Another mass shooting has brought the discussion about gun control to the forefront of political discourse. Yet, for all words written and said regarding gun control, once again nothing will come of it.
We realize many of Wyoming’s residents are experienced with firearm usage and do so responsibly. Hunting season is in full swing and thousands will bag their game safely, as they always have. Hunters and others who have a respect for the power any firearm has and uses them responsibly aren’t the problem. The problem comes from people who fetishize violence and guns.
Violence itself is a problem that spans across all of humanity, but firearms especially can multiply the devastation caused by a violent individual. Firearms are tools that can give a person power, which is the reason they’re so frequently used in violent attacks.
As such, we believe people convicted of violent crimes should not have the right to purchase firearms.
We realize that won’t stop someone from obtaining a gun to commit a crime, but it would make the task more difficult.
Yet, while guns are equalizers in regards to giving people power, we don’t believe in the ideology that good guys with guns will stop bad guys with guns. This was the belief behind an ill-advised bill to allow teachers to keep guns in the classroom during the last legislative session. We’re happy this one didn’t make it through, because even with hundreds of hours of training, someone responding to an incident has difficulty dealing with the emotion and adrenaline associated with a traumatic event. Even police officers face that difficultly, but they are the best people to respond to mass shootings.
This is why we support Sweetwater County School District No. 2’s school resource officer program.
While officers are there to respond to violent attacks, they also have the opportunity to help children in a variety of ways outside of merely offering protection.
As pessimistic as this sounds, the country is beyond a point where a gun control law, even a strict one, would help curb gun violence.
Violent offenders should not have access to fire arms, but there is no real way to prevent someone dead set on obtaining a gun for use in a crime.
The best thing we can collectively do is find ways to better respond to and limit the impact the next mass shooting has, wherever it occurs.
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