From the Opinion-Tribune: Don’t shoot the messenger on gun control

I played with guns as a kid, my son plays with guns today and as many as 100 million Americans “play” with guns as firearm owners. But I’ve never owned a firearm,  never fired one. And, to be honest, guns kind of scare me.

So, when I heard President Obama and many of his Beltway brethren are finally getting serious about reforming gun laws – which would ban assault-style weapons, high capacity magazines and impose stiffer background checks – I applauded.

If anything good can come from terrible tragedy, addressing the root of and rooting out gun violence has to be it.

I may be in the minority but when I hear “gun control” it doesn’t automatically register as “They’re gonna take away my gun!” I hear a reasonable response to the unreasonable gun violence question that has lingered for decades: is American gun policy actually good for Americans?

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. Yes, Americans can own guns. Almost any kind of gun they want. But before you gun owners wipe your hands of the question of gun control you must realize I, and I suspect you, don’t always agree the court gets it right in every case that has metastasized into a potentially right vs. left wedge issue. The Roe vs. Wade, Citizens United and Affordable Health Care Act decisions spring to mind on both sides.

While it’s convenient to remove the legal question from the issue and in its own way disguise the issue as constitutionalism, it doesn’t quite answer the real question of determining how guns benefit Americans. Why does owning an assault-style weapon celebrate America as the greatest country on the face of the earth?

It doesn’t. But a whole lot of gun owners feel that way.

Is there any irony to be found in the fact these individuals who want the government out of their personal lives when it concerns guns, can’t muster the same courage concerning women’s reproductive rights or gay rights?

That paradigm is upside down. Gun control to many really is “They’re taking away my constitutional right to own a gun!” And that’s the problem standing in the way of a real discourse on the gun and the gun problem.

As long as that response to criticism of current gun policy is so reactionary that the assumption Obama, and liberals and myself are just out to take your guns away then there’s something being lost in translation.

The simple fact is, no one is advocating taking all guns away. This is a policy debate at it’s heart. Gun control is not gun confiscation.

It’s gun safety. Like speed limits and not shouting fire in crowded theater. The emphasis of gun law is all about limiting firearm access, better supervising at the point of sell, whether that be at a gun store, a gun show or Craigslist and mitigating the production and sale of those weapons designed for seemingly one purpose: murder.

I may not know a lot about guns but I’m pretty sure an AR-15 and an AK-47 have limited application in deer season. But man, do they look cool hanging in a rec room.

That’s the sense of adolescence insurrection running through this debate I can’t shake as a father of a 5-year-old and proponent of strict gun law. I think most obsessive gun owners talk a good game about personal protection, sport shooting and game season, but what they really like is guns. A lot. They love how they feel and the power that’s prescribed in their appearance and application.

Those who cling to this close-minded idea that their assault weapon = liberty have to ask themselves at some point how exactly does not being able to buy a semi-automatic weapon with a high capacity magazine really threaten anyone’s freedom?

That’s the crux of a losing argument.

It’s not uncommon to hear gun owners reply, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Well that’s not working anymore. Firearms kill more than 30,000 people annually in this country. This is a gun problem and a people problem.

Joel Stevens is the associate editor of the Opinion-Tribune. He can be contacted at jstevens@opinion-tribune.com.