Enough

 Who is exactly responsible? 

Well, to hear the NRA lore tell it, guns don't kill people. People kill people. Although I feel the need to point out that giving people guns has made that task much, much easier. 

Which is probably why so many of these stories include a section describing how the killer of people managed to get hold of said gun. Or guns. Because having access to more firepower than many small countries is a right we stuck in our Constitution right after the right to complain about it. Furthermore, it is the potential for putting an end to someone's life, liberty and their pursuit of happiness that someone got it into their heads to sue the merchants of death. Pardon me, gunmakers. 

This past week, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that gun manufacturers and distributors cannot be held legally responsible under state law for deaths caused in a 2017 massacre in Las Vegas. Sixty people were killed then. By another person who just happened to have a hotel room full of guns and ammunition to help him out. Though the court said the companies were immune from the wrongful death and negligence civil claims brought by the parents of Carrie Parsons, on of the victims, Justice Kristina Pickering wrote: "We in no way underestimate the profound public policy issues presented or the horrific tragedy the Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting inflicted. We urge the legislature to act if it did not mean to provide immunity in situations like this one." 

If you sensed a buck being passed there, you're pretty savvy. "We don't make the laws, we just interpret them. Go make some different laws so we can give the people what they want." The trouble is, there are still a lot of people who are completely comfortable having all those guns in our country. Last time someone did a count, there were more guns than people in this great land of ours. I don't own one, so that means that someone else has two. Or three. Or a hotel room full of them. 

Which brings us to the Crumbleys of Oxford Township in Michigan. James and Jennifer are the parents of a person who used a gun to kill people. The gun was purchased by James and Jennifer as a Christmas gift for their son. On Black Friday. That same gun was most likely being carried by their son as the family sat down in the principal's office for a discussion of the drawing young Crumbley had made depicting a handgun, a bullet, and a bleeding figure, with the words "Blood everywhere" and "The thoughts won't stop - help me." 

After this meeting, mom and dad headed home. Young Crumbley went back to class and shortly thereafter killed four of his classmates and wounded several others. And shortly after that, mom and dad went into hiding. When they were found, they were charged with involuntary manslaughter, because children under eighteen are not allowed by law to have one. Unless they are hunting with a license. At the meeting, no one bothered to mention the gun that had been purchased. Because that would have spoiled the surprise. 

The surprise came later. When their son killed other people. With a gun. 

Had enough?