We, as a nation, have collectively lost our minds when it comes to guns.
Commentators suggest Americans are now trapped in a gun-buying death spiral, where mass shootings spark talk of lax gun control measures, prompting many to believe they need to go out and buy more guns. Then there’s another mass shooting, and on it goes.How many guns do we need? Well, that's getting harder and harder to figure, since the fear is getting larger every day. With guns, as with money, it's hard to know how much is enough. Brent Nicholson's hoard in South Carolina is confounding police.
“This has completely changed our definition of an ass-load of guns,” said Chesterfield County Sheriff Jay Brooks. Six weeks after the discovery, officers are still cataloging the weapons, many of which have proved stolen, and the final tally is expected to be close to 5,000. “I don’t know if there’s ever been (a seizure) this big anywhere before,” Brooks says.Gun violence is persistent, pernicious, and pervasive, with over 355 mass shootings this year alone, more than one a day. The conservative right, speaking on behalf of the NRA, wants us to believe that the answer to this insane situation is to make guns easier to buy. Last month we used guns frequently, but not necessarily wisely.