A Reasonable Price?

In considering America’s latest record-setting mass murder of unarmed people – the Orlando nightclub shooting of June 12 – I have to once again ask this question;

“Is a periodic mass murder of innocent people inside homes, churches, schools, shopping malls or other public places, a reasonable price to pay for the unrestricted right of anyone to own as many guns, of any type, that they desire?”

I have quite a few family and friends on Facebook who are part of the “pro-guns (guns everywhere for everybody)” crowd, and we have had several major “debates” concerning guns over these past years. Some people have dropped me as a result of my opinions, and I’ve dropped a few people as well. This is in addition to the numerous “debates” I used to have over gun violence when I was a regular poster in the comments section of our local newspaper.

I’ve been periodically posting this question to my Facebook page starting with the Aurora Theater shooting (July 20, 2012). The first time I posted this question I had some interesting reactions. A couple of people took extreme offense at my question, posting replies that I was asking a “trick” question as shootings would not be possible without guns. One person actually posted a simple “yes” as response, while several others posted a simple “no.”

I did have a chat with the person who posted “yes” after the Newtown Sandy Hook school shooting (December 14, 2012). The person had three school-age children, and I noted a sharp difference in his position on guns, but not enough as he then wanted to have school teachers armed.

I’ve re-posted my question to Facebook several other times over the past few years, after some particularly gruesome mass-shooting. I no longer receive any “yes” responses, and most of the “pro-guns” crowd seem to ignore my post completely.

So it is time for me to ask this question again in my personal piece of cyberspace:

“Is a periodic mass murder of innocent people inside homes, churches, schools, shopping malls or other public places, a reasonable price to pay for the unrestricted right of anyone to own as many guns, of any type, that they desire?”

I look forward to answers.

For further reading, here is a timeline of US Mass Shootings from 1982 through 2016 as published by “Mother Jones” magazine.