Updated Wednesday, August 12, 2015, at 9:30 am EST
This past Sunday, Shawn Fuller got drunk, fought with his wife, then grabbed a gun and murdered his two young sons in their own living room.
Local news reported that Fuller and his wife kept the gun in their home “for protection.” And “there is no evidence the couple had a permit to have the weapon.”
According to his Facebook page, Shawn Fuller is a strong supporter of the NRA and many other pro-gun groups, such as Cold Dead Hands and the now-infamous Oath Keepers. He posted pro-gun arguments all over his page, and neighbors said he often had friends over to shoot in the backyard.
Clearly, sharing political opinions with a murderer does not imply anything about other gun rights activists. Hell, Fuller’s page is also pro medical marijuana – so he and I share at least one belief too.
The issue is that pro-gun arguments made by Fuller are the exact same arguments made by staunch conservative gun owners across America.
So how do we know who’s who? How do we know, without strict background checks & mental health records, the difference between regular 2nd Amendment supporters and likely criminals?
The answer is: without common sense checks, we can’t tell the difference.
Last week, Shawn Fuller was a good guy with a gun.
This past Saturday, Shawn Fuller was a good guy with a gun.
Then, on Sunday, Shawn Fuller got drunk and killed his kids.
Boom. Now he’s a murderer whose actions couldn’t have been anticipated or prevented. How is that possible?
The only thing that changed was that Fuller committed murder. But suddenly he’s always been a crazy outlier?
How do I know that all the good guys with guns I debate on a regular basis aren’t just like Shawn Fuller on Saturday?
What’s the difference between a good guy with a gun and a guy charged with murder? Often, it’s one moment of weakness.
Or rage. Or drunkenness. Or panic.
This doesn’t mean everyone should give up their guns. It means guns are too powerful a tool to go totally unregulated.
Some people are more prone to moments of weakness or rage than others. And there are ways to distinguish those individuals.
Moderate laws – like a background check system without loopholes, and restrictions on those with severe mental illnesses (ex: schizophrenia) – are simply logical.
You know what else 90% of Americans have in common? Concerns about ISIS, and overly salty diets. That’s about it.
90% of the population clearly includes many gun owners as well, which makes sense. Reasonable gun laws allow the average gun owner to prove they pose no threat to society, without giving up any freedoms.
Of course, we will never prevent every shooting death. Sometimes, without any warning, people just snap. But we can prevent a lot of shootings with basic checks, and every single life is precious.
So why haven’t we fixed our gun laws? Because we aren’t yet angry enough to stand up to the NRA & the powerful, wealthy gun lobby.
Will we ever be angry enough? Yes. But what will it take? I hate thinking about the answer.
You know what eventually shifted the nation’s opinion on gay marriage? Over the years, as it slowly became more acceptable to come out as gay, more and more people were forced to confront the issue, because it affected people they loved.
One of my deepest fears is this:
Like gay marriage, gun control will happen when so many Americans have been personally affected by gun violence that they’re forced to rethink this issue too.