Why not fix the real problems?

Published 11:27 am Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Oh to have opened a gun store yesterday. I could have retired by Friday.

Aimed at online gun sales and gun show dealers, President Obama is using an executive order to expand who will be required to have to do a background check of a buyer when selling a gun.

Depending on where you sit it is either a way to put all gun dealers on the same playing field when selling guns or it is another threat to gun ownership.

This all has to do with an increase in mass shootings and shootings in public places in recent months. In reality it is the government doing something because it doesn’t really know what else to do.

Even the President admitted Monday it is not a perfect solution to stopping the shootings.

“We have to be very clear that this is not going to solve every violent crime in this country. It’s not going to prevent every mass shooting; it’s not going to keep every gun out of the hands of a criminal,” Obama said, before announcing his executive order on Tuesday.

On that point he is correct.

There is no need to get into the debate about where criminals get their guns, and whether background checks weed out those with mental illness.

The shootings are something that everyone should agree are troubling. And at some point cooler heads are going to have to sit down, politics aside, and come up with a real solution because quite honestly what the U.S. really has is a people problem. Criminals allowed to run the streets and buy guns, and those needing mental health treatment that are not getting it.

Where in this current discussion of solving this problem is there a call for stiffer penalties for those who commit the crime? A mandatory death penalty. Harsh? Maybe. But then dogs are put down for vicious attacks on humans, but for some reason there are those who believe a murderer deserves a better fate at taxpayer expense than what they gave their victim.

As for those with mental health issues, they need help. They also need to be reported and put on a list that blocks them from gun ownership.

With all that said, gun owners have a responsibility to secure their weapons in a method that helps prevent their theft or misuse by someone who is not trained with firearms.

Yes there is a problem a problem in the U.S., but the 90-something percent of the nation that owns and uses guns legally and responsibly is not it.

In the meantime another dog-and-pony show is rolled out by the feds to again look like they are up to the task of solving the problem.

As legal Americans we will continue to go through the trouble of a background check before being handed a new gun while the real problem continues on.