2 Non-Starters in The Gun Debate for Both Sides

Every time there is a mass shooting in America each side hunkers down with the same arguments/ideas and nothing ever gets done.

This might have something to do with what we are debating, each side has one particular argument or idea that drive me crazy because they are both so ridiculous that they'll never happen.

Gun Control Side - "Ban Guns" or "Get Rid of Guns"

Some estimates say that there are over 300 million guns in the country, that's enough for every man, woman, and child that lives in America. That is a lot of guns to get rid of, and it will never happen. You'll never be able to round up all the guns and even if you did ban all guns, there are so many guns already out there that it would be impossible to get rid of all the guns.

The better way to go is suggesting specific gun bans, like assault rifles, we've had that before in America and we can debate if that worked or not, and if it would work in the future, but saying we need to ban all guns is a non-starter. As soon as I see that argument I tune out because I know it is impractical.

Pro-Gun - "Arm Teachers"

I often hear the argument, "the only way to stop a person with a gun, is another person with a gun." While this statement might be true, there are very few instances of this actually happening in the real world. Do we really need more guns in schools? Probably not.

How about we arm teachers with the knowledge and power to help them identify and possibly stop one of the kids BEFORE they come to school armed with the intent to harm others.

I also see the argument that every school should hire an armed veteran to protect students, while this idea is better than arming teachers, how do we pay for something like this? Some schools don't even have basic supplies to teach kids, how are we going to afford the pay and background checks required to implement something like this? And to me, it's just putting a band-aid on a much bigger problem.

I fear that the genie is out of the bottle and it might be impossible to put it back in unless we take a look at the bigger picture. There is a lot that goes into this debate, guns, society, mental health, glorifying of violence in entertainment, just to name a few. So ditch the non-starter ideas and ground your argument in reality, not fantasy.