The Tipping Point

Another mass shooting, and once again tongues are wagging.  The massacre in Newtown is especially poignant because it involved the murder of innocent children.  There are tears, including from our president, as there should be.  It is a time to grieve.

But it is also a time to act.

Nuts With Guns have been holding this country hostage for far too long.  We have become inured to the idea of mass shootings, as though they are an unavoidable fact of life.  But they are avoidable.  Where is the outrage?

What is, unfortunately, an unavoidable fact of life is the tyranny of the minority, or more accurately, the tyranny of the very few, in which a tiny fraction of a given population ruins things for everyone else.

The world changed on 9/11.  As a society, we were shocked into action on many fronts. We were in reaction mode, collectively trying to figure out how to function in a world where our old assumptions no longer worked.  Today, the TSA certainly has its own issues; but for the most part people have come to accept that air travel involves what would have seemed an egregious invasion of privacy and personal space back in 2000.  We have, grudgingly or not, forfeited a fair number of what used to be our rights, and lowered our quality-of-life expectations just a bit, in order to harden the target. That the actions of a small number of terrorists have led us to this place is rather astounding; but this is our reality now.  Sad but true.

As 9/11 was to air travel, Newtown is to firearms.  If not, it should be.  Our old assumptions are no longer working.  We need to figure out how to function in this new reality.  We have reached, and passed, the tipping point.

The coming months will certainly see an animated debate about the merits of gun control laws.  The standard arguments on both sides of this issue (guns don’t kill people, people do; the second amendment refers to a militia, not to individuals; pry it from my cold, dead hands) are so familiar, so shopworn that I need not recount them here.  Everyone has heard them all. The battle lines have already formed.

I am a believer in the merits of small (read: non-intrusive) government.  I believe we have too many laws on the books already.  My gut reaction to any given proposal involving a freedom-restricting law is negative.  I believe we are an extensively over-regulated and over-policed society. So my evolving belief in the need for much stricter gun laws goes completely against my gut.  But it is my belief nonetheless.

I am a car enthusiast.  One might not guess that, based on the makeup of my current fleet, but trust me - I drive a Honda Civic because that is what I can afford.  In my mind’s eye it’s a 3-series.  I enjoy driving.  My friend, Jack, and I haven’t missed the annual New England Auto Show for as long as I can recall. 

I’ve held a driver’s license for 36 years. I commute 90 miles to and from work, every day.  I’ve probably owned a couple of dozen vehicles. In all that time, across all those miles, I have never been involved in an auto accident.  Not one.  Not even a fender-bender.  Yes, some of that is luck; but not all of it. I recognize my driving privilege for what it is, and I take it seriously. 

Every time I hear yet another report of an elderly driver crashing through a plate glass window, I cringe; because I know what’s coming.  There has been a burgeoning epidemic of car crashes involving elderly drivers, fueled by the giant, aging baby-boomer demographic, of which I am a part.  The calls have begun for stricter licensing requirements for older drivers.  The chorus is just getting started; the crescendo is coming. 

The AARP is fighting this notion, on the basis that it constitutes age discrimination.  In the long run, the AARP and the oldies will lose.  By the time I’m 70 years old, I will probably be required to demonstrate my agility on a freakin’ balance beam once a month in order to hold onto my license.  And odds are, at 70, I will still be a safer driver than most, of any age.  It’s not fair.  The idea of it galls me.  But it’s coming.  It’s inevitable, and I know it.

My friends who are gun enthusiasts need to develop a similar understanding.  They may be “responsible gun owners” to a person, but the tyranny of the few is wrecking it for them.  They may have the second amendment (or their particular interpretation of it) on their side, and the NRA may have their back, but the tide of public opinion is turning, and in the long run, they will lose.

It’s not fair.  I get it.  I empathize, to a degree.  But we cannot continue down this path of carnage.  Better the gun lobby should accept the inevitable now, and allow countless innocent lives to be spared by not dragging the fight out over many years.