Guns (Kindle Single)

I’m
an optimist. If enough American gun-owners urge Congress to do the right thing,
and insist the NRA climb aboard, the results might surprise you. Gun owners
aren’t dragons, and they don’t have to practice Gerald Ford two-mindedness,
simultaneously mourning the victims and denying the role speed-shooters play in
these tragedies, forever.
    I didn’t pull Rage from publication because the law
demanded it; I was protected under the First Amendment, and the law couldn’t demand it. I pulled it because in my judgment it might be hurting people, and
that made it the responsible thing to do. Assault weapons will remain readily
available to crazy people until the powerful pro-gun forces in this country
decide to do a similar turnaround. They must accept responsibility, recognizing
that responsibility is not the same as culpability . They need to say,
“We support these measures not because the law demands we support them, but
because it’s the sensible thing.”
    Until that happens, shooting sprees will continue. We will
see the BREAKING NEWS chyrons, the blurry cellphone videos of running people,
the tearful relatives, the rolling hearses. We will also see, time and time and
time again, how easy it is for the crazies among us to get their hands on
portable and efficient weapons of mass destruction.
    Because, boys and girls, that’s how it shakes out.

Epilogue
    Shortly after I finished this piece, a New Mexico teenager
gunned down his parents and three younger siblings. He intended to take the
AR-15 he found in his parents’ closet to a nearby Walmart and shoot people
until “eventually killed while exchanging gunfire with law enforcement.” (His
statement.) A friend talked him out of that part.
    About eighty people die of gunshot wounds in America every
day.