Perhaps there are solutions to gun violence

Here we go again. Mass school shootings began in earnest after the Oct. 1, 1997, shooting in Pearl, Miss. Luke Woodham, a 16-year-old killer, shot to death two students and injured seven others.
My family lived in Pearl for a few years and, had we not moved for my new job, my daughter, who was the same age as Woodham, would have been at that school.
In case we have forgotten or become numb to this, here are the mass shootings since at schools — only at schools. There have been many more. This doesn’t include the Charleston, S.C., shootings in a church in June, and it doesn’t include Lafayette, and it doesn’t include Fort Hood, and it doesn’t include school shootings that killed one or less. Terrifyingly, there were more than these 13.
In December 1997, a 14-year-old student shot to death three and wounded four more.
In March 1998, two boys 13 and 11, shot four to death and injured 10 others.
In April 1998, in Edinburg, Penn., a 14-year-old shot to death one and injured three.
In May 1998, in Springfield, Oregon, a 15-year-old shot to death four and injured 22.
In the most famous of the shootings, in April 1999, in Columbine, Colo., two teenage students shot to death 15.
A month later, in Conyers, Ga., a student injured six.
In May 2001 in Santee, Calif., a 15-year-old shot to death two and injured 13.
In March 2005, a 16-year-old shot to death nine and injured seven.
On Oct. 2, 2006, a 32-year-old man shot to death five girls and injuring six at an Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster, Pa.
On April 16, 2007, a student at Virginia Tech University killed 32 and wounded 24.
On Feb. 14, 2008, a man opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University, killing six and wounding 21.
On Feb. 27, 2012, a teenager killed three and wounded three at Chardon High School in Chardon, Ohio.
Then there is Sandy Hook elementary, where 27 were killed including 18 children on Dec. 14, 2012.
Then came Oct. 1, 2015, ironically or perhaps not, the anniversary of Luke Woodham’s trek through the halls of Pearl High School.
We’ve lost more than 100 students to shootings.
And we argue about whether to call them terrorists. We argue about our rights. We argue about getting more guns into the hands of the innocent and we argue about taking all the guns away.
All I know, one of the innocents who has no guns admittedly, is that we are a civilized nation that is acting uncivilized on this subject.
So, what do we do? What is the solution? I’ve given this a lot of thought, and here is what I would do.
I would take six congressmen or women of the right and six of the left, making sure they have no connection to any gun lobby or whatever the opposite of that lobby is, put them in a room and not let them come out until they have a compromise on gun laws. Heck, maybe even restrict their pay until they get the job done that should have been done about 99 student deaths ago. There must be a way to combat this. The gunman in Oregon had 13 weapons all bought legally. And, he had a history of mental problems.
By the way, the Columbine shooters got their weapons at gun shows without any regulation apparently.
We spent billions looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, perhaps several billion more on making ourselves safe from terrorism, can’t we understand that guns in the hands of crazies are weapons of mass destruction?
Second, I would put metal detectors at the gates of ever school, with armed guards at those gates and at least one policeman in every school. Yes, every school. We talk about “child left behind,” how about no child buried the rest of this year from a school shooting.
Third, I would make school counselors responsible in part for noticing and putting together lists of problem children. Surely there is a way to notice what’s coming ahead of time. Maybe our own privacy laws would deny the counselors, but darn if we can’t try.
I pray I never have to write about this again. I pray I must look for other topics. I pray that we, big boys and girls all, can come together and fix this problem. Again, you can’t legislate against crazy, but perhaps there are some solutions out there that could keep the guns out of the crazies’ hands.
Perhaps.
Billy Turner is a pastor of the United Methodist denomination and a retired journalist.