Editorial rant

The most reliable statistics show that possessing firearms quadruples a person’s chances of being shot. Owning a gun in the name of “self-protection” is therefore something of a joke, in that gun owners really need protection from their own lack of logic and consequent behavior. Buying a gun because one is afraid of people with guns practically screams the message “Protect me from myself!”

Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson recently graced our community with his direct legacy of the wisdom of nonviolence. One of the first points he made to his overflow audience was that nonviolence is the opposite of passivity — it is an active force brought into play by disciplined practitioners.

The great lesson brought forth by the Gandhis and Kings of the world is that weapons of violent force are not equalizers at all. They instead cripple our natural ability to find intelligent, bloodless solutions to conflicts.

After his talk, Arun Gandhi was asked about the current attempt to conflate our society’s gun violence problem with mental illness. His response was,
“I am often asked whether we should be concerned about the mentally challenged having access to guns. My response is that anybody who goes to buy a gun is mentally challenged.”
Fear is our most deadly affliction. It is contagious and makes people stupid. Guns are a material manifestation of fear. Public health and safety require that we minimize exposure to these deadly pathogens.

VIP B. SHORT 

Hard to argue these points. It seems that at least some of the mass murder/killing spree incidents, the killer used parental owned weapons. Both Kip Kinkle (Springfield Oregon), and Adam Lanza (Sandy Hook) used their own parents guns to do the spree and to kill their own parents first. 
The all look back later and say "there were troubling signs". 
What troubles me most, is the fact that the NRA has whipped up this constitutional right (to own any & all types of weapons), and that it is too emotional to enact gun reform laws just after a killing spree, or any other time, for that matter. 
The problem is the situation is only getting worse, and each incident is unacceptable, random & horrific. 
I watched some post Columbine footage, and amongst those who did not die... some will be wheelchair bound for the rest of their lives, with spinal cord injuries... they were not at the wrong place or time- they were in school where they should be. What was wrong was the 2 teens that were able to amass vast weapons at home, right under the noses of their parents, who had no clue. 

It is not any one thing that went wrong, but a series of wrongs that culminated in mass destruction. 
We really can't & should not wait for the next incident. Civilians don't need AK 47 type guns. 
We can statistically say as a fact, they have done more harm than good.