Austin Bombings: It Turns Out It IS People That Kill People

Stricter, “common sense” gun control is a must, but it won’t end public violence. As I said in a piece earlier this month, there is no easy answer to ending mass killings, and we need to stop pretending like there is if we truly want an answer. The recent bombings in Austin are reminder of this, and they won’t be the last.

There have been four bombings in Austin, Texas, and one additional bomb headed to Austin from nearby San Antonio, in the past month. Residents in Austin have at times been asked by authorities to remain in their houses. Terror is descending upon the city, and everyone is a potential target. Random civilians are being killed on the sidewalks. There is no legislating our way out of this dilemma.

It is true that the bombings have not tallied even a fraction of the deaths that automatic firearms have in some recent mass shooting incidents. Is that really how we want to quantify this, though? I can’t imagine that a bombing seems less significant to the family of a victim simply because there weren’t more lives lost at the same time. Automatic and semi-automatic firearms do make killing too easy, too convenient, and too efficient. However, they are not the root of the problem, nor is eliminating them a sufficient solution.

In some ways, bombings are more terrifying. There is the uncertainty of the timing of the explosion. There’s also the element of the absence of the killer. Bombings are more difficult to see coming. The bomber is more difficult…