By J. Joseph Curran Jr.|June 03, 2009
Ten years ago this spring, two teenagers in Colorado gunned down fellow students and teachers in a killing spree that left 15 dead, 24 injured, and a nation horrified that such carnage could unfold at an American high school.
In the decade since, there have been a million gun casualties in the United States.
After the Columbine tragedy, I issued a report, "A Farewell to Arms," calling for the country finally to address gun violence head on. I recommended a number of measures: closing the gun show loophole, harnessing new technologies to make guns safer, allowing law enforcement to use body wires to catch straw purchasers, to name a few.
I further proposed that while hunting and other recreational uses of firearms should remain unfettered, our long-term goal should be an end to unrestricted handgun ownership. Sportsmen do not typically use handguns, and studies on self-defense make clear that people in households with handguns are more likely to be victims of gun violence than those in homes without them. I argued that handguns exact too high a price.
Fast forward 10 years, and dueling Baltimore Sun columnists reflect on the state of gun ownership and gun violence on the anniversary of Columbine. One taunts, "proponents of gun control [are] shooting blanks." He claims the country has finally seen the light and rejected gun control. Deriding my 1999 report, he calls me a "prime example of someone swimming against the tide of public opinion."
The second columnist's rejoinder is a lament, not that most Americans have rejected sensible gun control but that resignation has replaced outrage. We are sorry, even momentarily traumatized, when the nightly news reports another gunman cutting short more lives at a school, a church, or whatever the latest venue. But we have essentially given up and given in.
This cannot stand. While I may have been bucking the tide in my call to end handgun ownership, I am certain all Americans share my desire to see the violence stop.
I am also convinced this collective desire can be channeled. It can be a powerful, animating force behind a serious effort to find common ground. Gun ownership need not be an all-or-nothing proposition. It should not be this hard to find reasonable, common-sense ways to allow people to own and use guns safely.
