Shooting sparks another round of debate about gun control

Here we go again. Whether it is a suspect who shoots a congresswoman or a suspect who fires his gun into a crowded theater, the perennial question about guns in our society is rejoined and it will likely come to the same sorry end.

With a presidential election in full swing and a congress held by the Republican party, don’t expect anything approximating a civil discussion on meaningful gun control.

The shooter was armed to the teeth with an AR-15 assault rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and a Glock .40-caliber handgunwith an additional Glock .40-caliber pistol in his vehicle. He was fully loaded with 6,000 rounds of ammunition. Sadly, one can anticipate the response among the leadership of the NRA: give everyone a gun and pass stand your ground laws. And we all know how well that has worked out.

The problem isn’t necessarily with the Second Amendment itself. The problem is how we have come to let a single side to dominate the discussion on how to interpret and enforce the amendment. And that one side seems incapable of conceding that things have gotten out of hand.

The question isn’t how many more have to die before we get meaningful gun control legislation. The question is when are we as a nation going to take back the discussion from a powerful and vocal lobby that has successfully captured the issue and set the terms of the debate to the zero setting.