Common Sense

About a month ago I taught my oldest son, Liam, about common sense. We were waiting at the bus stop one chilly morning and there was a girl waiting across the street in a T-shirt and capris. Entirely too few layers for such a cold morning. We know she owns warm coats and jackets because we’ve seen them before, but for some reason that week she chose not to wear warmer clothes for several days.

Seeing an opportunity to teach him something, I commented on the situation to Liam and said that the girl wasn’t using common sense. Common sense, I told him, is what regular, reasonable, smart people use to make choices. So, if it’s cold, you wear warm clothes. If you’re sick, you take medicine. You throw trash in the garbage can instead of on the floor. Et cetera.

He understood this, and has since mentioned other situations that require common sense. He’s 6 and he gets that certain things are just a no-brainer.

A few weeks ago, 17 students and staff were ruthlessly slaughtered in a school. Several years ago on this day, another group of students were murdered. In between these two events, thousands upon thousands of people have lost their lives. Young children, teenagers, adults.

When tragedy strikes, common sense kicks in and we as a society work to amend the situation and try to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. We’re not always successful, but we try our hardest because that’s what’s required of us as human beings. We build levees to prevent floods. We improve vehicles and aircraft to avoid accidents. We even recall products that have the potential to be harmful, even if they haven’t harmed anyone yet. We take the well-being of our fellow humans seriously, because it’s the core of a functioning civilization.

And yet these tragedies that have struck, and have continued to strike with even greater ferocity than ever before, are somehow written off and forgotten by large swaths of our society. We shrug and say, “What can we do?” and then pretend as if thousands of our fellow humans haven’t been wiped off the earth.

My 6-year-old son could tell you that such an attitude is not using common sense.

For some reason, the topic of guns has become a white hot issue in this country. It’s somehow become a matter of patriotism, of inherent rights, even, disgustingly, a matter of religion. The merest hint of questioning gun-ownership sends certain people into a frothy rage, screaming as if their very souls are being torn from them, and making the questioner out to be a sinister, anti-American demon.

That sounds dramatic, but it’s not so far off from the truth. Nuance has been taken out back and beaten to death with the cudgel of “patriotism”. So let’s step back for a moment and examine this issue with cool, sober judgment.

If you want to be able to legally drive a car, there are several steps to the process. You have to take a test just to get a temporary permit, and after that you have to be supervised for a time with several restrictions. Then you have to take an actual driving test, to prove you have the skills required and that you can handle the responsibility of operating a vehicle. There’s another short probationary period, and then you can finally be a fully-licensed driver. You have to do all of this regardless of whether you even own a vehicle at the time.

That’s a lot of hoops to jump through, but we put all these safeguards in place because we understand that operating a vehicle takes skill and has the potential to harm yourself and others. We, as a society, came together with our common sense and said, “Golly, these horseless carriages sure could hurt folks if they’re not operated properly. Perhaps we oughta decide on a system of rules to ensure, to the best of our ability, that people know what they’re doing when the grab the reins.”

And guess what. We did it. It’s not controversial, it’s effective, and we’re all safer for having done it. It’s not a perfect system, to be sure, but it’s certainly better than letting anyone and everyone behind the wheel. Can you imagine the chaos if anyone who had a set of keys could tear off down the road?

Now, with the same cool and calm judgment, let’s look at the issue of gun ownership. There aren’t extensive exams, supervisory periods, or tests of skill and readiness in order to purchase a tool designed for killing. I could go to a store right now and come home with a deadly weapon, and that’s the end of the process.

Before you freak out at that description (remember, calm and cool judgment), let’s face the fact that guns were designed for killing. Sure you can use them for sport, but pinging tin cans was not the impetus for inventing firearms.

So why is it that vehicles, which were designed for transportation, require so much hoop-jumping, and yet firearms, which were designed for killing, require so little? That’s not common sense. There’s no bias or agenda in this conclusion. It’s based on simple logic. It’s based on common sense so elementary that my son could understand it.

If we regulate cars so tightly, doesn’t it make logical sense that we should be even more careful with something designed for death?

Today, people all over the nation, and possibly the world, will be marching for common sense. There will be people from all backgrounds, with different viewpoints and ideas. You may not agree with some of the ideas and opinions of many of those who are marching. But the core of what they’re standing for, the big unifying theme that we can all rally around, will be common sense. Deeper still, they’re standing for common decency.

