A Fact of Life - Strike That - A Fact of Death

(Its Too Late to Ban Assault Weapons")

Finally, an editorial that deals with the reality of gun ownership today and for as far in the future as the eye can see. 

We are never, ever going to pry the guns from the hands of the over 30% of adult Americans who own at least one, the over 40% who say they reside in a household with a gun. These are numbers of staggering proportion. We don't have a problem. We have an epidemic.

This is a national disease, as virulent as any other significant health risk. But unlike other diseases, this one will not be eradicated with research (thanks to the government ban on funding in this area) and cannot be eradicated with warnings or numbers. Gun ownership is ingrained into the very fabric of this nation. As American as apple pie.

Herbert Hoover once promised America a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage. The sad truth is that there is no need to make a promise regarding gun ownership. It is already anywhere and everywhere it wants to be.

And so, while we fight for red flag laws, while we argue around the very fringes and seek remedies that barely glance off the surface, the white flag is the one we should actually be waving. Homicides, suicides and mass casualties at the wrong end of a gun are a fact of life in this county.

Strike that. A fact of death.