Oh, Kentucky

You know how people complain that other people just say they have "thoughts and prayers" around stuff like these mass shootings and never actually commit themselves to action that they might've been led into through their thoughts and prayers? I"m guilty of that.

The school shooting in Kentucky was the 11th at a U.S. school this year, and roughly the 50th of the academic year https://t.co/PFnif4mavG

— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 24, 2018

 

Here are adapted and new questions that I have after yesterday's murders at Marshall County High:

Why did the boy do the shooting?

How did the boy get the gun?

What could've helped the shooting not happen?

What gun-control measures specifically could've helped it not happen? What would be the problems with such restrictions? What’s the argument against gun control generally?

What would the folks who are against gun control generally have done to prevent yesterday's shooting?

What is the NRA? What is the lobbying landscape with regard to gun rights, and who are its major players on either side? Why do lobbyists matter? What are the associations among lobbyists and particular politicians?

What does the Second Amendment say? Why does it say that? Why does that matter today?

What is the rest of the existing federal/Kentucky/Marshall County regulatory framework around guns?

What does it mean when people say that we don't enforce the gun laws we have on the books now?

Could we agree to raise taxes enough to pay for at least the same security protections--the metal-detecting booths that we walk through, the X-ray machines for our bags, the guards who pat us down, etc.--at our public schools that we have at our airports? Or would the companies that manufacture and sell guns (please) pay for these measures given that they seem to be the ones who profit from all of this misery?