Blame access
In the newly rekindled debate over gun control, we know by now to expect the usual blowback of vigorous denial, blame-shifting, evasion, distortion and obfuscation from the NRA and Second Amendment purists.
While there are doubtless many complexities to be sorted through in the wake of the Newtown gun massacre, one thing is crystal clear: The single most prominent circumstance that enabled Adam Lanza – apparently not a particularly noticeable young man but undeniably troubled – to commit this heinous act was his ready access to guns in his mother’s house.
Quite simply, without his access to her guns, the children of Newtown would be getting ready for the holidays, as usual, and we would not be enduring as a nation – once again – such an unspeakably gut-wrenching experience of this sort.
Newtown is sadly now the latest name in the long roll call of gun-related incidents that constitute our national embarrassment, reflecting “American exceptionalism” at its very worst. Our nation can surely do better than this. We must not rest until we have significantly tightened our nation’s gun laws in order to diminish the likelihood of ever having to endure another Newtown or Aurora or Columbine or Virginia Tech or Tucson or ...
Bob Saffold, Raleigh
