Till they pry the car keys from my cold, dead, hands

 “The ultimate answer to healing and redeeming the world will not come from any government policy change—it will only come from a personal heart change,”

Dr. Joel Hunter, Pastor, Northland Church

“The ultimate answer to healing and redeeming the world will not come from any government policy change—it will only come from a personal heart change,” - See more at: http://www.pastorjoelhunter.com/#sthash.s3dwTmW1.dpuf

“The ultimate answer to healing and redeeming the world will not come from any government policy change—it will only come from a personal heart change,” - See more at: http://www.pastorjoelhunter.com/#sthash.s3dwTmW1.dpuf

Another kid shot in Albuquerque, non fatal, this time a five year old. Immediate tweet by NMTPGV about needing a Child Access Prevention Law. I wish I could say such laws would help. We have tons of laws out there and a severe shortage of common sense.

Unfortunately, I doubt these kids would be saved by laws alone. We still kill about ten times as many kids via car accidents than we do with gun accidents--with roughly the same number of cars and guns in circulation, cars seem ten times more likely to cause an accident killing a kid. Probably because they are used more often in the public space. That is in spite of licensing and registering cars, licensing and testing drivers, with myriads of laws regulating driving, and with tons and tons of public service announcements about driving safety. You can put a kid in a car seat, but that doesn't do shit to save the kid crossing the street or riding his bike when some speeding moron runs a red light. Driving while oblivious should be a crime.

Unfortunately, with both these instruments of the devil, we get mixed messages. We hear a lot about the 2A right to bear arms, but that doesn't mean common sense gun safety sinks in, i.e., if your kids are home alone, are the guns secured so they will not become inadvertent toys?  Have you taken a basic gun safety class? Are your kids trained to be wary of firearms? Is that gun under the pillow more likely to kill your kid than shoot an intruder? Is that AR locked up and if so, who has the keys?  In the case of cars, the public fights red light cameras and lower speed limits as hotly as the NRA fights gun laws. We build roads to handle high capacity at high level of service (i.e., Diamond Drive, Trinity Drive) even if this encourages speeding and puts vulnerable users at risk. We sell ponderous SUVs with high capacity engines that allow you to drive at double the speed limit, and then load them up with distraction devices. (For anyone asking why anyone needs an AR-15 with a 30 rd clip, why does anyone need a 420 HP Cadillac Escalade?) Traffic violation penalties are a laugh compared to those in parts of Europe. We put schools at the outskirts of town and design towns with arterial and cul de sac development that encourages congestion and speeding. Kids get obesity related disease because after we screw up the infrastructure, we are worried about them riding or walking to school.

I don't think laws will help much unless the underlying culture changes. Not sure what will drive that culture change. Perhaps as more upscale younger people move back to higher density development and start walking and biking, there will be a political sea change to safer communities. Until then, go to hell with your cold, dead, hands.