Teenage America is suddenly immersed in the gun control debate.  Understandably this is a visceral reaction to the mass school shooting which happened in Parkland, Florida.  The nation's media have done an excellent job of providing coverage of the carnage, swooping in with hysteria at every opportunity this past decade.  We must acknowledge that students are in fact one of the most vulnerable sections of our population, both intellectually and emotionally.  As this type of drama plays out on television, equipped with its horror, knee jerk reactions deprive us of the logic required to understand exactly happened.  The blame game has been underway for weeks, each side finding villains when there was only one.  Who or what exactly was responsible?  The uncomfortable answers to these questions lead to an undeniable conclusion, that we as people, have lost our sense of responsibility.  The gun didn’t kill those people, the person holding it did.

Before you scream at your computer screen, let me first attempt a to explain the notion of “intent” to you, for it is intent that leads to murder; whether by gun, knife, automobile, explosive device or other means.  A person formulates a plan to kill.  They equip themselves with their weapon of choice.  Then they attempt to execute the plan.  In most instances, the plots are foiled because the individual exposes his intentions to others, or because others around him/her are vigilant enough to recognize that something isn’t right. 

A sick person will hardly care if you put a gun out of their reach.  They can just as easily mow down a crowd with a motor vehicle while jumping a sidewalk going 55 miles per hour on a city street or down a bike path; as happened in New York City this past 2017.   Insanity is simply that, insanity.  We have seen it in the past and present, whether a bombing in Oklahoma City, poison laced punch made by Jim Jones, or serial killers who satisfy some need by putting out the lights of innocent human beings.  Crazy doesn’t need a gun.

As with any tragedy, human instincts seek to affix blame on someone or something.  In this case, a group of individuals have chosen to blame the NRA.  They didn’t blame the FBI or the Sherriff’s office, both of whom had been contacted numerous times and informed of the potential threat of violence that this individual posed.  Instead, these protesting students choose to target an organization so far detached from the matter, and by and large, one whose membership is one of the MOST responsible when it comes to handling firearms.

37.4% of young people aged 12-19 die in automobile accidents, 3 times as many as those that perish from homicide combined, by gun, knife or other means.  The NRA is no more to blame for school shootings than AAA is for Motor Vehicle deaths.    

While I applaud the students for wanting to protect themselves, they ignore the fact that tens of millions of responsible gun owners DID NOT assault the school, or gun down children.  One sick, crazy person did.  Let us not lose sight of who the real demon is in this situation.  Let us not lose sight of the fact that the warning signs were there and those that were informed did nothing.

There is an added ingredient to this situation that even more frightening.  Children with no life experience whatsoever have been influenced by certain educators and funded subversive groups into community organizing and marching.  In some cases, administrators suspended those who did not participate.  What has happened to our democracy?  This past weekend’s march in Washington featured a teenage Mr. Hogg, raising his fist in the air like some communist revolutionary attempting to rally the people to overthrow a government.  Pol Pot would have been proud. 

Emotional outrage, while therapeutic, denies the very horror that we ourselves are to blame.  Mary Shelley illustrated it best in Frankenstein.  Waving Torches and Pitchforks feels great in the moment, but does it solve the true issue? That issue today is how do we grapple with insanity? The behavior we see now, after the fact, only spreads madness in another form to the minds of otherwise good people.