Problem, Answers Reside Within Us Gun Controls Fail People Choose Crime, And Can Stop It, Too.

Fri., April 30, 1999

By John Webster johnwe@spokesman.com (509) 459-5421

Wednesday was an embarrassing day for gun control supporters.

In Gloucester, England, a 16-year-old boy armed with a pistol fired into a college classroom. Luckily, he missed his targets.

In Taber, Alberta, a 14-year-old boy walked into a high school with a sawed-off rifle and shot two classmates, killing one.

Each gunman circumvented gun control laws. England banned handguns in 1997, after a madman murdered a kindergarten class. Canada has gun laws far more restrictive than those in the United States.

Meanwhile, in Colorado, authorities said they will arrest a man who violated existing U.S. gun laws by selling a semiautomatic pistol to one of the boys who carried out the slaughter at Littleton’s Columbine High School. That pistol was one of the murder weapons.

If the United States enacts more gun control laws, then will we be safe? No. But we might think so, and that would be dangerous because we would be wrong.

There are some things government does well. But there are some things that individuals have to do for themselves.

We go on a fool’s errand if we ask government to raise our children. We delude ourselves if we think laws prevent law-breaking. We breed cynicism when we ask government to take on tasks at which it will fail, such as controlling guns, speech and morals.

The calls for quick-fix laws are an effort to avoid placing responsibility where it belongs - on evil human conduct.

We cannot prevent mass murders as a society unless the individuals in our society - that’s us, folks - change.

Why do children bully? Why do entertainers fill teen minds with hatred and resentment? Why do electronic media glamorize scum peddlers and psychopaths? Why do people have children and then neglect them in favor of careers?

Why do murderers kill? Because they want to. But individuals can choose to do good instead of evil. Individuals can choose kindness, can produce uplifting art, can glamorize doers of good, can sacrifice self for the well-being of others, can junk the culture of violence, can be attentive parents, can obtain mental health care for those who need it.

Unless free people accept responsibility to make choices like these, the siren song of tyranny may take our freedom away.

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