I read David Brooks' commentary "Focus on the killing chain," March 27, in which he describes this chain and the links on it that lead to homicide. He concedes one of those links is gun acquisition, which he acknowledges we, as a society, haven't really touched.
But then he goes into a bizarre factoid distraction filled with studies and statistics that give the impression that we should pat ourselves on the back and move on.
He particularly likes the police accountability link, citing cities like New York and Boston where gun crime only occurs in some neighborhoods.
But, sadly, fixing the link of police accountability wouldn't work for Newtown, Conn. This community already had a low rate of gun violence, and I'm sure their police feel pretty accountable. To understand the facts in this killing you would have to look at other links in the chain. Links like mental illness, background checks and unimpeded access to weapons that can mow down 20 children and six adults in less time than it takes to say the Pledge of Allegiance.
No, Mr. Brooks bypasses these links in the chain. They aren't convenient to his argument. By his reasoning, the problem is too big and he's right. But we, as a society, must break the first link in his chain, the one that tethers us to a post of inaction. Saying that the problem is too big, as Mr. Brooks would have us believe, is not an acceptable reason to not try.
Mark Gallagher Slingerlands