PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Removed from table
Last Action Date: May 1, 2024
More guns, less guns? Let's talk about public safety :: 08/06/2015
The last time I went to the movies was on July 28 at Regal Cinema Opry Mills. A colleague and I had tickets to see "Cast Party," a revue of podcasts performed on a New York stage and simulcast live into theaters across the nation.
We had seats near the entrance, and while I did my best to enjoy the film, I felt deeply concerned for my safety and that of the other moviegoers.
Just five days earlier a man began a shooting rampage in a Lafayette, La., movie theater during the showing of "Trainwreck" and killed two women, including Jillian Johnson, who grew up in Nashville and attended Belmont University.
On Wednesday Metro police say a 29-year-old man brought a gun and a hatchet to a showing of "Mad Max" at Carmike Hickory 8 in Antioch. Three people sustained minor injuries, and the suspect, Vincente Montano, was involved in a confrontation with police that left him dead.
We should be grateful that no moviegoer was killed and thankful to the Metro police officers who responded so quickly.
However, as the Lafayette shooting and the 2012 Aurora, Colo., massacre shows, there is really not much you can do if someone enters a movie theater or any public space with a gun and starts firing.
It’s frightening to think that we must be on constant alert in order to enjoy entertainment with our friends and families.
Yet the gun violence debate changes little, be it a movie theater shooting or tragedies like those in Chattanooga on July 16, at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C., on June 17 or Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012.
On the extremes, one side calls for taking away or severely restricting people's guns, as if that would stop criminals or deranged people from getting their hands on them. The other side calls for putting more guns into people's hands, as if stoking a firefight in a near-empty or crowded theater is the answer to keeping us safe.
The problem with a lot of the legislation that has passed in Tennessee — allowing people to take their guns into parks and other public places — is that they are predicated on fearmongering by the individuals and organizations that want us to believe that if we don't pass these laws, our constitutional rights are at stake.
I believe people's gun rights should be respected, but I don't think everyone should have a gun and guns don't have to be everywhere.
I acknowledge that even though felons and mentally ill people are among those who are not supposed to be able to have guns, these tragedies prove over and over that these individuals can find, get, buy or steal the weapons.
I also acknowledge that at the end of the day, it is not the gun that kills the victim, it's the person who pulled the trigger.
That is why we need to refocus our discussion on how all of us, including those who revere the Second Amendment and those who abhor guns, can come together to talk about the community's safety.
Let's stop the cycle of blame, fearmongering and knee-jerk-ism.
The next time I go to the movies — should I choose to go back — I would like to know that I can enjoy the movie without feeling I need to fear for my safety.
