Don Gale: Simplistic nonsense about Good Men, Bad Men and guns

Nonsense! “The only way to stop a bad man with a gun is a good man with a gun.” Double nonsense!

The only way to stop bad men with guns is for at least 300 elected representatives in Washington to show a little common sense, wisdom and courage. The lives of children are vastly more important than campaign money.

The only way to stop bad men with guns is for elected representatives in every state to provide enough funding for schools to employ well-trained counselors. Counselors who can identify potential “bad men with guns” before they pull triggers. Counselors who can help troubled youngsters find the care they need before it’s too late. Counselors who can save the lives of mentally ill young people before they destroy themselves and others. (No guns required.)

The only way to stop bad men with guns is for leaders of the National Rifle Association to turn their attention from common cents to common sense.

The only way to stop bad men with guns is for purveyors of popular entertainment to approach guns and mayhem with realism instead of with stupidity. (Three “good guys” with pistols, shooting from the hip, overcome five bad guys with automatic rifles. Give me a break!)

The only way to stop bad men with guns is to restrict the kinds of guns all men and women can play with.

I asked a gun-toting friend why he needed an assault rifle. He said because it was so much fun to shoot the thing. That’s probably what most killers think as they pull the trigger: Boy, this is fun. Good schools are infinitely more important than gun “fun.”

(By the way, the gun-toting neighbor is still my friend. Friendship can never be governed by differences of opinion.)

The only way to stop bad men with guns is for religious leaders, politicians, business executives and other opinion leaders to lead. For too long, most have kept quiet about the many tragedies guns have inflicted on American ideals, American culture and especially on innocent American children.

The only way to stop bad men with guns is for thoughtful, well-informed Americans to deny that this nation’s shameful record on mass shooting incidents is unrelated to the fact that the United States has more guns per capita in private hands than any other nation on Earth. The horrendous death toll is, without doubt, related to outlandish gun sales.

The only way to stop bad men with guns is to ridicule those who distort the Second Amendment out of all proportion to historical evidence about what the Founding Fathers intended it to be.

The only way to stop bad men with guns is to make the sanctity of life not just a religious principle but a foundational American value.

Good human beings, thoughtful human beings, informed human beings know without doubt that the phrase “the only way to stop a bad man with a gun is a good man with a gun” is utter nonsense — a simple-minded view of reality.

Don Gale has been commenting on events in Utah for 50 years. He came from a family of gun owners and learned that no gun should ever be pointed at another human being — good guy or bad guy.