If the Gun is to Blame, Blame the Gun

   Of course you don't want mass shootings, but don't try too hard to narrow the cause to just one thing.
For there is one thing -- the gun, itself,  that is the prime cause, albeit it isn't the only factor.
   This meme takes the opposite approach:
   "Uvalde shooter: Mentally ill
   "El Paso shooter: Mentally ill
   "Parkland shooter: Mentally ill
   "Lewiston shooter: Mentally ill
   "Nashville shooter: Mentally ill
   "Ft. Hood shooter: Mentally ill
   "Sandy Hook shooter: Mentally ill
   "Virginia Tech shooter: Mentally ill
   "Tyrants: America has a gun problem"
   Take that meme to heart and you will conclude mental illness is the problem, and anyone who tells you it is the gun is a tyrant.
    Just the same, it is the gun. The gun is the one thing ALL shootings have in common. You can break it down and note what a high percentage of the shooters are mentally ill, or are current or past members of the military. You can point out that five of the most deadly mass shootings in the last ten years were in gun-loving Texas, and you can let it known that there are a high abundance of shootings in gun-toting Florida. You might even want to point out how few mass murders there are in California, which just happens to have tight gun control laws.
   But, one thing ties them all together: the gun. The gun is available to the mentally ill. When they go crazy, it is the gun that is ready for them to use. Military men are trained to kill, and it is the gun that they are trained to kill with. Gun-happy folks in Texas and Florida have guns waiting in their closets, and in their bedrooms, and in their pickup trucks. And it is the gun they turn to when they get overly angry.
  Horror writer Stephen King posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, in the aftermath of the Maine shootings: " This is madness in the name of freedom. Stop electing apologists for murder." King, who lives not far from where the Maine shootings took place, is right. The politicians insist owning guns is part of their freedom. There comes a point, though, when there are too many guns out there, and there comes a point when the right of some people to own a gun should be curtailed.