Your gun is not worth Kaylan Gillis's life

Our tolerance for gun deaths has hit home

I can’t know what went through the mind of Kevin Monahan of Hebron a week ago Saturday as he fired a shotgun from his porch at a car turning around in his driveway.

But I’m sure it was not any of these thoughts: “I could be murdering an innocent person right now. I could be ruining my own life and the lives of others. I am committing a heinous, evil act.”

Most people justify their behavior, however unjustifiable. Perhaps Monahan believed he had the right to shoot at anyone who drove up his driveway. Perhaps he thought of firing his shotgun as “exercising his 2nd Amendment rights” or “protecting his property” or even “standing up for himself and his family” and didn’t consider the awful reality of his actions.

I assume Mr. Monahan has defenders. Thirty-five years of newspaper work taught me that some people will defend any act, no matter how wrong, if it involves firing a gun. 

Kaylin Gillis, a 20-year-old woman from Schuylerville, was killed by the shotgun blasts aimed at her car in Monahan’s driveway. Her death is an irreplaceable loss.

Adults can buy a shotgun or rifle off the shelf in gun shops in New York, subject to a national instant background check. People convicted of a felony or misdemeanor domestic violence; or “adjudicated a mental defective” or committed to a mental institution; or who are an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance are not eligible.

But fewer than 1 percent of the hundreds of millions of people who have been checked through the system have been found ineligible.

Unlike other things that can be used as a weapon, guns are made for the purpose of killing, and they are much more effective at it than a stick or a knife, which is why we need to regulate gun owners more than we do.

A license should be required for any gun. Gun owners should have to prove they understand the relevant laws by taking a written test and show they know how to use the gun in a practical test. They should be required to carry insurance.

If such tests had existed, Monahan may well have failed them. According to a report in the Albany Times-Union, Washington County’s first assistant district attorney, Christian Morris, said Monahan recently caused a scene in the DMV office when told he had to set up an appointment, and he began taking photos of the workers in the office.

He lacked the temperament to be a responsible gun owner.

A guy named Charlie Kirk, who runs a conservative advocacy organization called Turning Point USA, said recently, after a shooter killed three children and three adults at Christian Covenant School in Nashville, that gun rights are worth the price in blood.

"I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational. Nobody talks like this. They live in a complete alternate universe,” he said.

Rhetoric like Kirk’s gets taken to heart by people like Kevin Monahan, who feel put-upon and see their guns as a way to balance the scales.

Kirk has it backward. It would be better for all of us if the interpretation of the 2nd Amendment reverted back to its plain meaning, that the right of the people to keep and bear arms occurs within the context of a well-regulated militia and does not mean putting shotguns in the hands of violent old men with a grudge against the world.

It would be a far better and more rational deal to have gun ownership well-regulated and Kaylan Gillis still alive. That is an alternate universe in which I would like to live.