Why Are We Fixating on Guns to Stop the Violence?

Why Are We Fixating on Guns to Stop the Violence?

The entire country is awash in arguments concerning the 2nd Amendment and the push for tighter gun control in the United States.  There is the camp of people that want absolutely no further restrictions on any part of the gun industry in this country.  This includes no further control in the form of background checks, the size of gun magazines, the sale of assault weapons or anything that resembles more government control over the constitutional rights of Americans.

As for myself, I don't see anywhere in the 2nd Amendment that gives Americans the right to purchase guns without a background check, or where the Constitution allows gun magazines to be whatever size the gun industry manufactures.  I believe these ideas from gun control advocates are reasonable, though the enforcement of such provisions would be extremely difficult.  

To push through new restrictions on background checks and magazine capacities would create a set of difficulties that would make these new "laws" meaningless.  For example, if every gun sale had to include some type of background check, how would this be enforced at gun shows around the country?

If background checks mandate a specific "waiting time" before the gun sale is final, how would this be enforced at gun shows?  The gun show business is huge in this country and doing something to make it more difficult to purchase a gun legally at a gun show, would place an undue burden on private businesses.  

If some type of technology was produced that would permit necessary background checks within a short time period (i.e. 30 minutes), then mandated background checks might work; otherwise anything longer would inhibit business and that would be totally unfair.

Then we have the idea of limiting the size of gun magazines.  What would be proposed for the millions of existing gun magazines considered "excessive" by gun control advocates?  What is considered "excessive"?

Americans have a strong sense of ingenuity and if someone really wants a gun magazine for an assault weapon that can hold 100 rounds of ammo, they will figure something out.  What if a gun owner didn't use a magazine, but had a "belt" of ammo, like the large caliber guns used in World War II?  Would it be illegal to have "belts" of ammunition, but not magazines?

The root problem isn't guns; it's the violence that is created by people.  I have seen riots in our streets where people were killed and not one gun was ever fired.  In our history, there have been acts of violence so horrendous and guns were not used in any way, yet we are now fixated on guns.

We have racial violence, we have organized violence, we have gang violence...where is the outcry over these types of mayhem?

I read on a semi-regular basis of people using cars to try to kill others; yet we still allow cars to be manufactured.  We have poisons readily available for purchase in grocery stores and some people use these products in their attempts to kill others.

What if a deranged person barricaded a church or a school, burned it to the ground, killing dozens of people trapped inside...would we try to control gasoline, or matches?

Guns are just a prop in the commission of violence.  Yes, guns are used by some people to kill, but so are cars, poison, arson, physical beatings, baseball bats and more...yet I can go to stores and purchase any of these items without suspicion.

I do not think that anyone in this country is against stopping the violence that is at every level of our society.  This is where the common ground is for all Americans...stopping violence. 

So instead of spending valuable time and resources arguing over the details of the violence, why aren't we doing more to stop the causes of the violence?

Of course, trying to stop violence and what steps would be beneficial starts another round of arguments, agendas and opinions.  

I truly believe if we focused on root causes of our violent society, perhaps we would see an overall drop in massacres and other useless killings, no matter what "tool" is used.