How do we treat the root of the gun violence problem?

By John Gierach Redstone Review

LYONS – I recently spent four days fishing the Frying Pan River on Colorado’s west slope with some friends. This is an annual trip and although we’ve never officially declared it to be media-free, that’s how it works out. By unspoken mutual consent, we don’t watch the news in our motel rooms or check the headlines on our phones or even glance at a newspaper when we’re filling our thermoses with coffee at the 7-11 each morning. And if anyone does weaken in a private moment, they keep what they learn to themselves. As responsible adult taxpaying voters, we feel we deserve a few days off now and then to worry about nothing but whether or not the trout are happy.

But back home all bets are off and the first story I was greeted with was the mass shooting at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas that left eight dead and seven injured. I know I’m supposed to say I was shocked, appalled and infuriated, but the fact is I wasn’t even surprised. We’d gone fishing for four days in a country that lately averages at least one mass shooting per day, so frankly I expected more. And maybe there were more. There are so many of these shootings now that there seems to be a minimum threshold of mayhem that has to be passed before the press will cover them. Otherwise they just fade into the daily background noise of intentional and accidental gun violence in America and in the interest of self-preservation, many of us have developed compassion fatigue for the simple reason that if you let your heart break every day, you’ll go insane.

Meanwhile, according to ABC News, 13,900 lives have been lost to gun violence in America so far this year. That’s over 90 people a day for 150 days straight with no end in sight.

I couldn’t bring myself to watch much of the coverage because, like the rest of us, I’d heard it all so many times before that I could have recited the lines along with the grim journalists, paid legal and law enforcement consultants, activists and politicians.

So yes, it was devastating to the entire community, and yes, chances are the guns used were purchased legally, and yes, as usual the shooter was either certifiably nuts, a racist, a radicalized insurrectionist or a little of each, and yes, this can’t go on; something must be done, even though nothing ever gets done.

The politics of it does come to seem like a nightmarish perpetual motion machine whereby whatever one side manages to accomplish the other side undoes, so we endlessly spin our wheels while nothing changes. You might even wonder if politicians would rather have the fight than the solution because it’s the fight that raises campaign funds and keeps them in office with all the power and the perks. That’s why liberals sponsor gun safety legislation that they know will never pass and in some cases will never even come to a vote, while right-wingers say that gun violence is a mental health problem while they continue to loosen gun laws and cut funds for mental health.

I’m one of what polls suggest is a majority of gun owners who’d like to see a few basic gun safety measures taken as a way to get started on a cultural problem that will take generations to solve, but banning the pri- vate ownership of military grade weapons seems like a reasonable first step. Maybe you remember that in the mid-1990s we had a ban on the sale of assault rifles and nothing much happened except that gun manufacturers made a little less money and murder rates declined significantly. But it was a tenyear ban that expired in 2004 and wasn’t re- newed, even though it had been proven effective. What happened? Money, politics and right-wing hysteria, even though no less a conservative icon than Ronald Reagan said, “You don’t go deer hunting with a machine gun.” on May 30. Join to discuss chapters 17 to 35 on June 13. Registration is limited and required; call or email the library to reserve a copy of the book.

In fact, by Reagan’s time, machine guns – that is, fully automatic rifles like Thompson sub-machine guns or “Tommy Guns” – had long since been made illegal by the 1934 National Firearms Act. That was a reaction to the mob violence of the time – Al Capone, Frank Nitty etc. – and the bill was endorsed by none other than the National Rifle Association. That would be the old NRA, which used to be an organization of reasonable gun owners who didn’t want to see their fellow citizens mowed down by gangsters.

Those who say no gun safety measures will make any more than a small dent in the problem are, of course, correct. Will background checks and waiting periods keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them? In a country that currently has more than one working firearm for every man, woman and child, not to mention plenty of ammunition, it’s usually easy enough to borrow, steal or buy one illegally.

For that matter, will banning 30-round clips make a real difference or will people just get three legal 10-round clips? Over 600,000 people died in the American Civil War at a time when the vast majority of firearms were muzzleloaders that would fire once and take five minutes to reload. Farther back in history we used swords and spears and before that rocks, but we’re an endlessly inventive species and we always seem to get the job done.

In the long run, the ultimate solution is to somehow transcend the hatred, prejudice and paranoia that makes us want to shoot each other in the first place, but universal enlightenment may take longer than we’d like. In the meantime, we can at least try to treat the symptoms while the disease continues to run its course.

By Kara Bauman Redstone Review

LYONS – Mark your calendars for the first installment of Pints and Pages, a book club co-sponsored by the Rock Garden at A-Lodge and your Lyons Community Library, and facilitated by your Library Director. The first meet up will take place on Sunday, May 21 at 5:30 p.m. at the Rock Garden and the title up for discussion is The Leavers by Lisa Ko. Enjoy great book-ish conversation and BOGO drink specials each third Sunday of the month from May through October.

Join us in welcoming local author Junior Burke on May 23 at 7 p.m. Burke will read from his latest novel, Buddha

Was a Cowboy, shortlisted for the Mark Twain 2022 Book Awards for Humor and Satire. He will follow the reading with an audience Q&A. Burke’s The Cold Swim (2020) was one of five finalists for a Sidewise Award, the annual prize for novels of Alternate History. His short fiction was included in the anthologies Litscapes: Collected U.S. Writings 2015 and Collectibles (2021). Lyons locals just might recognize themselves or their neighbors in his novel A Thousand Eyes (2018), a tall tale about a small mountain town nearly wiped away by a monumental flood. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with one of our local talents.

Keep the book chatter going on May 25 when the Busy Readers’ Book Club discusses Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister. Join for tea and cookies in the library’s community room at 11 a.m. Limited copies of the book are available at the information desk. Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author, describes Wrong Place, Wrong Time as “a brilliantly genre-bending, mindtwisting answer to the question: ‘How far would you go to save your child?’”

Tweens entering grades 3 through 8 are welcome to their own twicemonthly book club to discuss and participate in fun enrichment activities. First up is chapters 1 to 16 of The Girl Who Speaks Bear by Sophie Anderson, from 3:15 to 4 p.m.

Area teens entering grades 6 through 12 are invited to attend an end-of-the-school-year celebratory movie night on May 26 from 6 to 8 p.m. Teens will watch a G-rated film, eat pizza and desserts, and generally relax with their friends at this summer kickoff.

We all know Lyons is an artistic community, and as such the library is pleased to host an Open Studio workspace. Open Studio is a space where adult artists of all abilities and interests are invited to create, share, and connect through art. Once a month, beginning June 19, we will provide a dedicated space for local artists and crafters to come together to create. Artists are invited to bring works-in-progress, such as knitting, crocheting, drawing, sketching, embroidery, painting, and other portable projects. The library will provide limited supplies such as paper and paint, but we encourage artists to bring their own projects to work on while engaging with and growing their community.

Summer Reading Program

School is almost out and that means the library is preparing for its annual Summer Reading Program. We’re looking forward to celebrating our vibrant community through this year’s theme, All Together Now. With events for kiddos of all ages as well as fun reading activities, the library aims to help children develop positive attitudes about books and reading, and to enable them to

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