Guns Don’t Kill; People Kill

Today’s title specifies guns but I use this as a broadside to all people who turn a complex issue into simple sound bites. Of course guns don’t kill; people using guns kill. Same for cars; they don’t kill; the people driving them kill with their cars. Same for overeating; it’s not the food, it’s the eater. Also for drugs; they are not the killer; the people using the drugs are killing themselves.

Well, even that is too simple.

Recall past posts of mine touting ‘cause, effect, result’. These three words can be powerful when used correctly.

Something has happened. We look for what happened, then we look for the why. There is a result – that is the event that has occurred. That really is an effect, but we should trace this all backward until we get at the cause of the problem.

Cause is not blame. Too many people look for blame rather than cause. That oversimplification is what steers public discussion in wrong directions, such as: Guns don’t kill people; people using guns kill people; and cars, drugs, food are not the cause of the result. People are. So let’s focus on what causes people to act the way they do to harm themselves and each other.

Human behavior is complex. It is not easily known, understood, controlled or corrected. Psychologists, psychiatrists, drug companies, hospitals, behavior asylums have all been employed to change human behavior toward healthy patterns. Prisons and jails are also used to address severe cases of human behavior gone terribly wrong.

So, all of the above leaves us with this question: Why do people choose to harm themselves or others with whatever tool is available? What can we do to lessen the chances these people will hurt themselves or others? We are seeking solutions, not comments and barbs.

Short term action can be used to lessen the threat from these people. Many short-term actions have been attempted but the problem remains. Restricting gun ownership is one such short-term. Banning certain types of guns is another short-term attempt to lessen the results of the problem. Both of these – and many other laws, rules and regulations – have addressed the same issue but the behavioral problem remains. 

That leaves us with working on two things: first, the people who have the behavior problem; and second, the environmental factors in which people are born, raised and matured. What factors can go wrong to produce the results we are trying to solve? Is this physical? Mental? Social? Is it parenting? Is it institutional? Is it…you fill in this space with whatever theory you may have.

Whatever it is we research, discuss and learn to understand, let’s pursue this work. Tossing around barbs and sound bites in the media and on social media does no good. It only serves to madden people who then choose sides and the real work never gets addressed.

So, let’s study the human behavior that uses common, ordinary things of life in bad ways to hurt themselves or others. That is the crux of the issue. Such study can be funded by government, universities, manufacturers of the goods being misused, or in any other way. We need to know what is causing the grief. What can we do as a society to produce better results? That is the quest.

When do we start?

April 25, 2018