Gun debate ? What gun debate ? Americans seem to have this settled . Yes , we witnessed on our TV screens this week yet another parade of children being evacuated from their school — this time in Oregon -- their arms held high to show they were not armed as they fled a 15-year-old shooter who police said took the life of their 14-year-old classmate . But Americans , ever more desensitized to the school/mall/navy yard attacks that come , weekly , into their lives , do n't seem to want to talk about a gun problem . Americans remain pleased for the general population -- even 15-year-old kids -- to have nearly unfettered access to all manner of firearms , including assault rifles . Even the President seems to have acquiesced . A tweet from @ WhiteHouse : `` 'If public opinion does not demand change in Congress , it will not change . ' -- President Obama on legislation to prevent gun violence . '' What this means is that we 've accepted school shootings and other random mass shootings as a normal part of life in America , no matter how they affect the life , liberty and pursuit of happiness that was first announced in the Declaration of Independence , some 13 years before our oft-quoted Constitution and the Bill of Rights . I guess that 's not surprising : We accept collateral damage for other privileges we enjoy . We tolerate a certain number of drunk driving deaths , more than 10,000 in 2012 , and there 's little public outcry for greater restrictions . We 've been willing to sacrifice nearly 7,000 soldiers ( and tens of thousands wounded ) in two wars to maintain our political influence in the Middle East . About 400 children drown each year in pools and spas , but we 're not scrambling to outlaw summer fun . Why should guns be any different ? In the United States only about 10 people out of every 100,000 are killed by guns , or a little more than 30,000 per year ( As a reference , we lost about 60,000 soldiers in the Vietnam War ) . This is clearly an acceptable sacrifice to make to maintain our sacred , un-infringed right to bear arms , no ? After all , I 've been told by some gun-rights advocates that reasonable restrictions on gun ownership will undoubtedly send us down a slippery slope to the abolition of all guns in America . And if we did n't have unfettered access to guns , think about what would happen : We would be overrun by a foreign power ; our government would assume totalitarian control and burn the Constitution ; and criminal gangs , the only people left with guns , would run roughshod over all law-abiding citizens . If you suggest , as I have , that we should place reasonable restrictions on guns , then you are clearly a delusional or ignorant pacifist who has been dropped on his head . What part of `` shall not be infringed '' do n't you understand ? they ask . ( For the record , I 'm a responsible gun owner . ) I 'm confident that in the next few weeks there will be another school shooting . I 'm confident because there have been 74 shootings on or around schools or colleges in the year and a half since the Sandy Hook massacre . That 's averaging one a week . I 'll repeat : We have a gun problem in this country . Reasonable restrictions on guns will not lead to totalitarianism and anarchy . Suffering 30,000 gun deaths annually is not a reasonable sacrifice to make in order to blindly maintain our unrestricted gun culture , particularly when the rallying cry is an outdated reference concerning infringement which , known to anyone who has actually studied the Constitution and our founding fathers who drafted it , was a reference to the then-existing reality that young men , when called upon to defend the state and the laws of the state , were expected to provide their own arms . Listen , reasonable restrictions are necessary to assure the continued viability of our Second Amendment rights , and to curb the unnecessary bloodshed caused by the proliferation of guns into hands of irresponsible people who care little about constitutional rights , and less about the sanctity of life . Like that of a boy in Oregon , who was shot dead .
Mark O'Mara : America seems to have settled its gun debate . He says inflexible owners must accept target shooting as collateral of ` ` right '' to bear arms . He says we do n't further restrict drinking because of DWI . Have we broken that deal on guns ? Bush : Forget it : Restricting guns wo n't hurt Constitution , cause anarchy ; it will protect us .