The article is designed to show that without a paradigm shift, gun control will not be achieved.

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Let it be known that I applaud President Obama's recent effort to establish a legacy for gun control, but I fear it is futile. Facing what he refers to as a "gun violence epidemic," the President recommends four approaches to the problem.

First, he would require all gun sellers both online and at gun shows to be licensed and perform background checks. Further, he calls for an overhaul of the current background check system by the FBI.

Next, he calls for ways to improve existing gun laws and to add additional manpower to the ATF.

To address the mental health problem, he would remove laws that inhibit states' sharing of information about those who have been deemed unfit for ownership. He would, in addition, spend $500 million to increase access to mental health care.

Finally, he calls for gun safety technology for so-called smart guns that can only be fired by authorized users.

I would like to take each of these proffered solutions to the problem of gun violence and show how ineffective they are or would be. Then, I would like to offer the only realistic (but at the same time implausible) solution, at least for the foreseeable future.

As to background checks by the vendor, both online and in gun shows, it is hard for me to understand what that may imply other than a Google search, provided it were available for a particular individual. My limited knowledge of the technology needed could prove me wrong, but the time and expense to the vendor could be prohibitive. Add to this, even if it is possible, the inevitable and intrusive invasion of privacy.

It is equally hard for me to understand how an improvement to the use of existing gun laws, (which I assume refers to enforcement) is realistic, unless the ratio of enforcers to criminals unreasonably increased. In a country of more than 300,000,000 with an equal number of guns, is it credible to suppose that the addition of 200 new agents to the ATF could make an appreciable difference?

There is no question but that the so-called smart gun may help prevent child accidents, teenage suicides, and homicides. They would make it harder for stolen guns to be used by criminals or against law enforcement officers in a struggle, but in the event that the smart gun failed, as we know can happen, the officer's life is at risk Is it really realistic to suppose that replacing a meaningful portion of the existing 300,000,000 guns currently in the hands of Americans with smart ones is possible? A "buy back" of weapons, as has been suggested, would mean, of course, that only a law abiding citizen would consider such an absurd idea. For a criminal to give up the tools of his existence for any plausible amount would be beyond any expectation.

Let me be clear that I am as keenly concerned as President Obama about the fact that America is the only advanced nation in which the mass indiscriminate killing of innocent citizens occurs in such frightful numbers. I wept with him as he told of the first graders at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. I wept with his frustration and futility, particularly in light of the most ridiculous solution offered by the NRA that the arming of school teachers and security personnel, if not all citizens, would deter gun violence. I've even heard reference to the U.S/Soviet detente in support of this insane idea. Could this be a call for a return to the Old West, where the only law was the gun, and violence settled all disputes? There might, of course, be some benefits. Think of what it would do, not only for the weapons industry, but for the fashion industry with bejeweled holsters or cleverly designed suits and dresses for concealment and easy access with no unsightly bulges.

I fear that there is only one realistic solution to gun violence. One phrase that I have heard may seem strange for me to endorse. It is the phrase, "Guns don't kill; people do." I find this concept to be all too true. That being the case, the only answer is not to be found in the elimination of guns, which in my estimation is impossible, but in the elimination of the motivations for people to kill. We must ask ourselves what makes people kill. To kill is inhuman, and people who kill are inhuman. Killing is counter to human nature, just as competition is counter to human nature.

And herein lies the real problem and any hope for a solution. Our society is built on an economic competition called Capitalism. Each man is pitted against his fellow man in an insatiable drive for material wealth that turns simple need into greed. It is, I contend, a neurosis that afflicts our society as a whole. The destructive nature of this disease will drive otherwise empathic human beings to behave, ironically, in the most extreme and anti-social manner, a manner that is contrary to the survival of the race. First, we have a loss of truth. Have we not noticed? This has to be followed by an undeniable lack of trust, and a lack of trust must, of course, curtail our ability to need or to love for any reason other than dependency. Sad to say, we have an indifferent society in which the antiquated virtues of truth, trust and love are viewed as weaknesses rather than strengths. They have been replaced with the vices of greed, stress and lust, making violence a virtue.

I fear that so long as this capitalistic society condones the murder of millions as a means of obtaining political and monetary gain by way of illegal wars, so long as it sanctions capital punishment as a means of deterring crime, and so long as its citizens support and are complicit in these criminal acts, it seems a bit hypocritical to show such obsessive concern for the relatively few victims of occasional shootings by crazed victims of a crazed society. No, my friends, the solution, if it should come, will be found in a renewal of the lost cause of true brotherhood instead of an "every man for himself" existence. Only truth, trust and love can overcome our materialistic greed and man's inhumanity to man. Lacking this paradigm shift, there will be no solution to gun violence or the many other vices this society and mankind confront. It's not that history hasn't provided us with the answer. From Confucius to Socrates, from John Donne to Earnest Hemingway, the message of brotherhood has been passed. We are our brother's keepers. Guns don't kill. A sick society does.

As a beginning, let me be so bold as to suggest my own four approaches to the problem, without which, I believe, there is no solution.

1. The President should strive to enact the necessary regulation of a run-amok capitalistic system that has produced the record setting gap between the 99% and the rest of us. The anger and frustration amongst the populace produce a desperation that for many can only be addressed by violence.

2. To alleviate this gap, the minimum wage should be raised to a level compensatory to what a single wage earner would need to support a family of four. Only then could we expect to return to a family structure that allows for the proper upbringing of our children and see the wage earner receive his proper share of the increased productivity that is the result of technology.

3. With the current $5 million dollar exemption level for estate taxes indexed to inflation, setting the current estate tax level for 2015 at 5.43 million and the current tax rate at only 40%, it is obvious to most that if there is a redistribution of wealth, it is from the poor to the rich. We hear moans and groans from the 1% about the "death tax." It is that same 1% who have increased their portion of the nation's wealth to record highs. While I would not go so far as to endorse a Canadian economist's solution which called for a 100% estate tax, I do believe a doubling of the current rate would be advisable.

4. For a legacy that would bring him astride that of Abraham Lincoln, I would advise President Obama to withdraw from all the foreign entanglements that were designed and carried out for nothing more than to enhance the obscene wealth and power of America's defense contractors and others who see perpetual war as an ideal means of achieving global hegemony. With the money now used for killing, and a lesson from FDR with his WPA and CCC, we could see our infrastructure restored and our work force utilized.

Only with such a program may we hope to recover the great American Dream.

Authors Bio:
Hal O'Leary is an 88 year old veteran of WWII who, having spent his life in theatre, and as a Secular Humanist, believes that it is only through the arts that we are afforded an occasional glimpse into the otherwise incomprehensible. As an 'atheist in the fox hole', he composed his epitaph at age 20.

With open mouth and open mind,
I came into the world to find
Life's riddle in one word defined,
BELIEVE!

And now, that Life is left behind,
Although I know they would be kind,
With open mouth and open mind,
I LEAVE!

Hal was recently inducted into the Wheeling Hall of Fame and is the recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from West Liberty University. His two favorite quotes are:

"I build my house on nothing, therefore the whole world is mine."
Johann Wolfgang Goethe

"I don't know if there is a Utopia, but I am certain that we must act as though there can be."
Sean O'Leary