I went to sleep last night with thoughts of my friend Miki who grew up in Roseburg. Miki, whose dad and uncle helped build Umpqua Community College. Miki, who went to that very college for two years, herself. Miki, whose cousin is an RN and was on duty working with family members to ID yesterday’s shooting victims.

I don’t know anyone else from Roseburg. At least not as far as I’m aware. Nor did I know anyone from Sandy Hook or Seattle Pacific University nor from the dozens of other schools where mass shootings have occurred in recent years. It doesn’t make the shock, the grief, or the anger any less. What is the matter with us? Why can’t our lawmakers pull up their big boy panties and do something about this national gun sickness?

Yes, lawmakers. And, yes, gun control. And, yes, national. I don’t believe for one minute that it’s a matter of “background checks” or help for the mentally ill or any of the rest of the “look over there; no over there; wait…over there” kinds of arguments that blitz us with every shooting spree.

I am not so simplistic as to think “No guns, no killings.” But neither am I blind to the statistics of gun-happy United States versus other ‘developed’ countries. Adjusting for population, the U.S. death rate by firearms — which includes homicides, suicide and accidents — was 10.2 per 100,000 people in 2009, according to the Coalition for Gun Control. The closest developed country was Finland, with a firearms death rate of 4.47 per 100,000 people in 2008, less than half that of the U.S. rate. In Canada, the rate was 2.5 per 100,000 people in 2009. In the United Kingdom, the 2011 rate was 0.25 per 100,000 people.

Our nation, with 4.5 percent of world population, accounts for about 40 percent of the planet’s civilian firearms, according to Dr. Garen Wintemute of the University of California, Davis, Medical Center. “It’s not clear that guns cause violence, but it’s absolutely clear that they change the outcome,” said Wintemute.

But… we’ve been over this ground too many times. Apparently, no one really cares that the only other country that considers gun ownership an inalienable right is Yemen… and that they have recently tightened up their laws, but we seem unable to do so. I’m sure that this blog will generate a lot of negative comment. I’ll probably utilize my blog-owner’s right to delete the ones I disagree with. I’m tired of the arguing. What will it take for us to get serious about the killing epidemic in our country? What will it take?