A Voice Crying Out

Among the many problems we face as a society is our infatuation with firearms.  The phrase "latest mass killing," has become entirely too common.  No, you don't need to remind me that one of the recent events was done with knives instead of guns, I get it, guns are not the cause of violence, but they escalate the damage that one person can do, and as such are something that ought to be treated with respect.
I own guns, I have since I was a teenager.  I enjoy shooting, and I totally get the fascination that people have with them.  I also get the rush of feeling powerful and self sufficient when you're armed.
But I'm not buying the arguments against gun control, because I think they need to be controlled.  If they are in the hands of responsible citizens who have the inclination and wherewithal to use them properly, they are a tool.  However, it is increasingly insane to say that we don't have a problem with the usage of this particular tool.
Chainsaws are dangerous, people get hurt using them with a fair amount of regularity.  However, outside of certain horror movies and video games, they are rarely used as a weapon against other human beings, thus no one is really calling for stricter regulations on chainsaws.
Guns are misused with alarming regularity.  Why?  They are easily concealed, they are imminently lethal, and they are symbols of power.  You may wonder what the last thing has to do with anything, but I think it is perhaps the most important facet of our complicated relationship with firearms.
There is very little evidence that possession of a firearm makes you any safer, in fact the presence of a gun in any given perilous situation often serves only to escalate the consequences rather than preventing an undesirable outcome.  But armed people FEEL safer, and that's no small thing.  Never mind that the average, untrained person will have very little success actually defending oneself via firearm, the placebo effect is powerful.  It's the symbol of the gun that creates a certain mindset.  In a stable person, it allows them to feel safe where perhaps they are not. In an unstable person it allows them to feel the power of death over life in way that draws out the darkest parts of their soul.
Beyond simple security from crime, the pro-gun argument wanders into the actual purpose of the second amendment: the formation of a "well organized militia."  The argument being that we need guns to protect ourselves from our own government, and therefore we should not allow said government to regulate when and who can purchase firearms.  I'm no conspiracy nut, so the idea that the government is coming for anything buy my money, doesn't really hold a lot of water.  Our government can barely pass meaningful legislation, I sort of doubt that tanks will be rolling down Mainstreet anytime soon.  Besides, if they do decide to start taking us out, it's going to be drones, you know, unmanned, flying death machines that can drop a bomb through your bathroom window before you even hear them, let alone see them... so good luck with your bunker full of AR-15's against that.
I apologize... I'm ranting.  And I know that my ranting is not going to convince anyone in the NRA that they need to shut up and start taking their medication.
What I really want to talk about is Richard Martinez, the father of a 20 year old boy who was killed in the "latest mass killing."  Mr. Martinez has come out in the past few days and given some powerful statements about this sort of madness.  Unlike many of the parents who have lost their children in such a manner, he seems rather encouraged to enter into the fray, rather than backing away and grieving.
Perhaps he's what we need, a face and a voice, a lawyer, who knows the system and is powerfully motivated to work for change.  He's hopping mad right now, it remains to be seen whether that passion ever translates into action.  He has the look of someone who might be able to make a real dent in our nonsense.  But then again, I though the same thing about Gabby Giffords, I thought the same thing after Newtown, I thought, "Finally, were going to wake up and realize that we have been seduced by the dark symbol of guns."
But we don't, we haven't yet, and I wonder if we're ever going to.
It's hard to feel hopeful when the most sane things being said are coming from a grieving father, who is so incredibly angry that he cannot restrain his bile.  It's hard to feel hopeful that we're ever going to break the demonic hold of such a symbol of power and violence, we are apparently still willing to sacrifice our children to it, rather than take reasonable measures to restrain it.
The idea of doing something to curb gun violence is so very wrought with emotion on both sides,  And there is a lot of shouting going on, and a lot of illogical, if not downright insane, dogma being tossed around.  And I'm not going to say that we can't be trusted with guns, because most of us can.  The problem is that the few who cannot, are extremely dangerous with a gun in their hand.  It is therefore incumbent on those who would defend the "right to bear arms" to be responsible in their exercise of that right.
That right, in fact, no right really gets to trump the right of another human being to live.  After all, what good are liberty and the pursuit of happiness if you're not alive?
It is the nature of rights to come with responsibility, but too often we want the rights without the responsibility.  Dead children are telling us there's something wrong, and there really aren't too many arguments you can make with dead children.  We need to get on fixing the problem, and if we're not reasonable AND responsible, it's just not going to get fixed.