Winning and Losing

I recently lost a daughter in law from Facebook. She unfollowed me because she thought I hadn’t listened to her argument on the gun issue discussion. Actually, I read her material intensely to seek understanding of her position. It was difficult reading because her prose was loaded with power and debate. Such language pursues a ‘win’ outcome to the conversation. And it frequently is judgmental. I do not engage in that sort of thing. I continue to question and reason.

Somehow my wanting to reduce gun deaths in America, or just in schools, is tantamount to questioning the validity of the 2^nd Amendment. I’ve made it clear I am not an enemy of the 2^nd Amendment. I just want gun deaths to decline. How do we do that? That is the question.

Rather than winning an email or Facebook argument, I’m seeking a long term solution to reduce  gun deaths in America, especially in our schools. Let’s focus on that issue. But no, she would not.

Her opening salvo in the morning post was: “How can you oppose that which you don’t understand?”

A good question. But turnaround is fair play. How can she oppose my question for reasonable discussions on possible solutions to the problem under discussion? That discussion is not about eliminating the 2^nd Amendment. It is about reducing gun deaths in America and her schools.

I have heard kick back in this discussion before: “guns aren’t the problem; solve the real problem.” Well, guns are a tool used in the problem. The persons using the tool pose the problem we are addressing. That is part of the problem as well. And yes we have to address the behavioral and psychological issues that make up that part of the gun death problem. However, strident arguments defending gun ownership block the way toward discussing the other parts of the problem.

Many people will start with the guns and stop there. That would be a mistake. All parts of the problem need to be considered for solutions. And I want us to do just that. But get beyond the guns and do this other hard work.

The guns, however, are part of the problem and that needs to be addressed. So let’s do more than just one thing.

This week, retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, proposed eliminating the 2^nd Amendment as unnecessary in our modern age. Its time has come and passed. Gun ownership will still remain as is automobile ownership. Both require regulation and controls. We do much of that already. No confiscation of guns has been stated by me or Justice Stevens.

Now there’s a good start to a fresh conversation. No winning yet; no losing the argument yet, either.

Just no daughter-in-law because she has chosen to absent herself from the discussion. That’s too bad; for her and for all of us. We all need to be part of this knotty problem and its solution.

March 29, 2018