Why does someone need Call of Duty?

I was listening to some coverage of the mass shooting in Texas (Lord have mercy), and I was thinking of all the predictable things that will be said. Such as “Why does someone need an assault rifle?”

Okay. It’s a fair question. It’s not as stupid as asking something like “Why does someone need a blue pen, when a black one will do just fine?” because blue pens don’t cause anyone any harm. The ugly truth is that so-called “assault rifles” are associated with very bad things, so it’s legit to ask if people should be allowed to have them.

But the equation is not as simple as “bad guy with an assault rifle can do horrible things. If you take away the assault rifle, he can’t do horrible things.” Bad guys can find other ways to do bad things. A couple of hand guns would have been just as effective. Or other long guns that are just as deadly as an AR-15, but don’t look as military-ish.

Also, there are tons of so-called “assault rifles” in the country, and the vast majority of them are not used to do horrible things. So we need to dig a little deeper.

What are the common threads among mass shooters?

What if we find out that all of them play Call of Duty? Should we outlaw Call of Duty?

What if we find out that all of them didn’t grow up with a father in the home? Should we have surveillance on every kid who grew up without a father?

What if someone, somewhere, thought they should be in a mental hospital? Should we allow anyone with suspicion to put someone else in a mental hospital?

No is the obvious answer to all these questions, but they follow the same basic logic as “get rid of all assault weapons” — which is, we should take away the rights of everyone in a certain class, or group, to prevent the horrible crimes of a few people in that group.

It’s somewhat like “some people get drunk in the park, therefore no one can have any alcohol in the park.”

I disagree with those sorts of laws. If you don’t want drunkenness, arrest drunks. Don’t tell me I can’t have a beer with my lunch.

Is it possible we should adjust the rules on who should be able to buy what weapons? Of course. There is an almost zero probability that we have that perfectly right.

But there is also an almost zero probability that tweaking the gun laws is going to prevent this sort of problem.

The problem of mass shooters is much deeper and more troublesome than simply limiting the size of magazines, or outlawing guns because they look scary. It has much more to do with our messed up policies about dealing with mental health. We have gone too far in the direction of protecting individual liberties, and it’s very difficult to get troubled people the care they need.

But I would recommend that when someone asks, “Who needs an assault rifle?” you try responding with “Who needs to play ‘Call of Duty’?” and see what happens.