All sane Americans want to stop mass shootings.
“We need to do something,” we hear and say.
Doing “something,” just to make us feel good, is not enough. We need to do something that immediately nets life-saving results.
AR-15s and similar rifles are the primary target of a burgeoning, organized gun-control movement. This stands to reason after a mass murderer shot 34 and killed 17 at with an AR-15 at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February. Police say the suspect in Sunday’s Tennessee Waffle House shooting used an AR-15, as have other crowd killers.
Society continues debating pros and cons of banning specific guns or all guns, with each side making solid and interesting points. Killers with semi-automatic assault rifles can kill people fast, but handgun killers take far more lives each year. Ban some guns. Ban all guns. Register guns. Take them from people we know are not well. Gun control proposals seem endless.
The discourse may be academic, advocating nothing practical for achieving substantially constructive results in anyone’s lifetime.
The Congressional Research Service estimates Americans own more than 300 million guns. That is more than 333 private-sector guns for every sworn federal, state and local law enforcement officer combined.
The most common rifle is the AR-15. Millions have been sold. These weapons change hands – legally and otherwise – at guns stores and garage sales, and in routine online transactions. Government has no idea who owns them or where to find them.
“For some, the gun is a tool, a finely tuned machine that can cut down an animal or intruder, or pierce a distant target, with a single precise shot,” explains an NBC News story about the AR-15. “And for many, it is a symbol, the embodiment of core American values – freedom, might, self-reliance.”
For a significant fraction of the millions who own military-style rifles, the guns symbolize a belief government will never control an individual’s right to own weapons of war. Try taking their guns and they may use them.
Never forget the Waco siege by the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Or the government’s attempt to serve a gun-related warrant on Randy Weaver at his Ruby Ridge home in Idaho. Those small-scale enforcement operations ended poorly for government agents and civilians because subjects of the raids opened fire.
Given the notoriously difficult nature of enforcing gun laws, the Boulder Police Department understandably stood back and did nothing Saturday when people showed up downtown with AR-15s. Some were loaded for action with high-capacity magazines. They carried the rifles to protest the city council’s proposed ban of military style semi-automatic weapons, bump stocks and high-capacity magazines. Boulder, a community replete with privately owned guns, prohibits open carry in public.
“This was an open violation of city law, and one that the Boulder Police Department allowed to take place,” explains a Boulder Daily Camera news story.
City attorney Tom Carr said the city declined enforcing the gun law “to avoid conflict.” In other words, officers wisely considered the possibility of gun owners opening fire.
“The police sometimes make a tactical decision not to enforce a particular law, if enforcement would create more conflict,” Carr said in a diplomatic statement.
Nothing creates more potential danger for law enforcement and the public than enforcing gun laws. If authorities cannot stop flagrant gun-law violations by a small gathering in downtown Boulder, imagine agencies enforcing a nationwide ban involving tens of millions of rifles scattered throughout neighborhoods and rural homesteads in 50 states.
Because guns are often used in crimes, we protect courthouses, airports, high-end office buildings, banks, sporting arenas and other densely populated venues with a variety of on-site security measures designed to stop gun crimes. These actions keep killers from shooting up crowds. On-site security works the moment we create it – unlike unenforceable, broad-stroke gun laws.
Colorado legislators added $35 million to next year’s state budget to pay for campus officers and security upgrades for schools. The money will help local education officials fund tactics crafted for the security needs of various qualifying schools. It is a good start, which can quickly improve safety for our kids.
Let’s do something, starting with schools, to immediately stop mass shootings. Make sure it is something that will work – something like metal detectors, bag searches, security doors, guards, all of the above and more. Debates about perfect-world gun control laws captivate the public imagination. Meanwhile, practical security measures can save lives today.