There can be no denying that our country has serious problems with gun violence. The number of shootings continue to rise in many cities; even our law enforcement personnel are being shot in record numbers. It seems that whenever solving this problem is discussed, gun control is the preferred solution. Will gun control actually solve the problem, or are we just talking about more problem management? We can make the legal route for obtaining guns as difficult as we want and it might reduce the gun violence, but it's not going to solve the problem. Those who illegally obtain and distribute guns would probably benefit by more restriction. Gun control could certainly reduce the supply, but this wouldn't change the demand. With lower supply and still high demand, the profits for illegal gun trafficking would skyrocket. If just lowering statistics is the objective, then gun control is the best solution. But, if we want to actually get serious about ending gun violence then we need to look a little deeper.

We've all heard the saying, "guns don't kill people, people kill people". Like it or not, it is true, but it doesn't go deep enough. It's not just that people kill people, it's mainly that certain types of people are doing it. There are angry people, desperate people, lonely people, and people with little or no opportunity. We have created a society full of emotional pain and a growing sense of hopelessness. Add guns to this and you get what we see today. We don't see people who are generally happy that have hope and opportunity going around and shooting people. To solve the problem of gun violence there are only two possible solutions. One is unthinkable, a total ban on guns. If we are to think about this possibility then we might just as well consider ending our democracy. The best solution is to create a society with abundant hope and opportunity. Maybe if we eliminate the things that are driving people to violence with guns, we will have a society with little or no gun violence.