Frank's Musings

There really is only one option for a free society significantly to reduce gun violence: regulate personal access to firearms. This may sound oppressive, but any human population includes individuals who are not capable of controlling their emotions and acting as a danger to others.

We don’t have the means to identify all those potential murderers.   It is folly to risk the consequences of allowing even their minuscule number to arm themselves with the easiest tool for weaponizing their rage.

Freedom is the highest social value of our liberal democracy. However, safeguarding that value should not come at the expense of survival in that society.

Modern IT and other technological advances have overpowered the self-management capabilities of the average human intellect. Just as we would not seat every one of us in reach of a nuclear launch button, we cannot permit universal unsupervised use of dangerous deadly weapons. Carrying out that limitation on arbitrary choice would do more for the general welfare than freeing all members of society to be potential killers.

Practical measures to accomplish this limitation can be devised to balance society’s security with individual freedom. Handguns, whether automatic or not, must be reserved for public law enforcers. Hunting firearms should be issued only under supervision exclusively during authorized hunting expeditions. Weapons of war must be issued to official military agencies; not sold at all.  Personal security should be enhanced by well-funded and -trained police.

The objective is to eliminate the seemingly accelerating frequency of tragic mass shootings in all advanced democratic societies. Such measures will, of course, be costly, but incomparably cheaper than the destruction of happiness caused by gun violence today.