It’s tough to even know where to start this one. Every reasonable, decent adult instinctually wants to protect children. That much we agree on. From there it seems we are split on how to best do that with regard to guns.

                The knee-jerk reaction from one group is to ban all guns from citizen use or ownership and if there are no guns and bullets in the world then no one can shoot our kids.

                The knee-jerk reaction on the other side is that bad guys will always find a way to get guns and if the issue is protecting my children—or yours--the last thing I am going to do is give up my gun.

                No one will ever take my guns away, period. Just to be clear which knee I am jerking with.

                I don’t want to seem insensitive. Any conversation between opposing sides on this subject quickly escalates into an emotional screaming match where neither party seems to be applying many of the rules of logic. I love my children. I have an adorable grandson I want to grow up in a safe environment. I love your children no matter which side of the argument you are on. I know CNN tells you that you shouldn’t trust us hateful, child-killing deplorables on the subject of gun control but once again, that’s just not true.

                Trying to get a grasp on the depth and scope of gun laws already in place in the United States is overwhelming.  There are literally thousands of them. Most of them are duplicates because each state is responsible for most of their own. There are some federal restrictions that cannot be overturned. In some states the state government’s judgement reigns supreme, in others local governments have the ability to pass their own gun laws which can supercede any state law.

                In the state of Florida, currently in all of our hearts and minds because of the shooting last week at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, there are 56 gun laws including one designating schools as gun-free zones and not counting the Federal law that says you’re not supposed to murder people.

                How many are enough? One side says we need more. One side says we just need to enforce the ones we have. Both sides want someone to blame for the senseless slaughter of 17 children and teachers so we blame each other and take our anger out on law-abiding, caring parents and citizens on both sides of the issue.

                And the shootings continue.

                Obama helpfully tweeted (NOT) after the Douglas School shooting that it was time for “…long over-due, common sense gun safety laws.” So I guess the ones we have developed over the past 200 years or so, and heaped upon existing law after existing law until a simple Google search of existing gun laws fries your computer haven’t been very good examples of common sense.  People sure used to be stupid until Obama came along.

                I’m not saying there isn’t room for more gun laws if we decide we want some. Times and technologies change and new restrictions may be in order. I don’t know a police officer who doesn’t wish we would restrict the sale of “assault style” weapons to the general citizenry. I’m certainly ok with banning the sale of AR-15’s to the general population.           

I don’t think that will solve the problem but it may make the lives of the nation’s law enforcement officer’s easier and I’m all for that. Don’t forget that after we banned the sale of fully automatic weapons in 1986 there are still 500,000 of them in circulation that we know about 32 years later.

                Don’t forget that in 2011 in Sweden where it is against the law to even own a firearm if you are merely a citizen, that 77 people—mostly children at summer camp—were murdered by a really bad guy who had never even been to the United States to join the Republican Party.

                I’m not saying laws aren’t necessary, obviously. And sure, ban AR-15’s. I’m all for it. Is that what we’re fighting about? While you’re at it you might also want to take a look at the myriad of weapons like the Rueger Varmint Rifle which operates exactly like the AR-15 but looks more like a .22 than an army gun so nobody notices or uses them to shoot up schools.

                But if you think maybe more laws may not be the solution, is it really the new darling argument of the right and the left that it’s all about mental illness? Well, maybe a little but I don’t think as much as we’d like to believe. Again, we’re all looking for someone or something to blame and be mad at.

                According to an article last week in the Miami Sun-Sentinel there was recently a study (they didn’t say by whom and I couldn’t find it—sorry) that said if we eliminated all the mental health problems in the United States we would only reduce gun violence by 4%. Moreover, we spend 7% of our GDP on mental health in the U.S. and the average spent by all developed nations is 6-8% so we are right in the sweet spot of all the places liberals say they would rather live but won’t move to.

                That said, I do think we should empower law enforcement to take action when anyone makes a statement like, “I’m going to be a professional school shooter,” as Nicolas Cruz, the Douglas school shooter did. I don’t know, maybe a 72-hour hold would be in order for a psych eval if you say something that stupid and terrifying. Currently no action could be taken because that statement isn’t specific.

                The police were at Cruz’ house 10 times before the shooting for various but unknown reasons. Prior to the shooting, Cruz was jokingly voted “Most Likely To Shoot Up The School,” by his classmates. How many signals do we need? Are we serious about using mental illness as a marker for reducing mass shootings?

                There have been guns in the U.S. as long as we have been the U.S.  Within the last 100 years or so open carry was still commonplace in my state of Colorado, mostly for protection of oneself from bad guys. There weren’t many recorded mass shootings until recently, but maybe that is attributable to weaponry.

                The first semi-automatic weapon (the M-1) was developed in 1937. The first acknowledged modern mass shooting took place in 1949 when 13 people were shot in a New Jersey neighborhood by a not very neighborly neighbor. He didn’t use a semi-automatic. He used a pistol.

                Cross-referencing the My San Antonio and Los Angeles Times newspaper timelines of mass shootings there were five mass shootings between 1949 and 1999. Three of them definitely did not involve semi-automatic weapons and the other two did not specify the type of weapon.

                Starting with the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado there have been 30 mass shootings (three victims minimum, 50 on the top end) in the last 19 years.

                I’m just a guy, and admittedly a dreaded, three-fingered, redneck, drooling, deplorable conservative at that, but I’m thinking it may not even be the weaponry.

                What changed? What did we do to ourselves as a society within the last generation that has led to such a casual disregard for life and a proliferation of trigger-pullers?

                Is it merely a coincidence that the Nintendo 64 was introduced in 1995 and the X-Box in 2001? I am not the original observer of the violence level of video games and the belief that an entire generation of kids have been largely desensitized to violence as a result of those games and Hollywood’s  desire to satisfy new demand for more and more violence driven by gaming technology.

                Maybe, maybe not. Thirty mass shootings in 19 years.

                Is it merely a coincidence that in 2002 in the Ninth Circuit Court of Federal Appeals in California (of course), a judge ruled that the Pledge of Allegiance couldn’t be recited in public schools anymore because it makes reference to God? I am also far from the first person to recognize that “God” and religion have begun taking a more and more distant back seat in the general awareness and guidance of our nation.

                I am not a particularly religious guy. You will not find me thumping a Bible and preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ ever. But I have always taken great comfort in the Christian philosophy on which this country was founded (which is currently narrated as a bad thing) such as my personal belief that if we all followed the Golden Rule we wouldn’t need another one.

                I hate to ever define a problem and not be able to suggest a solution but I don’t think I am omniscient enough to solve this one.  (One of the bad things about being conservative is the recognition that you may not have all the answers, but I’m still not persuaded to a liberal point of view just so I can know it all.) Smarter people than me will have to come up with the answer if there is one.

                I just don’t think the cause of mass shootings is diagnosable mental illness (sure they’re all crazy but until they prove it, who knows?) or guns. I think the problem is a societal appetite that can no longer be satisfied by those old corny values espoused on Gilligan’s Island and Leave It To Beaver when movies without lots of killing and explosions in them don’t typically do very well at the box office.

                I think the answer may be in the big collective mirror, my friends.

                Come back, Shane.