JFC

What can we do? No one wants to see this ever happen to any child. If the only way people got guns was through a trackable source and we could know if they had bad intentions and prevent them from aquiring that weapon,all of us would agree to that if it was simply a background check would be fine. That isn't realistic. It won't solve the problem imo.

Disclosure: I know the Wheelers from over a half century back; David was in HS plays with my brother, and I was close to David's younger brother Andy on the swim team. When I heard the news yesterday, I, like so many, flashed on Andy, and reached out to see how they were doing. It's been a tough week - the supermarket shooting last week induced its own PTSD - as does every shooting.

School shootings make it worse.

As you go back and forth blasting each other with your inanities, please try to remember: people lost their children. People have lost their mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, and more. And so many of them are gone in the ten years now since Sandy Hook - and we're not any closer to reducing the number of preventable, avoidable firearm casualties than we were in December ten years ago. When Sandy Hook happened, the general consensus seemed to: enough already.

Apparently not.

And just a week before Andy lost his nephew Ben, a colleague of mine who was doing some Christmas shopping was too damn close to the line of fire in Clackamas Town Center.

I'd gone through these pages, and I ask, please: go back and read your words as if you were David Wheeler.

www.npr.org/2022/05/25/1101307665/sandy-hook-parent-explains-what-uvalde-families-need-from-us-right-now

The "conversation" on these pages does not help. Seeing a lot of these words, in fact, hurts.

Everybody - including me. To be clear, I'm enormously flawed with a capital F. 

Spudbeaver,

Specifically: I have advocated to my representatives at the state and national level to pass laws that can improve safety - while, yes, allowing folks to exercise their right to responsibly bear arms if they so choose. I, personally, can't take credit for SB 554 that was passed last year and went into effect last September, but, thanks to that legislation, it is more likely that, say, handguns will be kept more securely in more places, out of reach of folks in a home with guns who may have mental illness, or may just be young, curious children.

Far more people are killed annually in suicides and preventable discharges (read: kids playing with an unsecured weapon) who would be alive today were there better tools to increase responsible ownership and storage of firearms. This bill addressed those deaths. Some shootings over the years were made possible by lax parental care of their firearms; perhaps murders of those types will be affected by that law.

If only one person who would have been killed by an unsecured or improperly stored firearm that made an impulse trigger pull possible, than that law is a success. I have a hunch more will be saved by it over the years than just one.

I have advocated over the years for mandatory background checks and variations of "red flag" laws; also for systems that allow these background checks to be more efficient and inclusive in a better national database.

I have helped victims of gun violence mourn and been there for them when they needed me. I feel lucky - I have been able to glimpse the impact of losing a loved one to this kind of violence, but my experience has all been second-hand. Back in the day when I was on the right coast, I witnessed this grief in Renny Cushing, who's father was murdered opening his front door to an off-duty police officer who lived in the neighborhood. I knew Renny from the Clamshell Alliance, and reported on numerous activities of his, and when his life was tossed upside down by his dad's murder, reported on that, too. His sharing was amazing, as was the work he devoted himself to afterward and his legislative career.

I give to causes that support pragmatic approaches to try to stem gun violence through the promotion of responsible firearm ownership. One topic I've been pushing for decades is the concept of getting insurance companies involved. Own a gun? get insurance - make it required. Hell, we have to have it for our cars, which someone earlier pointed out can be weapons, too. Want lower premiums? Get a gun safe and use it. (The nightstand is not a gun safe...).

I send cards and letters; some go to congresscritters, some go to friends. I have not given my entire life over to the topic of gun violence, as some have done - and some whom I know who have done so as their way of working through the grief.

I've learned a lot, too, over the years. As far as I can tell, the grief never dies. When Renny died this spring, I hope he finally found some peace, because I know he thought his dad was out there for him.

So, yeah, that's a few things, specifically, I've been up to. I've spent the better part of four full decades trying to get better laws on the books that might keep a few of these weapons away from the next nut job out there, be it in Texas...or Springfield. My first letters were to Warren Rudman and Gordon Humphrey asking them to support what we now know as the Brady Bill. And I'll keep writing.

Thanks for asking.

Hey - if you want to do something to support victims - which is an action I would hope everyone can agree on - I endorse this organization: benslighthouse.org/

But there are so many out there. More every year, sadly.

You have done a huge amount of work and I applaud you! Thank you for your efforts. That sounds like tough work, and more action than I would guess 99+% of the population does. Thank you again.
I agree with background checks at all levels. They need to be enforced better. Red flag laws sound good but are too easily abused and manipulated by disgruntled exes and family members. Tough deal.
You’re the first person that has offered concrete ideas to help find a solution. Again, props to you.

I may have missed it, what was the issue with insurance?