The uncle of Dylann Storm Roof, the white man suspected of killing nine black Americans at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, told Reuters that the suspect was given a gun, a .45 caliber, by his father for his 21st birthday. As with the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the Aurora shooting, and the USCB shooting, the church massacre has dragged the US back into an issue it cannot solve or make any progress on: gun control.

Maybe it's time for us on the left to face the fact that gun rights are never going to change in this country. Why? Simply because when certain members in a society have something (freedom to carry guns all over the place, or the absence of an income tax on earnings), it's very hard to take it away. Maybe we should not push for gun control legislation but instead find alternatives (fines or insurance requirements) that might have a political chance. It is far easier to add something than to take something away.

Gun violence and accidents have a huge cost in this country ($229 billion a year—and this for an industry whose direct economic impact is only $30 billion a year), and most of this cost is borne by the public. It's time not to talk about freedoms but something Americans understand: money. Those who own guns need to bear the hard social costs of gun ownership. You can have your weapons, we should say, but your health insurance premium is going to be dear.

Believe me, the public is going to pay the real cost of that birthday present.