I guess there's just a meanness in this world

Whenever there’s a horrific mass murder or serial killings, as there regularly has been through history, hands are wrung and experts are called in to speculate wildly about what could possibly have motived the killer to commit the unimaginable depravity. At least since 1982, I’ve had the answer to that question in the final verse of Bruce Springsteen’s song “Nebraska,” based on the killing spree by Charles Starkweather, who murdered 11 people in Nebraska and Wyoming in 1958:

They declared me unfit to live said into that great void my soul'd be hurled
They wanted to know why I did what I did
Well sir I guess there's just a meanness in this world

That aside, why do we continue to offer access to weapons to this meanness that it can kill dozens at a time? The bumper-sticker slogan “Guns Don’t Kill People, People Kill People” is too easily countered by “People With Guns Kill A Whole Lot More People.” There’s no reason why anyone needs an an assault rifle at all, let alone one with clips that can hold 100 bullets, any more than they need a machine gun, hand grenade, bazooka, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile, or atomic weapon (all currently illegal). And there’s no reason why there shouldn’t be computerized background checks anywhere where guns or ammunition are sold to anyone (including the internet). And there’s no reason why there shouldn’t be a waiting period when certain kinds of guns and quantity of guns are sold. We may not be able to do much about the meanness in this world. But we could do something about arming it.