Photo by maxzzerzz ❄ on Unsplash
REPORT FROM CALIFORNIA:
We’ve had a flurry of mass shootings in recent days here in sunny California, the state with the most restrictive gun laws in the country. And it’s not yet February.
In California’s population of nearly 40 million, more than 4 million own a gun (more shotguns & rifles than pistols, but of course all of them kill people).
Nationally, we have more guns than civilians.
In Japan, where almost nobody packs heat (.03 guns per 100 civilians) there are fewer than 10 gun deaths annually. In the U.S. we have more than that every day, any day.
We’re on track for more gun deaths, more mass shootings, more carnage-by-trigger than ever in 2023. The figures generally go up every year.
And all we can talk about is background checks and mental health?
Issue every adult a musket. The rest of the guns we melt down and use the molten steel for playground equipment. Decommission the NRA. Rewrite Smith and Wesson’s mission statement to fostering compassion and excellence in the teeter-totter. Problem solved.
Would that the tangle were that simple to unwind.
I think you may be onto something, Medea. We could throw in, at Step 1, a choice between the musket and the $200 or $300 or so it’s worth, and we’d get an up-front reduction! But yes, it might get a little complicated . . . 😊