An article with an open minded, fact based look at gun control.

Leah Libresco at the Washington Post shows us what a real dialogue on guns can be in America, she is not a fan of guns but yet she took the time to actually research the effects of gun control and instead of the usual push to "act" she points out things are not as clear cut as they might seem. If more people on both sides can look at this issue with an open mind and with an eye to the truth, not hyperbole, then maybe we can come together and find solutions to violence and gun crime that both promote public safety and respect the fundamental rights of citizens to defend themselves with the best available tools. 

"By the time we published our project, I didn't believe in many of the interventions I'd heard politicians tout. I was still anti-gun, at least from the point of view of most gun owners, and I don't want a gun in my home, as I think the risk outweighs the benefits. But I can't endorse policies whose only selling point is that gun owners hate them. Policies that often seem as if they were drafted by people who have encountered guns only as a figure in a briefing book or an image on the news."

She also points out that solutions with the potential to make a real impact will have to be tailor made and not one size fits all, that is unfortunately a perspective that politicians looking for a boost in poll numbers tend to ignore.

"Instead, I found the most hope in more narrowly tailored interventions. Potential suicide victims, women menaced by their abusive partners and kids swept up in street vendettas are all in danger from guns, but they each require different protections"

Violence, mass shootings and the unlawful use of firearms is a complex subject with no clear way to minimize it, even if you take away most gun rights as we have seen occur in other industrialized nations, that will still do nothing to address the seething hatred and extremism waiting below the surface in our society ready to explode at any moment. Countries like the UK, which have seen their gun deaths reduced by effectively banning them, have nonetheless seen a rise in the use of other weapons such as acid and knives. While it may be true that these have the potential to cause less loss of life in particular instances, over the long term the effect in terms of creating fear and instability in society is the same, not to mention that in recent years maniacs have taken to use vehicles and other non-obvious objects as weapons in order to cause mass casualties.