Action is needed in the wake of what happened in Las Vegas

Today's column in the Grand Haven Tribune, reprinted below.

Like many of you, I awoke early Monday morning to the horrific news of the violence in Las Vegas. I tend to wake up a little before 6 a.m., just before my 14-month-old daughter likes to wake up. As I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, I saw the notification on my phone’s screen, one of the news apps I follow reporting on the many dead and the many more injured.

Mass shootings, disasters inflicted by the hands of humans who have become broken through hate or mental illness — or who just, for some inexplicable reason, decide to kill — these are increasingly difficult to respond to with anything more than a hand over the mouth, shocked at the destruction we are all witnessing.

And yet, as the Episcopal Church’s “Bishops United Against Gun Violence” said in their own statement released late in the afternoon on Monday, who noted that after thoughts and prayers, “we must act.” They continued, “As Christians, we are called to engage in the debates that shape how Americans live and die, especially when they die due to violence or neglect.”

The pressing question is: What action can we take? We feel powerless in the face of such violence, powerless to protect ourselves and our loved ones when people can so quickly take so many lives.

But we are not powerless.

Rather, we must renew our calls for sensible gun reform. As our bishops also noted in their own statement, “It is entirely reasonable in the wake of mass killings perpetrated by murderers with assault weapons to ask lawmakers to remove such weapons from civilian hands. It is imperative to ask why, as early as this very week, Congress is likely to pass a bill making it easier to buy silencers, a piece of equipment that makes it more difficult for law enforcement officials to detect gunfire as shootings are unfolding.”

These questions must be asked. We must not settle for the same responses, the same claims that the Second Amendment somehow guarantees an unhindered and unencumbered right to possess any weapon, no matter the destructive capacity.

I want to be clear: I am a gun owner. I have three guns in a safe in my home, all used for either hunting or sport. I have enjoyed the challenge of shooting a handgun in a safe, controlled environment just as much as I have appreciated the challenge of harvesting my own meat in the wild instead of relying solely on factory-farmed animals. I grew up here in Grand Haven with a step-father who was a licensed gun dealer and, thus, had a significant amount of firearms in the locked gun room of our home.

This is not about abridging the Second Amendment rights of Americans. I fully support guns for hunting, competitive and other sporting purposes. I also support guns for self-defense — though I am clear that my own guns are not for that purpose. I’m too aware of the statistics that a homeowner is more likely to be shot by his or her own gun than successfully use it to defend against an intruder. I support that right, but most people lack the training, unfortunately, to do that effectively.

That said, there is no compelling sporting reason for the use of silencers — indeed, they increase the danger of firearm use in both urban and rural areas. There is no compelling sporting reason for civilian access to military-style assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and armor-piercing ammunition. There is absolutely no compelling reason — in our time of easy internet access — to allow guns to be bought, purchased, or transferred without a background check and a registration of ownership. Whether selling a shotgun to a friend or purchasing a new rifle at a gun show, there must be a way to check the background of a prospective purchaser and ensure that no flags exist that should impede that sale.

Would all of this have stopped what happened in Las Vegas? I don’t know. We are all still learning the details of what led to this horrific act of violence. I hope that we continue to investigate what led to this shooting and engage in some societal self-examination about ways in which we may be complicit in any structures or norms which enable this kind of action.

But whether or not sensible gun reform would have stopped the shooter in Las Vegas, it would absolutely decrease the likelihood and the scale of future shootings. Rather than arguing about what would have stopped this horrific event, let’s look to the future. Look carefully in the eyes of our children and ask what sensible steps we can take in this society to make it safer for them.

We cannot make it perfectly safe. If people want to commit acts of violence and terror, they will always find a way.

But we must make it more difficult.


Inaction, at this moment, is unacceptable.