Newtown

Most  people would not wish for a child to die either by a gun shot or in any other fashion. In reality, more children die in automobile accidents (1,210) than are killed by hand guns (408). Yet there is no serious discussion about outlawing the car. Many of those accidents are alcohol related but there is no hue and cry to outlaw drinking. The NHTSA estimated that in 2011 there were 218 children killed in non-traffic accidents with a car.  The NHTSA estimates that 6 children a day are killed in traffic accidents every year. Of the 1,210 children under the age of 14 dying in traffic accidents the CDC estimates that 211 are killed by drunk drivers. More startling than those figures are the abortion numbers. According to the Guttmacher Institute, there were 50 million legal abortions from 1973 to 2008. That equals an absolutely staggering 3,913 children aborted every day of every year for the last 35 years.

The voices calling for this society to change its misaligned values and deal with the deaths of so many innocent children are largely ignored by the press. the politicians and purposely obfuscated by special interests.  The general public is unbelievably silent and the public media doesn't hastily schedule the special episodes of their news programs or assign any of their talking heads to attend any of the funeral services, that will never be held, in honor of all of those young lives prematurely snuffed out.

There appears to be no real dialog taking place. Just multiple armed camps yelling and screaming at each other. No real solutions discussed because each side is dug in and willing to allow more children to die rather than accept the fact that our society has become so callus and uncaring.  There appears to be no real solution  to the very real problem of infanticide.

It may not be readily apparent that our behaviors are based on miss-perceptions, unrealistic expectations, and innate biases and prejudices.  It is little recognized that our positions are grounded in historic precedence or motivated by narrow minded selfish pursuits.

The issue is that most laws are written to address groups or trends which are broad brush in nature and as a consequence anyone can feel justified in disobeying the law because it doesn't really apply to them. Because laws require enforcement, usually by an understaffed agency, the idea that if no one catches me, breaking the law then I am not guilty of its infraction? Situational ethics seems to be replacing the concept of right and wrong.

I wonder what the answer is?  Should weapons be outlawed so that only outlaws will have weapons? Should no one be allowed to drink if it only succeeds in truing many of our citizen's into outlaws? Should we pattern the laws after the tax code? Should no one be allowed to fornicate?