Another day, another mass shooting in America. That’s because here in America, it’s always “human hunting season”.

As of three days ago, we were on a record-setting pace where mass shootings are concerned. There were “131 with four or more people wounded or killed so far in 2023 compared to 113 this time last year. The United States has faced at least 190 mass shootings so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. There have been more mass shootings than days in 2023.” After the mass shooting in Allen, TX yesterday, we’ve reached 132 mass shootings this year. The good news, Texas governor Greg Abbott’s heart is with the people of Allen. Alas, his head isn’t. Like every other servant of the gun lobby’s greed, Greg Abbott actually approves of every single gun death. If he didn’t, he would do something – because he absolutely can. But, like so many gun lovers in America, Abbott wants one group of Americans to have absolute life-and-death power over the rest.

Similarly, Congress isn’t “unable” to deal with America’s spiraling gun crisis, Congress is uninterested. They like the result they’re already getting! They don’t see our gun crisis as a crisis, they see it as a bloody success. Literally.

How can it be that the majority of Americans want more gun control laws but can’t get them? It all starts with racism. One group of Americans fears the rest of us. They’ve invented the bullshit talking point of “home security”. Is America really more dangerous than anywhere else? Well, yeah – but not because Americans love breaking into each other’s houses. America is more dangerous because there are more guns in American homes and hands. Bringing a gun into a house never makes it more safe. That’s the insurance industry talking. Hell, the majority of gun deaths in America are suicides!

The thing is, it’s not about home security. How can it be if so many gun lovers feel compelled to take their firearms with them when they go to the Piggly-Wiggly to buy groceries?

If you walk around with a gun – while fearing the rest of us – it won’t take much to literally trigger a tragedy. Like this and this. Even so, the gun lobby won’t budge! They’re not being intransigent. They’re happy with how things are! They like that the rest of us fear them; they like knowing they could kill us if they wanted to. Like hunters stalking prey.

Our entire gun debate is dishonest. The word “gun” invites dishonesty. It’s so benign. And it doesn’t start to describe what guns actually are: death machines. From the day they were first invented, every gun was designed from the ground up to do one thing: kill living beings. If you fire a metal projectile at something alive, there’s always a chance that projectile will kill it. “Shooting to wound” is a nicety because death is always a possibility. By design.

Using firearms strictly for target practice and shooting competitions is nice. But they weren’t designed to do that. And they weren’t designed to sit in gun lockers either.

Responsible gun owners have their hearts in the right place, but they’re no different from Greg Abbott. Their heads are in the wrong place. There’s no such thing as “responsible gun ownership”. Sorry, let me rephrase that: there’s no such thing as “responsible death machine ownership”.

Seriously, how can anyone claim to own a death machine responsibly? And why does anyone really need one? Those feelings of “being responsible” are a self-delusion.

The insurance numbers back me up. So does history. Remember Nancy Lanza – Sandy Hook Elementary shooter Adam Lanza’s mom? She owned lots of guns and considered herself a “responsible gun owner”. And, I suppose, she was – until she wasn’t. She didn’t anticipate her son murdering her with one of her own legally purchased guns – but, he did. And she didn’t expect Adam to then go and open fire on school children and teachers.

But, he did.

That’s the problem with “responsible gun ownership”. No one can guarantee they’ll never have an accident with their death machine. What “responsible gun owners” really mean is “they’ve been lucky so far”.

Because “responsible gun owners” exist – and insist they’re responsible – we, as a country, continue to pretend that we can co-exist with death machines. We can’t. The proof takes more American lives every day.

The NRA went from being a gun safety organization to being a front for death merchants. They are happier than anyone that AR15 gun sales soar every time someone goes hunting humans. The buyers aren’t looking to protect themselves – no one’s invading their houses. The buyers intend to take their military grade death machines out into public – where they can dispense death at will.

Or simply enjoy the hunt.

If America wants to end its gun crisis, it will, first, stop looking at guns as ordinary and start looking at them for what they are: death by design. Why does anyone need the power of life-and-death over others in their hands?

They don’t.