Maybe we can learn something here. Maybe we can put aside our rigid view of freedom for a second, and learn something from a society we don't consider to be anywhere near "free".
China has some of the strictest gun access laws:
Gun ownership in the People's Republic of China is heavily regulated by law. Generally, private citizens are not allowed to possess guns. -Wikipedia
Of course, China still has crazy people, something no law can regulate (though societies that do better at mental health policy certainly could argue that point). Nonetheless, a crazy person with a knife can do far less damage in far less time than a crazy person with a gun:
Knife attack at Chinese school wounds 22 children
Beijing (CNN) -- Twenty-two primary school children were wounded in a knife attack Friday in central China, authorities said.
The attack took place at the entrance to the Chenpeng Village Primary School in Henan province, according to the public information department of Guangshan county, the area where the school is located. An adult was also wounded, it said.
...
Initial assessments suggest the man is mentally ill, Chinanews.com said, citing Guangshan authorities.
What this man did today was absolutely horrible, and I hope none of those children in critical condition pass away; this notwithstanding, all those innocent kids that survive will have to live with lifelong scars–figuratively, emotionally, and physically. So one crazy guy with a knife can do a lot of harm to a lot of helpless people (like small children). In this case, the lack of access to a gun did not prevent the person from committing a heinously harmful act of violence.
Let's agree.
But here in America, "Support for gun control in America has been steadily dropping. Currently, the American public strongly opposes attempts to ban gun ownership, and is divided on attempts to limit gun ownership." Such is the culture in which that same crazy man from China could channel his inner American to do this:
27 REPORTED KILLED IN CT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING
Authorities in Connecticut responded to a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Friday morning, the local NBC station reports.
Police reported 27 deaths, including 18 dead children and others wounded, according to the Associated Press.
What this man did today was absolutely horrible, and I hope all those children who died today have a heaven in which they are now playing and learning in a school that is safe for them; this notwithstanding, all those innocent kids and adults that survive will have to live with lifelong scars–figuratively, emotionally, and physically. So one crazy guy with a gun can do a lot of harm to a lot of people (like small children or grown adults, with or without guns). In this case, the easy access to a gun might not have prevented the person from committing a heinously harmful act of violence, but it certainly made it far easier to accomplish in far less time with far deadlier implications for far more people.
This crazy person walked into a school, shot his own mother, killed 18 schoolchildren in the classroom, found the school Principal and school psychologist, shot and killed them also, and then killed himself–all before authorities could even get to him to even try to subdue him (he was wearing bullet-proof attire).
Some people say today is a day for prayer, not politics.
To those, I say this: prayer does not prevent disasters (your mileage may vary, but the observable world doesn't seem to flinch), but good policy sometimes can. In a large and complex (and free) society like ours, this may necessarily involve an overlap among public health policy, public policy, defense policy, and larger questions on freedom, gun rights, and public safety.
But as long as we defer having that conversation–as long as we continue to think that talking about taking guns away is as ludicrous as talking about taking knives away; as long as we continue to weigh the rights of the individual against the rights of the many–I fear the crazy man in China will continue to do far more harm to humanity than the crazy man in America.