Guns Don’t Kill People . . . People Kill People

Three recent mass shooting incidents in California have “gun violence” in the news again.  And most assuredly loud calls for banning guns will also be heard.

Tragedies like these three incidents make me think about a line from the 1953 film “Shane.” In the movie the lead character Shane famously remarks to Marian Starrett, ‘A gun is just a tool, Marian.  It’s no better or worse than the man using it.’

While this is true, it’s only true up to a point.  Guns are tools but they are not ordinary tools.  They were invented as weapons of war.  But they do  serve necessary and useful purposes as well.  Guns are used for hunting and other sport. They are also used for self-defense.

Guns

A number of television shows depict the reliance people here in the U.S.  have on hunting as a means of providing food.   The biathlon, in the Winter Olympics, and target and skeet shooting (clay pigeon shooting), are also  popular sports among gun enthusiasts.  And as the Heritage Foundation points out:

“According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost every major study on defensive gun use has found that Americans use their firearms defensively between 500,000 and 3 million times each year.”

Case in point: On July 17, 2022 a man lawfully carrying a firearm shot and killed an “an assailant suspected of fatally shooting three people and injuring two others in an Indiana mall on Sunday evening.”  The incident took place at the Greenwood Park Mall just outside Indianapolis.  Greenwood Police Chief Jim Ison called the man a “hero.”

And this brings us back to Shane’s point – a gun is no better or worse than the man (or woman) using it.  So let’s not get emotional or delusional about guns.  As the adage says, “Guns don’t kill people.  People kill people.”

A Stupid Statement?

Some however, belittle this adage.  As Kermit Zarley tried to argue recently in a short (500+ words) opinion piece at Patheos,

“Some Americans who oppose restrictive gun laws argue, “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.” That is stupid! OF COURSE guns don’t kill people; but an individual owning a handgun or a rifle makes it a lot easier for that person to kill another human being. This is just common sense. In other words, it is much easier to kill someone with a firearm than it is with a knife, a spear, or a bow and arrow.”

His argument, however, is self-defeating.  If the statement is correct, how is  it stupid? This is like saying the statement “Zebras are black and white” is stupid. Granted, it is not a perspicacious statement, but it is also not a “stupid” statement.  It is a plain statement of fact.

It may be, however, that Zarely is simply caught up in “the narrative.”

As Deacon Mike Manno wrote recently “Narrative” is the secret word with the current crop of journalists today.”  He goes on to explain that the word comes from “a true journalist, Sharyl Attkisson.”  It comes from her book “Slander: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism.”

“In her introduction,” says Manno, “she opines, “The Narrative refers to a story line that influential people want told in order to define and narrow your views.”

And one of the Narratives today is that we need more laws.  Specifically, we need more laws that control and restrict gun ownership.  In fact, according to ‘the narrative,’ the government really should repeal/abolish the second amendment and prohibit gun ownership.

But perhaps it is this narrative that is stupid.

The 2^nd Amendment

Our Founding Fathers were pretty intelligent guys.  And their inclusion of the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights was well thought out.

One of the reasons a country, say for instance, China, is going to have second thoughts about invading the USA is that the US has a well-armed citizenry.  One estimate says that in the US there are 120 guns per 100 people.  That statistic alone is a strong deterrent to a potential invader.

And as Chenyuan Snider pointed out in a recent article, “As a person growing up in a socialist country ruled by a communist party, I know guns are necessary not just in dealing with criminals. Guns are indispensable if we want to live freely as “we the people.”

“Before the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949, ordinary Chinese had the right to own guns. When the Japanese invaded China, many rich citizens lent their weapons to non-government organizations to form citizens militias to fight the Japanese. But as soon as the CCP took power, no one was allowed to own a gun.”

But the anti-gun crowd does have a valid concern.  According to the Gun Violence Archive website, there were 647 mass shooting incidents in the U.S, in 2022.

The website classifies a mass shooting as “if four or more people are shot or killed in a single incident, not including the shooter.”  So if four people are injured in an incident, but no one is killed, the incident is a mass shooting.  These incidents can be anything from gang-related shootings to domestic violence incidents.

Society needs to figure out how to put an end to senseless killings.

