Originally published for Radical Second Things. 

During the 1960s and 1970s, the Vietnam war dragged on for over a decade. Opposition to a military draft that required youth to become involved in it, regardless of what they thought of it, led to the burning of draft cards, marches on Washington D.C., and, eventually, the elimination of the military draft in the country, and the end of the war itself.

That didn't mean America suddenly became pacifist. No, that would be naive to find possible. However, America never again tried drafting anyone. Wars proliferated after the Vietnam war on a smaller but more numerous and clandestine scale, including in neighboring Cambodia, throughout Latin America in the following decade, and in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa after that. War for the U.S. became more and more remote, culminating with Bush's all volunteer occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq and Obama's drone wars. Tours of duty were extended again and again and bombing done from thousands of miles away, with a draft being avoided as much as possible.

In the wake of another school shooting in Florida, something seemed to shift - at least for some people. Most the comments I read on Facebook seemed on the anti-gun side, with only a few nonsensical right wing ones. Florida Governor Rick Scott, despite his NRA bonafides, tried to shift blame on the FBI and said they should be held responsible for the failure to stop the killer, John Kasich said the GOP was tone deaf to not act on gun control, the police commissioner where the shooting occurred said that those campaigning on gun control laws "as they are" will not be re-elected, and, as of this writing, even President Donald Trump, who played both sides of the issue in his whole time as a public figure like a true opportunist, has said he is open to expanding background checks. Students from the area of the Parkland shooting are even marching on their state capitol and Washington D.C. (along with supporting marches around the country) much like how youth protested to end the military draft.

Like the military draft, guns are not going away from American culture. However, like the military draft, they are going to be modified. This issue is reaching the sort of social cataclysm that brought an end to both slavery and the military draft. Racism and war certainly never ended, as anyone on the wrong side of it can attest, but its overt institutions were no more.

The firearm as a consumer item may end up being severely limited, limiting its channels in to the various state police branches and militia groups that usually have them in many countries. This is how it works in many Eastern European countries, where the sale of guns is very restricted but, in the right circles, they are a known item. Russia, Ukraine, and Serbia are good examples of this.

This might not end terrorist shootings, especially ones like Parkland or Orlando when the perpetrator had alleged ties with extremist groups. There are regularly terror attacks in Ukraine, where terrorist groups are even able to find surface to air missiles to bring down airplanes. However, the restriction and the end of the promotion of guns as a consumer item will put an end to the proliferation of random, senseless shootings that America alone experiences.