Guns Do Kill People

Reading about the latest local and national insanity regarding gun violence makes me both extremely sad and angry. As a parent you can’t help feeling bad about reports of 14-year-olds going around wounding and killing people and committing suicide. But what is so incredible about the story of Asa Coon, the suspended Ohio teen who shot two teachers and two students at the SuccessTech Academy Alternative school in Cleveland Wednesday is what he had in his possession and the reaction to it.

Perhaps it’s become so old hat it doesn’t stun people anymore, but what is a 14-year-old doing with two 38-caliber revolvers, plus a duffel bag stocked with ammunition containing three knives. How have we reached the point as a society when someone who can’t vote, legally drive or buy a drink can routinely get access to that kind of firepower? It’s also interesting that he was wearing a Marilyn Manson concert shirt. I’m waiting for the calls to have Marilyn Manson’s music banned (not necessarily that bad an idea from what I’ve heard of it), and for someone to pen another column blaming video games, hip-hop, or television for this atrocity.

Here is Nashville we also have the death of a 70-year-old East Nashville store operator who spent her life trying to help people in her community, including plenty of folks like the one who killed her. Her killer was also a 14-year-old. Tennessean columnist Dwight Lewis offers in his Thursday column a litany of disgraceful statistics regarding murders in Music City so far in 2007. Of the 51 murder victims, 21 are Black males. I won’t take time to do the percentages, but that’s obviously not a good figure.

There’s one inescapable fact about all this ugliness, and that’s until easy access to firearms is addressed, these stats won’t change. People can do all the wailing and complaining about hip-hop culture and BET and video games that encourage rape and killing (and these all play a part in this to some extent) they want, but that all takes a big back seat to the free flow of guns in certain communities, particularly Black and Latino neighborhoods as well as the poor generally.

I’m not remotely naïve enough to call for the abolition of handguns. Aside from dredging up the Second Amendment rhetoric, I grew up around firearms. Both my father and uncle were World War II veterans, and my uncle was a hunter to boot. They had handguns, rifles and shotguns and weren’t in the least bit reluctant to use them if anyone threatened any member of their family or them. But they also taught me that these things weren’t toys but dangerous weapons that should be avoided at all costs unless you had to use them for self-defense. They also repeatedly said no one should be permitted to own a gun before they truly learned how and more importantly when to use it.

I’d love to see that simple motto extended to this nation’s attitude towards firearms. In fairness, the National Rifle Association does stress responsible gun ownership as part of its general code, and while they seem to feel anyone who’s not in an asylum or prison should have a firearm, they aren’t completely to blame for the lunacy plaguing so many communities. The real villain remains easy access to weaponry, coupled with the mentality that would lead a 14-year-old to feel just revenge for a suspension from school is returning with a pair of 38-caliber revolvers and shooting people.

Somehow we’ve got to do something about both these things, guns in the hands of people with no business getting them, and severely warped feelings about what constitutes manhood and respect. Those two battles are far tougher and more complex than the blame everything on hip-hop and video game bunch want to admit.
Ron Wynn