The Unsolvable Puzzle of Gun Control
“Australia experienced a massacre and changed their laws. New Zealand had its experience and changed its laws. To be honest with you, I do not understand the United States,” — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, June 2019. 1. While we were going about our business on Monday, March 22, 2021, at 2:30pm, a gunman entered a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado and killed 10 people. He used an automatic rifle that, as was later discovered, was purchased legally. That grocery store was 7 miles from our front door. The echoing trauma from that singular event—representing countless others—is immeasurable. We told our eleven-year-old daughter, Opal, the following morning. She is in many ways, too old to avoid sharing this kind of psyche-fracturing news and also too young to comprehend it. But what am I saying? At what age can one fully comprehend this sort of senseless massacre and why, oh god why, does it keep happening? 2. On Tuesday night, Opal wanted to join me for a guide