Column: We can’t stop every drunk driver, but we should probably still try

You know, we didn’t have guns in the house growing up.

I’m not even talking about real firearms, I mean any guns. No super soakers. No NERF firepower whatsoever. My younger sister and I didn’t even see our first shooting video game until “Star Wars: Battlefront” somehow slipped through the cracks one Christmas.

Then at age 19 I shipped off to an LDS mission ranging from Memphis, Tennessee to the unglamorous expanse that is western Arkansas, where I learned about guns in a hurry.

The first lesson came from rural Arkansans, who each appeared to own some combination of a shotgun, handgun, hunting rifle and .22 by the time they reached junior high. Although used for both sport and defense as one would expect, firearms also symbolized a powerful link between a people and their roots. The relationship between these southerners and their proud rebellious streak was, in a vacuum, an inspiring one. It valued self-reliance and preparedness, as well as the ability to protect loved ones.

I say in a vacuum because in practice, the insistence that unabated access to firearms be a proud part of our culture led directly to a second, more sobering lesson — guns kill a lot of people.

Memphis at night is a warzone. A hub of major hospitals at the center of the city receive victims of violent crimes via ambulance and emergency chopper every hour of every night. Statistically, if you and eight of your best pals set up shop in midtown Memphis, one of you is getting assaulted, raped, robbed or shot. One out of nine. Do any parents out there see where I’m going with this yet?

That’s admittedly a lot of windup for a simple pitch: guns are capable of immense, efficient destruction, and there are currently not enough obstacles between firearms and those who would misuse them.

The Parkland shooting is simultaneously one of our nation’s greatest tragedies and just the latest in a string of terrible events. You know all the arguments, so I won’t parrot them here. Many of you have a favorite statistic that supports your stance and makes people who think differently look like jackasses, so I won’t repeat those either.

Talk is cheap.

As uncomfortable as it sounds, we’ll probably never fully eliminate human beings doing bad things. The best we can ever do is mitigate the damage as best we can in a way that balances personal freedom with common good. Seriously, go back and watch “Winter Soldier” again, Captain America was all over this crap four years ago.

Drunk drivers are going to keep murdering people — doesn’t mean we’re out there confiscating car keys from the average citizen. Instead, obstacles are in place to keep morons from hurting loved ones. There are measures in place like breathalyzers, DUI penalties and license revocations. Calm down pro-gun crowd, I know you hate the car analogy. Fact is, it’s not the same and it’s not enough, but it is something. Those measures spare lives every day.

To be clear, my sister and I didn’t live in harmony just because toy guns were banned from our household. On the contrary, we got really creative with the methods by which you could shoot a rubber band across a room. Too many pithy tweets this past week would have you believe without guns, hapless criminals will be reduced to butter knives and duct tape — I guess the Boston marathon bombing is already too distant in our collective memory.

But you know what? Better an inaccurate, short-range rubber band peeled off a newspaper than a NERF dart manufactured with the sole intent of finding its mark. Guns facilitate many intents, but ultimately have just one use — to shoot stuff. To do it as precisely as possible from as great a distance as possible in as little time as possible. That’s fine on the shooting range; it’s not fine when it’s aimed at a high school sophomore with a playoff basketball game on Tuesday.

So let’s handle it. I can’t tell you whether putting up stricter safeguards on acquiring firearms is a true compromise or the oft-feared “slippery slope” the NRA so publicly fears, but maybe — just maybe — we are long past the point where this compromise is worth the risk. Maybe gun rights should give way a bit so more kids can claim their right to live.

Maybe not having guns in the house is the key to growing up.

— Logan Jones is a senior majoring in English. Contact him with constructive feedback at logantjones@aggiemail.usu.edu