Avoiding Mass Killings: Don’t Be Enamored with Easy Answers

It was recently announced that Florida prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Nicolas Cruz, the young man accused of killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida last year. In the wake of that tragedy, as we begin to heal, we are also desperate for answers regarding how such incidents can be avoided in the future. Unfortunately, it’s likely that our desperation makes us vulnerable to placing our faith in comforting but unrealistic solutions.

I don’t see a viable reason why a private citizen in the United States needs to have the ability to own a semi-automatic or automatic weapon. I also don’t think eliminating them eliminates violence. That makes me a pretty unpopular guy.

Social media has given everyone a degree of public presence. We each have immediate access to an audience of hundreds or thousands of other people, and we all have more voices than that coming back at us every moment of every day. It is not surprising then, that in such an environment, moderation and reason get pushed aside for extremism and sensationalism. It’s not surprising that the notion that a sensitive subject is not easily resolvable with one extreme response or another is not well-received.

Mass shootings are tragic. Both sides of the gun control controversy agree on that, so it’s as good a place to start as any. The primary focal point of any discussion on mass shootings is and should be the victims and their families. The grief must be processed, and…