Mike Berry column: On these big national issues, are there any answers?

The job of a journalist is to ask questions. The job of a columnist is to offer answers.

Recently, I’ve had far more questions than answers to things that have dominated the news.

Especially with the two biggest stories in the past month or so: A possible Supreme Court ruling allowing states to impose strict restrictions on abortions, and mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y. and Uvalde, Texas.

As I’m sure you know, a draft opinion by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito appears to indicate that the court is prepared to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that allowed abortions up to the 24th week of pregnancy.

I have my own views about abortion, and I’m sure you have yours. But here’s the key question, to me: Is opposition to abortion a reflection of one’s religious views?

If so, a legal ban on abortion would seem to violate the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.”

But no one disagrees that things like murder and robbery should be illegal — and both things are specifically prohibited in the Ten Commandments. So are those laws based on religion, or simply on promoting the greater good?

In the wake of the shootings in New York and Texas, we once again heard calls for Congress to “do something.” Specifically, they’re calling for such things as a ban on “assault” rifles and requiring background checks on all gun purchasers.

I’m with the majority of the population (and 74 percent of National Rifle Association members) on the background checks. I heard the Texas shooter’s grandfather said his grandson was a felon. If so, wouldn’t a background check have kept him from buying guns on his 18th birthday?

Just as many people feel a woman should have a right to choose to have an abortion and many feel that an abortion is the murder of an infant, many think private ownership of high-powered weapons should be banned while others think private gun ownership is none of the government’s business.

I can ask plenty of questions on both topics. But I don’t know of any solutions to either issue that would satisfy a large portion of the U.S. population.

Unfortunately, no one else seems to know either. Otherwise, these wouldn’t be perhaps the most divisive issues facing our nation today.

I can’t think of any government action that would solve either problem. Even if the high court allows some states to go back to the pre-Roe days, not all of them will. Illinois, for example, would certainly remain an “abortion-friendly” state. So women who live where abortion is banned could travel to a state where it’s legal (if they could afford to).

As for action limiting gun purchases, it would be like trying to hold back a Mississippi River flood. There are already hundreds of millions of guns in private hands in this country, and (despite the NRA’s raging) there’s no way the government would ever even try to confiscate them. So bad actors will still be able to commit evil.

I think both of these issues will be with us for a long time. Unless someone much wiser than me comes up with some answers.

This article originally appeared on Star Courier: Mike Berry column: On these big national issues, are there any answers?