Take Responsibility

In the wake of yet another tragic shooting, I thought it might be worthwhile to look at the cause or causes of these events. First, I decided to look up a word that we should all be familiar with in the New Oxford American Dictionary:

Responsibility | noun

the state or fact of having a duty to deal with something or of having control over someone: women bear children and take responsibility for child care.

• the state or fact of being accountable or to blame for something: the group has claimed responsibility for a string of murders.

• the opportunity or ability to act independently and make decisions without authorization: we would expect individuals lower down the organization to take on more responsibility.

• (often responsibilities) a thing that one is required to do as part of a job, role, or legal obligation: he will take over the responsibilities of overseas director.

• [in sing. ] (responsibility to/toward) a moral obligation to behave correctly toward or in respect of: individuals have a responsibility to control personal behavior.

Can a weapon – gun, knife, club, baseball bat, etc. – be responsible for these killings? Can even the availability of a weapon be responsible? Again, look at the definition of responsibility. Nope. The burden of responsibility rests squarely on the shoulders of the individual.

A compilation of data by information Please® Database, © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. from the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports for the United States, 1997, 2007 and 2008; Crime in the United States 2011, 2012 shows there were 12,765 murders in 2012. Of this total, 8,855 or 69.4 percent were committed by someone using a gun. But wait! That’s not all: 1,589 used a knife or sharp object; 518 used a club or blunt object; 767 killed by strangulation, hands, fists, feet, or pushing; 85 burned the victim in an arson; leaving 951 that were killed by poison, explosives, unknown, drowning, asphyxiation, narcotics, other means, and weapons not stated.

Wow! What a list of ways to kill! I am sure someone will be eager to point out that the majority used a gun. But was it the gun’s fault? If no guns had been available, would these 12,765 murders have not been committed? Not likely, since the killers in 3,910 of these instances used a different weapon.

No, it all comes down to responsibility. And that rests solely with the killer. Take the recent tragedy at the Aurora, Colorado Movie Theater. James Holmes walked into the theater and shot into the seated crowd, killing 12 people and wounding 70. At his trial, he claimed to be not guilty due to reasons of insanity. In other words, he was not responsible; his mental state was the cause. The judge didn’t buy it, and neither did 12 of his peers in the jury. Holmes now has 12 life terms plus 3,318 years to contemplate the definition of responsibility.

The other day a disgruntled former news reporter shot and killed two former colleagues and wounded a woman they were interviewing while on air. Immediately, the father of one of the victims – the cameraman – vowed to fight for stricter gun control. Well, there you go; it was the gun’s fault, not the gunman. The same call made after every tragedy of this type.

If I drive my car into a tree and total it, it would be pretty hard to blame the car, unless it was defective. I seriously doubt the insurance company would buy that story. Yet, no one has reported a defect in any of the weapons used that could have caused the killings. Oddly, the responsibility is almost always deflected from the shooter to guns or the supposed availability of guns.

Okay, back to my wrecked car scenario. Cars are much easier to own than any gun. If I had to go through more hoops to own one, would that make me a better, more responsible driver? Well, I wouldn’t intentionally drive a car into a tree, but then again, I wouldn’t intentionally shoot up a theater either. I take responsibility for my actions, and others should too.

Unfortunately, the trends of society toward more control these days seem to be contributing to the lack of personal responsibility. It is far too easy to claim that the government should control conditions that cause tragic events, and push the responsibility off on the government.

Regardless of the shooter’s state of mind, sanity, or weapon availability, it is always his or her responsibility. No amount of legislation will ever or can ever relieve the killer of responsibility for his or her actions.