Left, an X-ray of a leg showing a bullet wound delivered by an assault rifle used in combat. Right, an X-ray of a leg that sustained a bullet wound from a low-energy bullet, inflicted by a weapon like a handgun in Philadelphia. from an article about destruction caused by military-style weapons in The New York Times

We have this in common. We are wounded.

“Many factors determine the severity of a wound, including a bullet’s mass, velocity and composition, and where it strikes. The AR-15, like the M4 and M16 rifles issued to American soldiers, shoots lightweight, high-speed bullets that can cause grievous bone and soft tissue wounds, in part by turning sideways, or “yawing,” when they hit a person. Surgeons say the weapons produce the same sort of horrific injuries seen on battlefields.

“Civilian owners of miliary-style weapons can also buy soft-nosed or hollow-point ammunition, often used for hunting, that lacks a full metal jacket and can expand and fragment on impact. Such bullets, which can cause wider wound channels, are proscribed in most military use.

“A radiologist at the hospital that treated victims of the Parkland attack wrote in The Atlantic about a surgeon there who ‘opened a young victim in the operating room and found only shreds of the organ that had been hit.’

This is one reason the hunters I know, even if they have such weapons, never carry them while hunting.  So-called assault weapons have absolutely no function other than war and mass murder. No civilian needs one. Indeed, even an actual “well regulated militia” has little use for them.

“ . . . ‘Bystanders are traumatized just seeing the victims. It’s awful, terrible. It’s just a ghastly thing to see.’ ”

Law is a reflection of the will of citizens. We pass laws that demonstrate our values and our goals, that define boundaries for behavior. Australia experienced a mass shooting and promptly outlawed the weaponry used because they did not see the need to allow another such shooting. They haven’t had another since.

It is simplistic and naive to say that “guns do not kill people, people do.” Somewhere in the United States psyche there seems to be imbedded the belief that guns make us safer. It is a treasured fantasy, a macho or fearful or perhaps fearful-macho faith that having a gun will turn individuals into saviors. Abundant evidence proves otherwise.

In truth, it is widespread but not a majority view that guns make us safer. A relative of mine who has been founded guilty in court of attacking his wife has a concealed carry. He says he “feels safer carrying.” It is a line I have heard from other men and women too. They only feel safe when armed. Needless to say, I do not feel safer that they are armed. Like them, I am afraid,

Fear is wounding. Fear is symptomatic of psychic damage. It, too. is a wound.

We are all wounded. Every killing, every attack, every shouted insult and barbarous excuse for such actions, wounds. Our nation is bleeding.