Photo: Shane Leonard

Stephen King is a remarkable novelist of the macabre. He’s published 65 novels and novellas. Carrie, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Cujo, Misery, The Green Mile—and those are just the works that have been translated into films.

On average, King’s novels run 100,000 to 200,000 words, but he needed less than 160 to tell a chilling truth about American culture.

“There is no solution to the gun problem, and little more to write because Americans are addicted to firearms.

“Representative Jared Golden, from Maine’s Second Congressional District, has reversed course and says he will now support outlawing military-style semiautomatic rifles like the one used in the killing of 18 people in Lewiston this week. But neither the House nor the Senate is likely to pass such a law, and if Congress actually did, the Supreme Court, as it now exists, would almost certainly rule it unconstitutional.

“Every mass shooting is a gut punch; with every one, unimaginative people say, ‘I never thought it could happen here,’ but such things can and will happen anywhere and everywhere in this locked-and-loaded country. The guns are available and the targets are soft.

“When rapid-fire guns are difficult to get, things improve, but I see no such improvement in the future. Americans love guns and appear willing to pay the price in blood.”

I too have given up hope; hope that common sense would replace, “It’s my Second Amendment right.” I’ve stopped listening to those who continue to say: “the government is going to take away my guns!” Not all guns . . . just assault-style weapons, the most effective killing machine used by mass shooters: Aurora, Colorado; Newtown, Connecticut; San Bernardino, California; Sutherland Springs, Texas; Las Vegas and Parkland, Florida. (See the list.)

The sad truth is America has traded common sense for lives needlessly lost.