No easy answers

Perhaps the dumbest thing I have heard uttered recently is, “Guns don’t kill people, people do.”

Here’s a thought: People with guns kill people. Simple as that. A trigger is pulled, a bullet leaves a barrel and someone gets shot. Take away the gun, and no one gets shot.

Before you throw boxes of ammo my direction, consider this: Take the guns away from Adam Lanza, and 20 innocent children may have lived to see Santa Claus on Tuesday.

I have not spoken or written publicly about Friday’s tragedy until now for a reason. Social media sites have been flooded with enough posts expressing outrage, disgust and anger for me to jump into the opinion pool. At risk of sounding like a broken record, let me at least say that my heart, along with the rest of the world, aches for the families of those impacted by the actions of a disturbed man-child. Their grief is unimaginable. As a parent of two pre-teens, I have never felt so vulnerable to the evils that exist in this world.

This tragedy, as with the Columbine and Virginia Tech massacres, dredges up all the hot-button issues associated with mass shootings: Video-game violence, gun control, Second Amendment rights, school safety and mental health care to name but a few. As a habit, I have always steered clear of politics. Not even my family knows how I cast my ballot. I used to own a handgun, but got rid of it when children came along. I am neither a gun control advocate nor a card-carrying NRA member.

I am not a Constitutional scholar, but I do know this. The Second Amendment is based on archaic English law dating back to the English Bill of Rights of 1689, which includes language protecting the right of Protestants against disarmament by the Crown. This document states: “That the Subjects which are Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Conditions and as allowed by Law.” According to Wikipedia, the historical link between the English Bill of Rights and the Second Amendment, which both codify an existing right and do not create a new one, has been acknowledged by the U.S. Supreme Court. But when the second amendment was ratified, the weapon of choice was an 18th-century musket, not a Bushmaster .223-caliber AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, one of the three weapons found on Lanza and believed to be the one used to methodically mow down children as young as 6. The AR-15 is a civilian version of the military’s M-16. Versions of the AR-15 were outlawed in the U.S. under the 1994 assault weapons ban. That law expired in 2004, and Congress failed to renew it under pressure from the gun lobby.

It is reported that 1.5 million AR-15s, described as a killing machine, were made in the last five years alone. One for every 209 Americans.

Manza had legal access to the weapons, as they were purchased and owned by his mother, Nancy. News reports say the pair would visit the shooting range together. Is this what you do to bond with a child with possible mental issues? Take him to the range and pop off hundreds of rounds for fun?

I don’t know what the answer to averting tragedies such as what took place Friday is, if there is one. President Obama vows to reform gun control legislation. I hope our country can move forward from this day forward so the 26 lives lost won’t be in vain. Like the rest of us, I am angry and sick to my stomach at the inhumanity and evil that was inflicted. The Rev. Rob Hinman, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Lenoir, NC said during a candlelight vigil held Tuesday night in memory of the victims that “Evil walked into a place that is usually safe, and left the footprint of death behind it.”

Something has to happen. Just don’t tell me guns don’t kill people, people do. At Columbine, Virginia Tech and sadly at Sandy Hook Elementary, people with guns killed people.