If there’s a reason that assault rifles like the AR-15 are more dangerous than other semi-automatic rifles (for example: do they take larger magazines?) then I’d appreciate knowing. Otherwise are all the calls to ban assault weapons just something people want to do as a symbol?
For the record, I don’t own a gun and never have. I am familiar with them. My dad was a cop. When he was, he owned two pistols. When he stopped being a cop, he sold both. Like the 70’s TV detective, Mannix, and long before him, my dad wore his off-duty revolver (a snub-nosed 38) in the small of his back. Doing that will eat a hole in the back of your car’s driver’s seat. I always wondered why Mannix never had that problem.
As an MP, I used a pistol in my work. Both in the Army and at Boy Scout Camp, I fired other weapons too. I’m not a good shot, and never had the desire to own a gun myself. I’m also for more gun control, provided it will help. Clearly, we need something to help. Just as clearly, I am at a loss what to do.
Thoughts, prayers and condolences aren’t going to do a lot to help all the dead people in Parkland Florida. This problem, the 18th school shooting in the U.S. so far this year (more than two a week), requires far more than platitudes.
After the fact, people said Nikolas Cruz was the one person they thought might shoot up a school. He’s not the first school shooter that was said about. So closer monitoring of potential problems is probably part of it. Something like the way the FBI keeps track of possible terrorists. I know that’s not the only answer. I’ve read that the FBI was aware of Cruz 5 months ago. Better mental-health treatment could be part of it too. While nobody was paying attention, prisons seem to have become the most prevalent source of mental health care in the USA. That’s wrong and needs to be fixed too.
I don’t have a solution, or even something I’m sure will improve things. Since I don’t, I wish someone did. I do know thoughts, prayers and condolences aren’t getting the job done. Clearly, it’s time to try other things.
