Many young die violently every day

By The Gazette Editorial Board

----

Two weeks ago this morning, 20-year-old Adam Lanza gunned down his mother and then 20 youngsters and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School before killing himself. It was the most horrific of our nation's recent run of massacres by a lone shooter. And the debate about what to do to stop it from happening again has, of course, raged.

The reality of our world is that no new law or program or policy can guarantee prevention of another such incident.

That doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't try to do better. Limiting or banning access to certain types of weapons and ammunition that allow a shooter to quickly fire off dozens of rounds might help - if it could be applied effectively and minus the loopholes of the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.

Certainly, our resources for mental health care services are woefully inadequate in many areas. Schools can continue looking for ways to beef up security. And because research shows that repeated exposure to violent video games and other entertainment media can desensitize people, especially during their formative years, we could at least demand better warning labels on such materials.

Yet even if all those things happened, with enough resources to back them up, detecting and deterring every deeply troubled or insane person from committing a horrific act of violence simply isn't possible.

Meanwhile, are we overlooking broader problems of violence and youth? Take Chicago. More than 5,000 people have been killed by gunfire in that city since 2001 - more than twice the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan. The total this year may top 500.

Most violent crime in Chicago occurs in black neighborhoods where a majority of homicide victims and offenders are young black boys and men, most involved with or targets of gangs - and that's largely been the case for two decades. Tougher gun control laws haven't helped.

While gun murders have dropped in many large American cities this past decade, life in most of those places remains more dangerous, especially for young black Americans, than serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, as black columnist Walter Williams has pointed out.

As horrible as the Sandy Hook incident was, our nation's bigger challenge is how to address the systemic causes of the violence that claims so many young lives every single day.

Comments: editorial@sourcemedia.net or (319) 398-8262