Cat Tales: Miscellany and Mischief

July 2 (30DBC)

July 2 30DBC Prompt: This week, there was another mass shooting...this time at a concert in a night club in Arkansas. Coincidentally, earlier this past year the governor of Arkansas signed legislation allowing concealed handguns to be carried in certain venues (including colleges, bars and night clubs, and government buildings). What can be done to prevent these incidents of violence?

First of all, my sincerest condolences and prayers to the victims and their families. Senseless violence seems to be cropping up all over the place, and it has seemingly increased in frequency over the past couple of decades, and especially nowadays as political tensions have skyrocketed. To ALL victims of these tragedies, my heart goes out and my prayers wing upward.

Prevention is so tricky when speaking of violence. In this day and age, it's very common for a person to be planning an act of violence and no one ever know about it, or about the disturbances the perpetrator-to-be might be facing that are driving them to even contemplate such atrocities.

I am a firm believer that a person kills other people, not a gun. A gun is a tool which can be used for good or evil purposes. The person who pulls the trigger determines the intention, not the gun. And a criminal intent on a criminal act is not necessarily going to follow the law, whether or not the law prohibits guns entirely or allows them in certain cases.

I don't claim to know how thoroughly gun owners are vetted in Arkansas, seeing as I don't live there, but I do have a hunch that in most, if not all cases, people aren't allowed to carry concealed weapons without a thorough background check. The perpetrator of this horrible crime likely obtained his weapon without using the state-mandated process. In my mind, gun control laws are ineffective because of this. Just because you make something illegal doesn't mean someone intent on shooting someone else can't get around the system, any more than making burglary illegal makes cases of burglary disappear.

If I'm wrong, I am definitely open to being corrected. But more gun control laws are not the answer to prevention, in my mind. It's hard to say what a good answer would be. Gun control has been tried and found wanting. Gun crimes still happen, disturbingly often, even in the most strictly-controlled areas (schools, for instance).

Greater awareness of those around us would help. Noticing a stranger in a school building, for instance, might be your only clue that a tragedy is about to happen. Report any suspicions to authorities. DON'T ADVOCATE for gun control laws that strip normal, vetted citizens of a valid means of defending their life and liberty. Personally, I think if teachers (who are strictly vetted and who keep records of what weapons they carry, at what times, etc.) could carry guns, there might be a lot less deaths from school shootings.

Long story short, the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Call it cliche, but hey. It works.

AlyCatAuthor