Who Killed John Lennon?

When John Lennon was murdered thirty years ago today, I remember some angry reaction from the British public toward the United States. The general consensus was that the murder could have only happened in America, given this country's lenient gun laws, and that New York, where the murder took place, bore the shame of the murder more than the loss of the victim. Yoko Ono responded by urging non-Americans not to bash the U.S. in reaction to her husband's murder, because "there are cranks everywhere."

Well, Yoko Ono is entitled to her opinion, of course, and she's also free to express it, and I respect her for that, but I'm sorry, I'm with the Brits on this one. Yes, there are cranks everywhere, and the intruder who attacked George Harrison with a knife at his home in England in 1999 proved that, but in America, a crank, like the one who killed John Lennon, was able to buy a gun. The United States has more firearm murders than all the other Western nations put together, and our appalling approach to regulating firearms that allows anyone to buy a gun only feeds the culture of violence in this country. We are a nation that romanticizes firearms, from the beatification of gunfighters in Hollywood Westerns to the braggadocio of hip-hop stars packing heat.

And so, to my fellow Americans, I say this: Our laissez-faire attitude toward guns enabled a psychopath who had no business owning a gun to purchase one, stand outside the Dakota apartment building in New York, and shoot John Lennon in cold blood, in a city Lennon thought he was safe in. We are to blame for his death. We created the conditions that made it possible for someone to shoot him dead. We let this happen.

I was going to hold my tongue on this issue, but then John Lennon always spoke his mind and always encouraged others to do the same. I can think of no better way to remember him.