Media Appearances - Lillian Cauldwell’s Cool Your Heels

February 2020

February 14, 2020-   I talked with Lillian Cauldwell about why I wrote Gun Mania, a little of my background, and Gun Mania’s message for America: We need to change direction; stop beating our heads against the wall of eliminating guns and focus, instead, on the motivations and circumstances that cause people to kill themselves or others.

We don’t just have a gun culture in America; guns are a core element of America’s culture.  They can’t be eliminated or even significantly reduced in numbers except, perhaps, very gradually over many generations.  Guns are not a core element of other country’s cultures, so what they have done to control or eliminate significant gun ownership hasn’t, doesn’t and won’t work in America.

Lillian feels an armed citizenry is no longer appropriate for current times (no quarrel with hunting, target shooting, etc.) and the Second Amendment should be abandoned (repealed).  We talked about how hard that is to do culturally, the “entrenched pro-gun lobby” and the futility of just passing laws to ban guns.  I asked, rhetorically, whether we care only about gun-related suicides and homicides, or about all suicides and homicides regardless of cause?

Lillian presented smoking as a case where citizens working together succeeded against big tobacco in dramatically reducing smoking in America, and I offered automobile safety as another example of how coordinated and long-term efforts have reduced deaths.  We agreed that both examples showed the importance of sustained programs and education over a long period of time.  I called for coordinated national, state and local programs to address the personal motives and circumstances that underlie suicides and homicides in this country.Listen to the Interview:Podcast - February 14, 2020

Lillian Cauldwell’s Cool Your Heels