History and reason reveal as clearly as they reveal anything that the only way for America to reduce gun violence is to control guns. At this point it's superfluous even to show that this is true--that all our measures to "harden" schools have done nothing, despite millions of dollars in investment that could have been used to enhance education--to reduce the frequency or the lethality of school shootings. Nothing. It is superfluous to point this out because every knows it. And everyone willing and capable of thinking through the question knows that owning a gun does not reduce your chances of becoming a victim of gun violence, but in fact increases them. Around 90% of Americans understand that, at the very least, we need stricter gun laws. Even those (most GOP) legislators in America who vote against these laws know that this is true.
And yet nothing changes.
This reveals a structural failure in American democracy. The system has worked itself out to the point where the rules created for the game no longer produce the envisioned play. The game we are playing is no longer the game the creators intended. They were unable to foresee how the players would manipulate play in such a way as to undermine the game itself.
It's time to change the rules.
