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The Daily Signal
Shootings Are a
Morality Problem, Not a Gun Problem
Walter E. Williams
March 07, 2018
Before we discuss violence with guns, I’d like to run a couple of
questions by you.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every day
nearly 30 Americans die in motor vehicle crashes that involve drunk
driving. What kind of restrictions should be placed on automobile
ownership? Should there be federal background checks in order for
people to obtain a driver’s license or purchase a car?
The FBI’s 2015 Uniform Crime Report shows that nearly three times more
people were stabbed or hacked to death than were killed with shotguns
and rifles combined. The number of shotgun and rifle deaths totaled
548. People who were stabbed or hacked to death totaled 1,573. Should
there be federal background checks and waiting periods for knife
purchases?
Any mature and reasonable person would argue that it is utter nonsense
to deal with drunk driving deaths and knife deaths by having federal
background checks and waiting periods to obtain a driver’s license or
to purchase a car or knife.
One would recognize, just as courts and the general public do, that
cars and knives are inanimate objects and cannot act on their own.
Therefore, if we want to do something about deaths resulting from drunk
driving or being stabbed or hacked to death, we must focus on
individuals.
It would be folly and gross negligence of victims for us to focus on
inanimate objects like cars and knives. Guns are also inanimate objects
and like cars and knives cannot act on their own. It’s also plain folly
to focus on guns in the cases of shooting deaths.
What about the availability of guns? It turns out that for most of our
history, a person could walk into hardware and department stores or a
gun store, virtually anywhere in the United States, and purchase a
rifle or pistol.
The 1902 Sears mail-order catalog had 35 pages of firearm
advertisements. Other catalogs and magazines from the 1940s, ’50s, and
’60s were full of gun advertisements directed to both youngsters and
parents.
“What Every Parent Should Know When a Boy or Girl Wants a Gun” was
published by the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Another magazine
advertised, “Get This Cowboy Carbine with Your Christmas Money.”
Just a few states even had age restrictions for buying guns. Private
transfers of guns to juveniles were unrestricted. Often a 12th or 14th
birthday present, from a father to his son, was a shiny new .22 caliber
rifle.
Today, there is far less availability of shotguns, rifles, and pistols
than any time in our history. That historical fact should raise the
question: Despite the greater accessibility to guns in previous
decades, why wasn’t there the kind of violence we see with today’s far
more restricted access to guns? Have rifles and pistols changed their
behavior from yesteryear and they are now out committing mayhem and
evil?
To answer in the affirmative can be dismissed as pure lunacy. Thus, if
guns haven’t changed, then it must be that people have changed.
Half-witted psychobabble such as stopping children from playing
schoolyard games like cops ‘n’ robbers and cowboys ‘n’ Indians won’t do
much. Calling for more gun restrictions, gun-free zones, and other
measures have been for naught.
We must own up to the fact that laws and regulations alone cannot
produce a civilized society. Morality is society’s first line of
defense against uncivilized behavior. Moral standards of conduct have
been under siege in our country for over a half a century.
Moral absolutes have been abandoned as guiding principles. We’ve been
taught not to be judgmental, that one lifestyle or set of values is
just as good as another. We no longer hold people accountable for their
behavior and we accept excuse-making. Problems of murder, mayhem, and
other forms of anti-social behavior will continue until we regain our
moral footing.
Read this and other articles at The Daily Signal
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