Infuriating

What is especially infuriating about ‘the narrative,’ however, is that it is being pushed largely by the same people who say abortion should be legal.  Yet the number of mass shootings in 2022 pales in comparison to the number of murdered babies.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, “In 2020, there were 930,160 abortions in the United States, an 8% increase from 862,320 abortions in 2017.”

Clearly the tools used by abortionists are far, far more deadly than guns. For that matter, 42,915 lives were lost as a result of traffic accidents in 2021.  Perhaps we should go back to the horse and buggy.

The pro-abortion/anti-gun folks also say that being pro-life should mean being against guns.  But this is a fallacious argument.  As David G. Bonagura, Jr. wrote recently, “. . . there is no contradiction between being pro-life and supporting gun rights. “Pro-life” does not mean “anti-gun.”

“There is, however, a serious contradiction in arguing for abortion rights and against gun rights.”

More Laws?

The shooting at a Colorado Springs nightclub and the July 4 Parade shooting in Highland Park, IL, in 2022, were certainly tragic, as are any and all shootings that take someone’s life.  Clearly, as CS writer Tom Collingwood stated recently, “If ever there was a message that our culture needs fixing, mass shootings serves us notice.”

The questions, of course, are just how to fix our culture to put an end to senseless killing.

The anti-gun crowd says we need more gun laws.  The USCCB seems to agree.  “We support measures that control the sale and use of firearms and make them safer (especially efforts that prevent their unsupervised use by children or anyone other than the owner), and we reiterate our call for sensible regulation of handguns.”

But as anti-gun Chicago and California show, laws banning guns are ineffective.  They are not the answer.

Pope Francis, however, is not quite so clear on what he thinks should be done.  Following the Robb Elementary School shooting incident in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022, the pontiff said, “It is time to say enough to the indiscriminate trafficking of weapons. Let us all work hard so that such tragedies can never happen again.”

Detroit Catholic reporter Cindy Wooden interpreted the pope’s words to mean we need to “enact stricter laws on gun sales.”  But this could be an inaccurate interpretation.  He could have meant “C’mon people, let’s get serious and start enforcing existing laws to prevent such tragedies.”  As is all too common with Pope Francis, ‘popesplaining’ is not that easy.

Better People

I would argue, however, as I have argued before, (here and here, for instance) that we do not need more laws.  We need better people.

As Sean Fitzpatrick wrote recently at Crisis Magazine, “The shedding of innocent blood in schools and other public places is ultimately rooted in a problem of family and education. It is not a failure of government, but a failure of culture.”

The post-modern, relativistic, secular progressives have been attacking Christianity for 60-plus years now.  First God and prayer were taken out of public school classrooms.  Then pornography was called free speech.  And then murdering babies was legalized.  And it’s been all downhill from there.

Homosexuality is now a ‘lifestyle choice’ and the words ‘marriage’ and ‘family’ have been redefined.  Men can be women and vice versa.  The left still insists abortion is “healthcare.”  And, social unrest and violence seem to be ramping up.

Still, the narrative continues.  “We have to ban assault rifles!” some scream.  Except assault rifles are only used by the military.  They are already banned for use by ordinary citizens.  A semi-automatic rifle is NOT an assault rifle.  Next we’ll have calls to ban the “semiautomatic assault pistol,” but, again, semiautomatic does not equal “assault.”

Collingwood concluded his essay with a statement with which I wholeheartedly agree.  He wrote, “While there is not a quick and easy fix, the place to start is a renewed trust in God, a renewed following of his commandments to love God and neighbor and a renewed evangelization that can eventually influence the culture.”

Why are We Here?

As I wrote in one of the articles already linked to,

“More people who are willing to forsake the things of the world and live their lives according to God’s laws are what we need.  We need people who are trying their darnedest to lead virtuous lives, who are trying to become saints.

“Progressive policies will not fix stupid, ignorance, or bigotry.  And allowing progressive democrats to run our country will only take us further away from God.  We need God back in our culture.”

Pope Francis and our bishops should stop looking to politicians to fix our problems (as should the rest of us).  Instead they should do what Christ instructed His disciples to do in Matthew 28:19-20 –

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

We are all called to be saints.  What a wonderful world we would live in if everyone was trying to live a saintly life.