Lethal Passage

I'm 50 pages into a book called Lethal Passage, by Erik Larson. It concerns a school shooting in 1988 and the central conceit (non-fiction) is that Larson traces the production, marketing, sale, and history of the gun used by a black teenager to kill one of his teachers at a Christian school in Virginia.

The book was first published in 1994, I think, and a large part of the early going concerns the ease of obtaining a firearm in the United States. As I read the book, I think I'll check to see how much of what struck Larson in 1994 is still true.

#1, in order to go to gun shows and get access to insider gun literature and discourse, Larson obtained a federal firearms license. He was a bit rattled by how easy it was to get the license, and to keep it despite not actually buying or selling any guns.

Turns out, getting and keeping the license is ridculously simple still. Stupid easy.

Also, Larson notes that the Consumer Products Safety Commission does not and never has kept statistics on gun injuries and fatalities--odd, since guns are the only consumer product not so monitored and are (obviously) the only consumer product intended specifically to cause injury and death. And today? Oops. And double oops. Good thing gun makers are so responsible and don't, like, sell guns that go off when dropped and stuff like that.

After not-too-careful thought, I can't think of a reason to own a gun, except, like SUV's, if everyone else has one and you can't trust people to be responsible (and you can't), then one almost has to get one, too, just to protect against the possibility of other people's recklessness. That makes no sense, but there it is.