WRONG QUESTION

October 3, 2017

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

Re: Wrong question

I’ve said this before and I very much fear I’ll have reason to say it again. This time, as always with mass shootings, we get obsessed with the wrong question. We ask: Why?

It’s natural, I suppose. It's the most interesting question, and it’s inevitable that we try to understand the motives for such demented, barbarous acts—acts that seem to defy the very roots of our common humanity. Trouble is, no matter how many explanations we come up with, nor how varied according to each individual tragedy, they always eventually fall short. It's essentially irrelevant to understanding, let alone finding the solution to the problem.

No, the real, the important question is not Why, but: How did this happen? How are these demented souls empowered to wreak the havoc they do? How do people, sometimes quite obviously unfit to be entrusted with deadly weapons, get the means in their hands to go out and kill? How is it that our country, all evidence to the contrary, continues to allow a small group of fanatics to persuade lawmakers, such as yourself, Congressman, to persist in the removal of even the sanest of regulations to keep us safe from such outrages?

Today, I hear the same tired old argument: now is not the time, in the wake of this current tragedy, the worst in our history, to “politicize” the issue. I disagree. Now is precisely the time. It’s a moral imperative. You, our representatives in Congress, must address it.

Respectfully,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.