Four Books You Need to Read About School Shootings
I saw a bumper sticker the other day that made me pull my car into a McDonald’s parking lot and start a debate. I was alone in the car, but it didn’t matter. Passers-by saw me lecturing no one, dangerously animated, karate-chopping the air for emphasis. Didn’t matter. I was ten minutes late for my appointment. Didn’t matter.
The sticker said, “If guns kill people, then I guess pencils miss spell words, cars drive drunk, and spoons make people fat.”
Leaving aside the “miss spell” solecism, which couldn’t have been intentional because there were no similar puns in the cars and spoons examples, this statement is nonsense.
Can you stop misspellings by removing all pencils? No.
Can you stop traffic accidents by removing alcohol? No.
Can you cure obesity by confiscating spoons? No.
Can you end all gun-related deaths by taking away guns? Yes. 100 percent.
I am not, however, advocating for guns to be taken away. There are benefits to guns. No, what made me rage-debate that bumper sticker was its loose logic, its sloppy facts, its off-the-mark assumptions. These same qualities plague much of the discussion around school shooters.
