Living With Guns: My Commentary Published in July 13 Sunday Eunice News

As a military chaplain, I prayed over too many people who were murdered by their spouses, lovers, or friends. I know first hand that guns don’t kill people. People kill people.
People with guns kill the most people, though.
People with guns kill their spouses, their children, their best friends, their co-workers, their lovers, their neighbors, and even strangers who have done nothing to offend them but be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
For some strange reason, in the United States of America, we act as if it’s perfectly normal for gun owners to shoot at people when they are mad or sad.
We read in the paper that a man kills his estranged wife, then himself. Ho-hum. Who won last night’s game?
We read that a middle-class man kills four or more of his children. Ho-hum. What’s for dinner?
Our absolute allegiance to the Second Amendment leads us to falsely believe that high murder rates are inevitable if we are to protect our absolute right to bear arms.
But, in fact, the opposite is true.
We can bring down the murder rates in our society and in our state if we do a few things differently: First, we must teach our citizens how to cope with conflict, anger, disappointment without resorting to violence. In states and communities where children, teens and adults are taught it is NEVER okay to hit, attack or shoot another person, murder rates are much lower.
Second, we must provide interventions when we see early signs that a disgruntled youth or adult uses violence against animals or other humans no matter what their “reason” for resorting to violence.
Third, we must demand that the community costs of murder and gun violence are transparent to all taxpayers.
When someone kills their intimate partner, that person may go to jail, but, taxpayers are twice punished. We pay for the criminal trials, prison costs, legal fees, police, hospital and doctor bills.
But, we also have to pay for the victims and survivors of gun violence, such as the nine left behind in a recent St. Landry murder-suicide.
Taxpayers will foot the bill for raising these children for decades. Costs to taxpayers will include a lifetime of trauma counseling, medical care, housing, and special education services for the emotional disturbance that stays with child survivors.
Fourth, we must do a better job of training and regulating the people who own guns. People who own guns MUST demonstrate their competence and fitness to carry and own guns, the same way that automobile drivers must demonstrate their fitness to drive a car, and licensed doctors demonstrate their ability to properly use a scalpel.
There are plenty of laws already on the books that support these goals, but, we don’t bother to enforce the laws we have. Weak enforcement is why the United States of America has insanely high murder and suicide rates.
When I served at Fort Polk as the first woman chaplain in the Second Armored Cavalry Regiment way back in the 1990’s, I saw first hand the impact that strict enforcement of gun and domestic violence laws can have the levels of gun violence in the community.
When the commander made it clear that gun violence would not be tolerated, soldiers learned that their “I just snapped” excuses were as phony as three-dollar bills. They changed their behaviors, and learned how to handle their conflicts like adults.
I remember one soldier who was sentenced to prison for two years for firing a shot in the air to scare his girlfriend. No one was hurt, but the whole base got the message: You will pay a steep price if you take your guns out and use them at the wrong time, in the wrong way, for the wrong reasons.
Soldiers learn how to handle their relationships like adults – using words, not fists or guns to solve their problems.
It is never acceptable to take guns out and use them when we are mad at the world. What will it take for our country to embrace this fact and do what we have to do to stop the gun violence in our communities?
Copyrighted July 13, 2014 by Marie deYoung