What's Going On: Remember shooting victims for what they really are

Acceptable casualties.
That’s a term typically used in military parlance regarding battlefield deaths. I read a lot of U.S. Civil War history, and it’s used a lot in reference to those battles, embedded in an era of military carnage where soldiers were viewed as an expendable commodity, and treated as such.
Never before and never since were more American lives lost on the battlefield, with an estimated 750,000 dying. As hard as it may be to believe, that 750,000 figure seems smaller than it should. America’s most recent census counted 309 million residents, compared to the 1860 version at 31.5 million. So considering there are nearly 10 times as many people living in the country today, a similar casualty rate and its impact on modern society would be 7.5 million … or the number of people living in Iowa … and Nebraska, North and South Dakota and Rhode Island … combined.
That’s a lot of people.
But Abraham Lincoln and his generals were willing to accept those casualty numbers, as horrific as they were. Why? Because they believed in the Union cause and accepted the loss of human lives as a necessary by-product to save it.
I thought of those casualties last week after the age-old gun control argument resurfaced again after our latest mass shooting, this one claiming the lives of 14 at a San Bernardino public health facility.
The debates focus on the same old points: practical ones like criminals don’t follow the law so gun control only endangers law-abiding folks (an argument which can be used to overturn 90 percent of every single law we live by) and new laws won’t work (ignoring the fact they do elsewhere); philosophical ones like second amendment prevents all federal gun legislation (making local and state laws highly ineffective); and ridiculous ones like semi-automatic assault rifles have a valid use beyond shooting people and don’t pose an inherent health risk, similar to a tank or hand grenade, both of which the federal government is allowed to restrict.
Frivolous details.
Regardless of what reasoning someone uses who opposes additional gun-control legislation, what they are telling me is mass shooting victims, like the 14 killed last week, are acceptable casualties.
Whether they are concerned about a government controlling an unarmed populace, rampant crime taking over society, or simply are a constitutional purist who doesn’t want any rights in it compromised, you essentially are conceding these mass shootings are acceptable and those who die in it are dying for a cause bigger than them.
As such, this may be our new U.S. Civil War.
We
don’t have Gettysburg, but we have Sandy Hook. We don’t have Vicksburg, Bull Run, or Antietam, but we’ve got Columbine, Charleston and even Omaha.
The casualty list is smaller, but that really doesn’t matter if it’s your loved one amongst the dead.
Lincoln was tortured by his role in the deaths of so many people. His soul was haunted by it and the stress it caused was evident. But he believed so strongly in the Union and the nobility of a free society that he was willing to accept those casualties.
Don’t talk to me about the frivolous details of the gun control argument. After a rash of their own mass shootings, Australia banned nationwide the types of weapons used in the San Bernardino shooting. You can’t make those guns in Australia, you can’t import them to Australia, you can’t buy them in Australia and you can’t own them in Australia. And guess what, in the 18 years since those restrictions were enacted, there have been 0 mass shootings.
Zero.
So don’t tell me gun restrictions don’t work, because they do. I’m not accepting that argument any more and won’t give it any more merit than those who claim seat belts don’t save lives, or who argue against speed limits.
Let’s call these shootings what they are: a necessary by-product. Our society is one in which we are self-governed, and if we want to empower our fellow citizens to own rifles typically reserved for combat soldiers, we can and we will.
However, you cannot have access to weapons like this and not expect them to be used illegally. Choosing evil or good is the most common human characteristic known to mankind.
So when you mourn for victims of a mass shooting at a church, mall, movie theater, abortion clinic, or your local elementary school, remember the dead for what we as a society deem them: acceptable casualties for the noble cause known as the second amendment.
And for those of you willing to accept those casualties and maintain the status quo in regards to gun control, those deaths should torment your soul just like the scores of bodies did Lincoln’s.
I’m betting though they won’t.
Gregory Orear is the Publisher/Editor of the Red Oak Express and Glenwood Opinion-Tribune. He can be contacted at publisher@
redoakexpress.com.