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Robert Tasker of Toledo brought his four children, including 12 year-old daughter, KayLee, to Cleveland in 2014 for the rally to protest proposed new gun legislation.

(Lynn Ischay/The Plain Dealer/file photo)

The Rev. Robert Winter

The Rev. Robert Winter, guest columnist, is a retired Episcopal priest, and Chaplain to the Fire Department of Berea, where he lives with his wife, Penney; the couple has two adult children and two grandchildren. He is a frequent presenter at the Institute for Learning in Retirement of Baldwin Wallace University, a sailor and sometime fisherman.

"Happy Daughter's Day to my two amazing, sweet, kind, beautiful, intelligent girls. I love and treasure you both more than you could ever possibly know."

The sentiments date to last September. But her two daughters were not the only treasured elements in Christy Sheats' life. She also treasured guns; she owned 10 of them, she claimed, claiming also that "Obama wants 8" of them (why he ostensibly decided to overlook the other two I have no idea).

"It would be horribly tragic," she wrote in a Facebook post earlier this year, "if my ability to protect myself or my family were to be taken away."

About five in the afternoon of Friday, June 24, Christy used one of those guns -- a family heirloom, apparently -- to shoot those two "amazing, sweet, kind, beautiful, intelligent girls" in the back, as they ran from the family home about 25 miles west of Houston. By the time she came back outside after reloading, the police had arrived in response to a series of panicky 911 calls; when she refused to drop the weapon when told to, an officer (fearful that she was about to fire still more .38 rounds into her daughters) shot her dead.

There.

Right there, you have the two sides of what is probably the most contentious civic debate in our nation today: the celebrated "right to keep and bear arms" (the ability to provide protection is the most-often-cited reason for owning handguns) on the one side and on the other, the tragic results when the desire to protect is overridden by the desire to extinguish.

Stripped to its essence, the point of owning a weapon is power. You feel more potent with a handgun in your dresser drawer, or on your hip, or in your hand. The allure is all the more urgent for those whose power seems to be otherwise diminished: many women; sexually frustrated teen boys; unemployed young Muslim men; inner-city gangbangers and suburban moms whose daughter is planning to get married in three days to a boy of whom mom does not approve.

Firearm manufacturers, their political arm (the NRA) and their minions in Congress all know this, of course. So when the familiar debate gets cranked up yet once again, after the latest outrageous slaughter of innocent lives, the firewall is always about "not letting Obama" (or whomever) "take away" what little power you feel you have. And another attempt to limit the carnage goes by the board.

I do not have an easy answer as to how we can confect (let alone pass) effective gun-control legislation. It is more a matter of the human heart than it is of magazine capacity and weapon caliber. In the long run, helping people to realize personal power in other areas of life is probably the answer.

Pending that, there are steps we can take -- banning assault-style weapons; requiring (as with automobiles) universal background checks, training, licensure and insurance; enforcing existing laws. If nothing else, these measures may help wean us away from the notion that firearms are the sovereign remedy for all human ills.

Including "amazing, sweet, kind, beautiful, intelligent girls" who also happen to be a little headstrong.

Readers are invited to submit Opinion page essays on topics of regional or general interest. Send your 500-word essay for consideration to Linda Kinsey at lkinsey@cleveland.com. Essays must also include a brief bio and headshot of the writer. Essays rebutting today's topics are also welcome.