Gun control won't solve gun violence

In a brief respite from the ongoing narrative of Russian collusion and anti-Trump rhetoric, we return to the debate over gun control this week with massive student walkouts scheduled across the country.

This highly-staged emotional response to the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Fla. will briefly put the spotlight back on gun violence.

And when the emotions recede, little, if any, changes will result.

We have an odd way of addressing gun violence in this country.

By way of example, there are more gun deaths in Chicago in one single year than all of the school shootings in our nation's history combined.

Yet there are no marches or protests over those deaths. We have grown to accept urban gun violence as some sort of obscene norm.

The feds report there are an estimated 320 million guns in America. And with each passing day, that number increases.

The emotional response to Parkland or the many other tragic examples is to ban all sorts of weapons and accessories. And if somehow that makes us believe we are helping to solve the issue, then ban away.

But those 320 million guns remain. And they always will.

Do you know why we don't address urban gun violence? Because we know all of the phony band-aid solutions we offer will not change anything. Nothing.

We falsely focus on the weapon of choice while ignoring the person holding that weapon. We think new laws will change behavior.

And we are wrong.

I'm undecided if our position on gun violence is naive or cowardly. Either way, as a nation we ignore the real reasons for the majority of gun violence and instead put our emotional focus on tragic incidents like Parkland.

I was struck by a comment made by a Springfield, Missouri, student walkout organizer this week. She said, "I just urge people to have an open mind and realize that we're not trying to take away all guns. We just want to make the bad ones harder to get access to and we want to make the bad people have less access to them."

I would accept there is universal agreement to disallow "bad people" from having access to guns. But just out of curiosity, who are these bad people? And who gets to decide?

If the goal is to prohibit mentally unstable individuals to own guns, I'm onboard.

The cold reality is that the overwhelming majority of the 12,000 or so gun homicides are gang or drug-related. But try to start a conversation on that issue and you're met with utter silence.

The nation will join with the students as they show their concern this week. And state and federal lawmakers will usher in a slew of gun-related legislation to address the issue.

But the debate over gun violence must eventually focus on the core issue of evil intent. Despite these high-profile episodes, we're no closer to an honest assessment of this issue.

Michael Jensen is the publisher of the Standard Democrat in Sikeston, Missouri.