Editorial: Look beyond gun laws

With the shooting at Great Mills High School in Maryland yesterday, so resumed the hyper-clamorous, national gun control debate. This particular event serves as the counterargument for many of the conclusions gleaned from the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., which killed 17.

In Florida we learned that school resource officer Scot Peterson did not enter the building at any point when shooter Nikolas Cruz embarked on his bloody rampage. To many on the left, it was proof that entrusting armed personnel to protect students was not a reliable solution and that further restrictions on guns were the prudent measure.

But when the shooting began yesterday in Maryland, things went differently. “Our school resource officer who was stationed inside the school was alerted,” reported St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron. “He pursued the shooter, engaged the shooter, during which that engagement he fired a round at the shooter.”

Though we’ll learn exactly how it played out, it is clear that in this case the officer did what he was supposed to do and the shooting spree was ended.

In Florida, the ultimate culprit was portrayed by media and anti-gun circles to be the weapon used, the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. Thankfully, the actual shooter was positioned as culpable in the onslaught as well, but the teenage media stars pressed into service took issue with the weapon first and the NRA second.

Yesterday’s shooting was done with a handgun. A gun that could have potentially shot and killed dozens. Handguns are used in the large majority of fatal shootings in the country, so one would think the debate would begin there.

Are Americans murdered with handguns any less dead than those murdered with AR-15’s?

In every shooting there will be point-counterpoint fodder available for both sides of the debate, so to truly have a constructive dialogue on the matter we need to start at a single agreed-upon truth. How about this: If there were no one who wanted to massacre, there would be no massacres.

Let’s work from there.

Bumpstocks, AR-15’s, age restrictions and the rest can be sorted out by politicians, competing interest groups and hordes of opportunists on either side, but we must start at the root of the problem, mental health.

Are psychotropic drugs a factor? Video games? Movies and TV shows? The steady degradation of a shared morality? Such discussions are bound to be uncomfortable, as they may impugn our very culture, but it is time to get serious.

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