A lot of people take issue with the term "gun violence" and for a good reason. It somehow implies the gun is responsible for the violence, especially because of how it's routinely used by some to advance the cause of gun control.

It shouldn't, though. It should be a term that simply describes the method used to commit violence. After all, gun is the adjective here, not the noun, which is modifying "violence." We should have fist violence, knife violence, car violence, and so on.

Only, we don't.

Instead, so-called gun violence is held up as a problem by those who would ignore pretty much every other form of violent crime. And we have many discussions about how to address the problem, few of which deal with the idea that people are responsible.

I came across an op-ed earlier today where the author thinks they're actually stepping up and addressing the issue of so-called gun violence.

Ordinarily, I appreciate when someone tells me they’re thinking about, or praying for, me. Especially when I’m going through a tough time, I’m grateful to know people care about me.

But, when an elected official offers thoughts and prayers — specifically in the aftermath of yet another shooting — I scoff. Not because thoughts and prayers are meaningless, but because they must come with action. And in a city like Baltimore, where gun violence changes, ruins and ends so many lives each year, we are desperate for change.

It’s not just our legislators who make me angry. I’m angry because this is still, seemingly always, happening. I’m angry we can’t learn our lesson. I’m angry at anyone who prioritizes so-called gun rights over human rights or suggests we respond to this ongoing emergency with even more guns: additional law enforcement, arming teachers. I’m angry that police, despite their oath to protect the public, not only fail to respond to shootings but cause them.

It’s only recently that I’ve also been angry at myself.

For far too long, I’ve been a hypocrite, expecting action and change from others with no effort of my own. Gun violence of all types — accidental, domestic, police, school, street — infuriates me, but what have I ever done about it? I cry. Curse. Criticize. Reactions even less meaningful than thoughts and prayers.

This is a failure on my part that I’m trying to understand. Was it that I thought we were only one or two more high-profile shootings away from things finally, somehow, getting better? Or was it that I thought they never would?

So, in response, the author basically became a gun control activist, donating money to Everytown in the wake of Uvalde and as well as becoming involved with a local group supported by Everytown. Sort of. It seems their enthusiasm died, but we'll get back to that in a moment. Instead, let's look at what the author thinks of as meaningful action. It's all basically about gun control.

In other words, this is someone who thinks the only possible reaction to tragedy is to ban the tools used to commit that tragedy.

Yet we've seen mass shootings in countries with extensive gun control laws on the books. That's not a guarantee that anything will be better, especially since the author's hometown of Baltimore has some pretty extensive gun control measures already and that certainly hasn't helped, now has it?

The truth is that Uvalde wasn't the result of insufficient gun control laws. It was the result of police officers doing absolutely nothing while a gunman was able to kill children with impunity. It was a police failure by every metric you care to name.

Most mass murders that occur and involve a firearm--those that would be termed as "gun violence"--aren't going to be ended with a handful of new laws on the books, laws that restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens far more than they restrain the criminal element in our society.

If you want to end violence, the author is right that one has to do the work, but that work has to start by focusing on people. We need to understand why people become criminals in the first place and why they think taking lives is a valid way to deal with conflicts. We need to understand what possesses someone to shoot up a school or a restaurant or a movie theater or a nightclub, then address those root causes.

Doing that and we not just solve the riddle of so-called gun violence, but also knife violence, hammer violence, and every other adjective you care to come up with.

The author isn't doing that, so they're doing nothing.