When you can’t control guns, control the people who use them

It’s a conspiracy of silence.

The ex-anchorman who gunned down Virginia reporters Allison Parker and Adam Ward Wednesday described himself in his suicide note as a “powder keg.”

And Allison’s father Andy Parker &#8212 who was still trembling with grief when he spoke with the press &#8212 said there had to be a way to disarm people like Vester Flanagan.

“The politicians have got to stand up to the NRA and close some of these loopholes so crazy people don’t get guns,” he said.

And there is a gaping loophole. It came out as WDBJ’s general manager Jeffrey Marks was describing how the station’s human resources department had carefully checked Vester Flanagan’s references before hiring him.

“And they all came back positive. It’s very hard to get a negative reference these days. Most companies have policies that forbid their people from giving references,” Marks said.

That’s how he slipped through.

Employers today are so afraid of lawsuits over a negative reference that they will suppress the truth about people like Vester Flanagan.

But in a country where almost anybody can get a gun at any time, every unreasonably angry person becomes a big risk. And to suppress information about them can be deadly.

So maybe employers ought to be required to report people like him. Because if the motto is true &#8212 that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” &#8212 then it’s also true that where you cannot control the guns, you will have to control the people who use them.