The news seems inescapable: Every day we hear or read of more shooting. More guns in the hands of the wrong people. Not hardened criminals, but ordinary, seemingly quiet people and children and family members who somewhere, somehow lost their way.
Over the weekend, an East Tennessee 11-year-old boy in Jefferson County shot and killed his 8-year-old neighbor because she would not let him see her puppy, according to news reports. Sheriff Bud McCoig told reporters that the boy used his father's 12-gauge single-shot shotgun to shoot and kill the girl from inside his house.
The New York Times over the weekend presented an excellent piece about how shooters in recent mass shootings got their guns. "Criminal histories and documented mental health problems did not prevent at least eight of the gunmen in 14 recent mass shootings from obtaining their weapons, after federal background checks led to approval of the purchases of the guns used," the story began.
We certainly saw that play out here in Chattanooga in July when a disturbed young man had no trouble obtaining guns and killed five U.S. servicemen.
We hear it said all the time - guns don't kill people, people kill people.
Fine. So when are we going to stop letting people - and children - who could kill have guns?
When will we insist on an expansion of background checks and tighten loopholes for online sales and gun-show sales? When are we going to block gun sales to domestic abusers and the mentally ill? When will we hold gun dealers - and parents of minors and mentally ill adults - accountable for where these guns end up?