Well, what I'm saying is that every other highly developed country addresses the causes of violence much more effectively than Americans do. We don't have universal health care. We don't have quality education for all. We don't have affordable post-secondary education. We don't have expansive social safety nets. We have a lot of inequality. So on and so forth.

We are failing our people in a very big way by not having this, and we are causing a lot of violence and crime. I'll say this - mass shootings are a red herring. Of course I care for the individuals who lose their lives, but they make up a very small percentage of gun killing, of killing in general, and of violence in general. It's the least of our concerns when it comes to the health, safety, and well being of our people and I think that we need to address them first. It's just flashy and attracts our attention, distracting from the real issues.

I'm not saying we're special and that gun control can't work here. I'm saying that gun control is a very small part of a very big picture, and it's rather reductive and dangerous to spend so much time focusing on it.

You know what? I'd rather do nothing about 14,000 homicides and save the hundreds of thousands who die from preventable disease or substandard health care each year. Absolutely. But the fact is that working on the second helps solve the first, whereas working on the first does nothing for the second.

I think our national priorities are out of whack, basically. Can we implement some gun control measure? Yes, some make a lot of sense. Background checks and the lot. Will they specifically make a big difference in reducing the amount of violence or death in the country? No not at all. They don't in most countries.

In the OCED nations violence and gun ownership show no correlation. Might control measure help? Yes, maybe some. Should they be the priority? No I don't think so.