A Marine sounds off on guns again

“Don’t speak too soon, for the wheel’s still in spin,” the bard of my generation warned.

I try to heed that advice whenever we learn of another tragic event. I forget who first said it, but instant analysis is often faulty analysis. Why America leads the world in mass shootings in general and school shootings in particular would seem to call for sober reflection in tranquility. But what happened recently at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, is hardly new. That was the 12th deadly mass school shooting — involving four or more victims — we’ve had since Columbine in 1999. We should have figured out why this keeps happening by now and what we can do about it.

Readers may recall that, over the years, I’ve devoted four or five columns to America’s love affair with guns. Just last year I wrote about how “hell hath no fury” like a gun lobby scorned. I was called a communist and accused of breaking my oath to “support and defend the Constitution” for not holding the Second Amendment to be absolute and unconditional. (“Firing back with some follow up,” May 28, 2021). I was catching flak for denouncing how Sen. Ted Cruz responded to the FedEx Hub shootings of April 16 that year: “Every time there is a shooting we play this ridiculous theater” (“New frontiers in the world of weird,” April 30, 2021). It is “theater” all right — tragedy — and Cruz is an especially bad actor. He, of course, stayed in character this time around. Before the bodies were even cold, he told reporters, “Immediately, when there is a murder of this kind, you see Democrats and a lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens.” But what happened in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, was not a mere “murder”; it was a massacre.

Cruz’s latest response, moreover, is typical of those beholden to the NRA. They fall back on the either/or fallacy: Guns galore or no guns. There is no in-between and no reasoning with such people. The great majority of Americans support some reasonable restrictions on gun ownership.

Earlier, I mentioned America’s “love affair” with guns. It occurs to me “love affair” may not do it justice. There are people who fetishize guns the way some avid amateur photographers fetishize cameras. In other words, they acquire them not so much to use them as to impress themselves and others with them. I should know. As a lifelong amateur and an occasional freelance-photographer, I feel the attraction. But the fact remains that guns are more dangerous than cameras. And along with what I wrote before, I think I can offer some additional insight into the problem.

First off, I was struck by learning that our latest school shooter had turned 18 only days before buying not one but two AR-15 rifles, along with high-capacity magazines and 375 rounds of ammunition. Why anyone would need or want two AR-15s is beyond me. More to the point, the legal drinking age throughout America, Texas included, is 21. The presumption is that you’re not mature and responsible enough to drink until age 21. But you can be trusted to own and not misuse a weapon of war at age 18?

(Texas should take a cue from Washington. Our legislature raised the age limit to buy an AR-15 to 21 after the 2014 shooting at Marysville Pilchuck High School in 2014. As of this writing, there has not been another mass school shooting in Washington.)

And make no mistake about it: The AR-15 is a weapon of war. Forget the pettifogging arguments about whether or not it is an assault rifle. My favorite counterpoint is that the AR-15 lacks a bayonet lug. The bayonet charge, however, is a tactic of the past. The AR-15 is essentially an updated version of the M-16 I was armed with in Vietnam. It is a light high-capacity, semi-automatic rifle designed for close combat. It is not a hunting rifle, nor is it ideal for target practice. Its high-velocity rounds inflict maximum damage in passing through the human body. The purpose of the AR-15 is to kill people.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was quick to repeat the mantra of the gun lobby: It’s a mental health problem and not a gun problem. No, it’s both. I would remind Abbott that schizophrenia often manifests itself between the ages of 18 and 21. Granted, the symptoms of mental illness in general are not always evident to parents, friends, and teachers. But all the more reason to limit gun sales to those 21 and older.

Universal background checks would certainly help, as would outlawing high-capacity magazines. We should also limit and monitor ammunition purchases. No law-abiding, responsible gun owner needs to keep 375 rounds on hand. And why not require that all guns be registered? Contrary to popular paranoia, that would not be a prelude to confiscation. And as I’ve argued in the past, I support red-flag laws.

Finally, as any combat veteran can attest, you see carnage you can never unsee. Would that we could make all NRA-supported Republicans view color photographs of the damage an AR-15 did to the bodies of those 19 children, two teachers, and a devoted grandmother in Uvalde, Texas. Maybe then they would help pass some common-sense gun laws.

Contact Ed Palm at majorpalm@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Ed Palm: A Marine sounds off on guns again