How to win the gun debate: Stop talking about guns

School shootings are horrific crimes. Let's start talking about them that way.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

President Trump's 2016 campaign was relentless in its depiction of an on-the-brink America awash in crime. Here's Trump in his shockingly dark inaugural address:

Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.This American carnage stops right here and stops right now. [President Trump]

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Joel Mathis, The Week US

Joel Mathis is a freelance writer who has spent nine years as a syndicated columnist, co-writing the RedBlueAmerica column as the liberal half of a point-counterpoint duo. His work also regularly appears in National Geographic, The Kansas City Star and Heatmap News. His awards include best online commentary at the Online News Association and (twice) at the City and Regional Magazine Association.