers in the 1791 Bill of Rights: A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. The founders believed the federal government should fund a paid army in foreign wars. For domestic issues, this document assured a part-time citizens militia.

The Bill of Rights was written more than two centuries ago when the primary weapon was a musket gun and musket balls, the most popular of which was the Brown Bess musket. Brown Bess weighed ten pounds and could reach a target fifty to 100 yards away.

Two hundred and thirty-one years later, a young man in Uvalde, Texas, legally bought two automatic weapons after he turned 18. He shot his grandmother, stole her truck and wrecked it at a nearby elementary school. He entered an unlocked door and killed 19 children and two teachers with a high-powered weapon that was unimaginable two centuries ago.

So here we are again, just a week after the murder of innocents in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.

With apologies to Jonathan Swift, I offer a modest proposal for every adult citizen of the United States. Following the lead of the Second Amendment, the federal government will give every non-disabled citizen over 18 a musket and musket balls, providing citizens agree to serve a term in a part-time militia. The militia will provide appropriate training on firearms, and the citizens will keep their muskets for their protection after their service is complete.

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Of course, that’s ridiculous. But we have to start somewhere. While Democrats hold the majority in both houses, the filibuster (not mentioned in any founding documents) holds legislation hostage. We must elect men and women to Congress who aren’t afraid – like Beto O’Rourke – to call out “gaslighting” when they see it. We need gun legislation that prohibits the sale of weapons of war. (An automatic rifle ban was passed in 1994 and sunsetted a decade later.)

Our Canadian neighbors have few gun deaths every year, despite their love of guns for hunting. Yet, according to MSN, Canadian school shootings are so rare that the government keeps no list. For the record, the Uvalde shooting was the 27th school shooting in the US this year.

What’s the difference? Since 1989, Canadians have been required to register their guns. Could it be that simple? We have to start somewhere. Please write or call your Congressman and Senator and tell them this is unacceptable. Then write them again. And again. Thoughts and prayers aren’t working.

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Amy Abbott is a journalist and author from southern Indiana. 

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: I know reasonable people can be responsible gun owners. This isn't it