10%

I'm going to spend some time again writing about guns. The shooting at Umpqua Community College has once again hurt me to my bones. We shouldn't have to worry, as parents or grandparents, when we send our children or grandchildren to school at places like Sandy Hook or Umpqua that we will never see them alive again. 

Why can't we control our gun violence? 

The pictures posted above are part of what is wrong with the conversation about guns. I honestly believe that 10% of the population is so pro gun that no regulation will ever be acceptable. They believe that the government will become a tyranny if the population is disarmed. The other 10% is so anti gun that the only acceptable answer is a severe restriction on the private ownership of firearms. What we are left with is an ineffective 80% of the population who cannot get the conversation moved enough to stem the almost daily carnage in the United States. 

I think the following sums up my frustration.

"If we are going to talk about this legislation, let's talk about it honestly and not say that it does something that it does not do. All this legislation does is keep guns from criminals and the demented and those too young. With all the violence and murder and killing we've had in the United States, I think you will agree that we must keep firearms from people who have no business with guns or rifles."

Robert Kennedy, May 27, 1968 in Roseburg, Oregon near the shooting site of Umpqua Community College. 

What was the reaction from some in the crowd? The usual. You want our guns registered so you can take them. Gun registration was part of what happened to Nazi Germany. 

It has been over 47 years since Robert Kennedy spoke those words. What has changed in the gun debate? Absolutely nothing. 

By the way, less than two weeks later Robert Kennedy was dead. Shot by a man with a handgun.