Asking for some sort of reform on firearm regulation is the decent, moral thing to do. This isn’t a call for confiscating people’s rightful property, any more than regulating access to drivers licenses is a call for confiscating people’s cars. That conclusion is pounced upon as a fear mongering talking point to make people think “the man” is out to get them. It doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

Some people say, “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” Aside from all the logistical holes in that argument, we already have an estimated 300 million guns in this country. Essentially a 1:1 ratio of guns to people. Does it seem to be helping? It’s like throwing a drowning person a bucket of water and saying it’ll help them raise the water level and not drown.

There are those who say, “If bad people want guns, they’ll get them no matter what.” They’ll use that as an excuse to do nothing. But what kind of logic is that? That argument is a cop out on basic decency, and it also crumbles under even a cursory glance.

There’s a fence in my back yard to keep my kids from wandering off. Could they still get out if they really wanted to? Probably, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to shrug and tear down the fence. That would be crazy and irresponsible of me because I have a moral obligation to do what I can to keep my children safe.

In the same way, we have a logical, moral obligation to each other, as fellow citizens and human beings. The simple fact is that people are dying by the thousands every year, and if some new law were to prevent even a single death, it would be more than worth it.

At the end of the day, that’s what we’re measuring against. It comes down to people’s right to live versus the right to own a piece of metal. Can any decent person look the victim of a shooting in the face and say that a weapon was more valuable than the life of their child, or their spouse, or their friend? The victims aren’t just those who died, it’s all the people who have a hole in their life after losing someone they loved.

The Second Amendment is like the holy grail to some. It’s part of the Constitution, so it is rightfully an important piece of writing, and I’m not disparaging such a crucial document in the least. But before that amendment was ever conceived, we declared ourselves a nation founded on certain inalienable rights. The rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

We deserve the right to simply live and exist more than the right to own any piece of property, let alone a weapon. We deserve the right to liberty, but we can’t be truly free if we live in fear of death in someplace so innocuous as a school or a movie theater. We deserve the right to pursue happiness, but happiness is hard to attain when your loved ones are senselessly murdered.

We declared those rights inalienable because they’re granted to every human, and they weren’t set down by human hands. They supersede the others, because we can’t have man-made rights if we don’t have our core human rights.

I’ll state this simply and clearly for those who are selectively reading: I’m not advocating for taking away all guns. I was raised around guns, taught how to properly respect and use them, and I own two guns myself. I don’t think regular, responsible people should have their lawful property taken from them. However, I’m also not stupid, blind, or willfully ignorant enough to think that things can continue as they are.

Common sense regulation doesn’t mean stripping people’s rights. It means keeping the wrong people from accessing tools of mass death. A more lengthy, involved process for obtaining a gun isn’t infringing on anyone’s rights, just like a lengthy and involved process for getting a driver’s license isn’t infringing on their right to drive.

Think of how effective a few added steps could be in keeping the wrong people from obtaining a gun. A written test, a proficiency test, a mental evaluation, character references, annual renewals. Take your pick. These are normal things that responsible people do all the time to get jobs, obtain and maintain special licensing, get promotions, learn new skills. These aren’t crazy pipe dreams or insane schemes cooked up to rob you of your freedoms.

Listen, I get it. I have a fierce desire to protect myself and my family, as much as any other person who may or may not love guns. But if you look deeper at that motivation, it reveals itself to be fear. I think that’s at the heart of why some people are so resistant to change.

They’re scared they won’t be able to protect themselves. They’re scared their liberty will be stolen. They’re scared that their values are being eroded. But we can’t live in fear like that. It’s a powerful motivator, but it’s not a sustainable way of life. Something has to give, and for too long in this country that “something” has been innocent lives.

We all deserve better. Our children deserve better. If we can do something, we must. So please, don’t go off half-cocked (gun pun!) and start attacking people who think differently than you today. Don’t propose alternate “walk ups” to undermine your fellow citizens who are exercising their right to express their pain and frustration. If you have different ideas, share them respectfully. But make sure you’ve thought them through carefully, and be sure to check your motivation. Look at the broader picture, not just your own experience.

Use your common sense.