The smoke has cleared

WANT TO get a fight started in ’most any part of the country? Just walk up to a group of five or more people and say this out loud: “Gun control!” Then walk away. It might take five minutes, but the shouting will start soon enough. Though not the shooting, thank goodness, at least not usually.

Don’t try this little political-science experiment at home, or anywhere else in the South. Or the West for that matter. Or in just about any section of this still free, and still free-spirited, section of the good old U.S. of A. that used to be on the frontier—and what section didn’t? That much-disputed Second Amendment didn’t come from just anywhere. It’s deeply rooted in our past—and our heritage. From the Minutemen and Davy Crockett to the modern-day Marines and the kind of folks who are first to turn up when volunteers are needed to track some killer in the wilds.

But even folks who own guns can’t agree on what kinds of restrictions should be placed on them. One man in the bunch mentioned above might think everybody—emphasis on every and body—should be able to carry concealed weapons. His buddy might agree that all citizens should be able to carry a gun, but those guns should be carried openly, in a holster for example, so that everybody understands who’s packing what. And get this: Somebody else in the group might say there oughta be some way to require gun buyers to undergo background checks—even at gun shows. Imagine that.

You’d think that everybody, on all sides of the debate—right and left, up and down—could agree on this much: Those with severe mental problems shouldn’t be able to buy guns.

Yes, there are some shootings that a free society will be hard-pressed to prevent. The disturbed little punk who shot up that elementary school in Newtown, Conn., first killed his mother and took her guns. The kids who killed those four students and a teacher at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro back in 1998 stole the guns from a grandfather. None of the three had to be cleared in a background check.

But background checks do work in some cases. The problem is they don’t work well enough.

Dispatches say the perp involved in the latest mass shooting, this time in Washington, D.C., tried to buy a rifle at a Virginia gun store, but was denied because a state law prevents people who live out-of-state from buying certain rifles. A shotgun, on the other hand, was perfectly okay. So this Aaron Alexis bought one and shot up the Navy Yard with it, killing 12 and wounding others.

Somehow, somewhere, something was missed. And the media are starting to piece things together.

According to CBS News, Aaron Alexis had a history of mental problems. After he shot out the tires of another man’s car in Seattle in 2004, he told the cops he’d gotten so angry he blacked out.

In its Wednesday editions, the Washington Post reported that, a month ago, Aaron Alexis called police to report that he was hearing voices coming through the ceiling of his hotel room, and that people were using microwaves to send vibrations into his body. (Uh oh. We’ve met people like that. Happily, they weren’t armed at the time.)

And still, somehow he was able to buy a weapon. “Obviously, something went wrong,” said Chuck Hagel, this nation’s defense secretary, observant as always.

Yes, sir, we’d say so.

THERE’S got to be a better way to identify people with severe mental illness, and flag them if they try to buy a gun. We’re not talking about folks suffering from insomnia or some sort mild depression. (Lord, who hasn’t at times? Just reading the paper some mornings is enough to give us the blues—but not on Christmas. We never have understood those Holiday Blues.) But folks who hear voices and think microwaves are after them, and black out from anger and shoot up a car? Those are the types we mean.

If your grocer can keep up with what kinds of canned vegetables you buy, and print out coupons for your favorites on the back of your receipt . . . .

If a search engine on the internet can suggest movies you might like based on the movies you’ve searched for in the past . . . .

If your iPhone can play an assortment of songs you probably like based on the song you asked it to play an hour ago . . . .

Then there’s got to be a better way to keep up with sick folks who shouldn’t have access to guns. You’d think that even both of Arkansas’ senators would agree about that simple proposition. Even if they just voted back in April against a reasonable update to the law allowing for background checks at gun shows. You’d think they could see the need for such a minimal safeguard now. You’d think. You’d suspect. You might even insist.

Whatever system is currently in place to prevent the severely mentally ill from getting firearms, it let us all down this past week. And 12 people paid for that loophole with their lives.

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Aaron Alexis’ mother was heard from Wednesday afternoon. Listening to the mothers after every one of these horrendous shootings—the mother of a victim, the mother of the shooter, it scarcely matters—is enough to wring the heart.

This mother choked up as she addressed the survivors and victims shot down at the Navy Yard, and said she was glad her son was in a place where he could no longer do anybody else harm. She said she has no idea why he did it, but: “To the families of the victims, I am so, so, sorry that this has happened. My heart is broken.”

Yes, ma’am, we know it is.

The system, what there is of it, is broken, too. Let’s shore it up. All along the line. For the smoke has cleared now. It’s time for action. Way past time.