Anti-2nd Amendment Op-Ed: Why Aren’t We Doing Something About Gun Violence?

14 Jun, 2014 by William Teach

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A bit of insensitivity to start this Saturday morning, since the op-ed writers, Mark Barden and David Wheeler, both lost their sons to the Sandy Hook nutjob. Yet, if they are going to jump into the political realm in order to call for restrictions on our Constitutional Rights, and use Father’s Day as an excuse, there is every right to respond.

A Father’s Day gift for kids: Protect them from gun violence

This is the second Father’s Day we will have spent without our sons Daniel and Ben, who were murdered a year and a half ago at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. But unlike last Father’s Day, when we grieved quietly, passing the day in solemn remembrance with our families and surviving children, this Father’s Day we feel compelled to speak out.

What has changed since the Sandy Hook shooting? There have been 74 more school shootings, according to the group Everytown for Gun Safety, which tracks news of firearms being discharged at schools as a result of assaults, homicides, suicides and accidental firings. Seventy-four, including tragedies such as those just this month in Seattle and Troutdale, Ore. How could that number not make you outraged? Incensed? Incredulous? How is it that after our beautiful sons were murdered, along with 18 of their classmates and six brave adults, we have seen no major federal policy passed to address this problem? Why is it that we now see summer not as a time of celebration and vacation but as a relief from having to read about new school shootings because kids are no longer at school or on campus?

And now so many school shootings later, with so many families facing the same agony and pain we face this Father’s Day, we have to ask a question. (snip)

Our question is the same (as Obama’s): Why aren’t we doing something about this?

First off, let’s consider how many of those shootings were suicide and gang violence. Nor had anything really to do with schools. Nor injuries. And were even caused by knives. Nor occurred on school property nor during school hours.

Getting beyond that, it should be noted that they did try to Do Something: they made schools gun free zones. How’s that working out? About the same as with liberal cities with heavy gun restrictions. Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans, and NY City are among those with the most gun violence. Gun violence in states tends to be driven by the urbanized areas, which tend to lean and vote Democrat, and have the most gun restrictions.

A better question to ask would be: why aren’t heavy gun restrictions and gun free zones working?

Another would be: why are anti-gun forces focusing on legal citizen ownership instead of criminals?

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.