I’m embarrassed and ashamed of myself for being so late to the issue of guns. You all have seen—and maybe read—400+ posts over almost 20 months, and I don’t think I’ve devoted 700 words to guns. Guns, from April 9, 2014, is my only piece which focuses on the subject. I also discussed the issue in Writer’s Block? Explained. from back in May of this year, but my reasons for not dealing with the issue seem lame to say the least.

That changes now! The topic deserves attention, and I’m done feeling cowed by those people who think the problem we have is a shortage of guns and too many restrictions. (By the way, being cowed is a feeling I own, 100%. Every discussion I’ve had with someone who disagrees with me has been respectful on both sides. Maddening, but respectful.) Y’all may mean well, but you’re wrong, plain and simple. Nowhere else in the developed world are guns so accessible, and nowhere else in the developed world do so many people die because bullets enter their bodies! Correlation does not imply causation, the statisticians tell us, but decades of more guns and more gun deaths, without any other explanation, has me convinced.

A friend in the judging business has always told, as a white, upper-class individual, that if I end up as a crime victim it’ll most likely be at hand of a drunk driver. Not many drive-by shooting in my neighborhood, and I don’t spend time at many bars, late at night, when bars fights turn into manslaughter cases because some fools have guns. Maybe, but the number of mass shootings tells me driving may not be my big problem. Instead, I need to stay away colleges and universities, high schools, grammar schools, businesses, churches, JCCs, grocery stores, and pretty much any other place where some poor soul with a chip on his shoulder and a gun in his hand can take us all down with him.

Guns will never be my only topic at Mark Rubin Writes. But I’m not shying away any longer. I’m one voice, for sure, and lots of organizations work hard to change laws and practices. That said, sane people are losing this battle, day by day and week by week. Lobbying and advertising are not doing the trick. Suggestions welcomed.