America's cowboy culture takes a horrific toll

Within three days last week, two 4-year-old boys were shot and killed in two separate incidents, one in the Bronx and one in Virginia. Lloyd Morgan was killed by crossfire among suspected gang members at a housing complex in the Bronx. The occasion was a memorial ceremony in honor of a young girl who was stabbed to death two years ago while sitting on her front step.

According to the New York Times account, Lloyd was playing with some other little boys when he was shot. His mother said, “My son was four years old. He hasn’t gotten to live his life yet.”

In the Virginia tragedy, a young boy climbed into an unoccupied pickup truck outside his house, as boys will do. In this case, he apparently found a gun and accidentally shot himself. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Guns in America are as ubiquitous as flags, and often associated with similar patriotic ideals — freedom, pride and independence. We have a right to bear arms. It says so in the Second Amendment. Some people feel a need to protect themselves. Others enjoy hunting. Many just use guns for recreation at ranges and in other controlled circumstances. I may not feel a need to own a gun myself, but I’m OK with the Second Amendment.

Of course, what isn’t OK is the shocking proliferation of guns, especially semi-automatic weapons, on our streets and the increasingly violent nature of our culture, from movies to TV to video games to kids’ cartoons.

Maybe you heard. Two weeks ago, a young man walked into an Aurora, Colo., movie house, guns blazing, and shot 12 people to death. He wounded 58 others, folks who went to a midnight showing of the new Batman movie. The shooter may or may not be crazy, depending on his lawyer. But the guy was able to legally purchase a handgun, a 12-gauge shotgun and a semi-automatic rifle. He bought more than 6,300 rounds of ammunition online. Online! According to an account in the Times, the semi-automatic and weapons like it were tightly restricted under a 1994 law known as the Assault Weapons Ban. That law expired in 2004. For eight years, no president has been willing to fight to reinstate the ban.