People in Rowan County have thousands of guns. As of Dec. 1, more than 14,700 permits to carry concealed firearms have been issued here, according to the Sheriff’s Office. In this year alone, some 3,800 permits have been issued in Rowan for handguns. And residents have countless more legal firearms for uses that range from hunting deer to protecting homes and families.

Is it possible to discuss mass shootings and seek ways to prevent them without making those thousands of gun owners feel threatened? Let’s take the question nationwide; millions of law-abiding citizens own firearms and use them responsibly. How can this country figure out a way to deter would-be mass murderers — whether terrorists or disturbed shooters — when the mere mention of gun access shuts down the conversation?

Some would rather believe the United States has an inordinate number of people suffering with mental illness — is it something in the water? — than consider that we might be allowing inordinate access to some firearms by some people.

Law-abiding citizens should have guns — if they so choose — for hunting, skeet shooting, self-defense and other legal activities. Some people, though, should not be allowed to buy firearms, and defining that group has become a taboo discussion.   Background checks are OK for school volunteers but not for all gun purchasers?

Everything needs to be on the table as the nation tries to prevent the kind of mass shootings that have plagued the United States this year. The genie is out of the bottle; disturbed or vengeful people know all too well that they can attain infamy — make a statement, if they so wish — by firing away at a crowd of people. Such an attack can no longer be dismissed as a fluke; it is a modus operandi. Police and other emergency responders train for active shooter situations.

The gun solution would be to position armed security guards at every place people gather —  every store, every football game, every worship service, even every Christmas party. Or be sure some of the people in attendance are trained shooters who can protect the group. That would be a boon to the firearms industry and the NRA, but it is hardly practical.

Forget gun control; we can’t control guns or people. But we should at least be able to study gun violence. Unfortunately, firearms are such a sacred cow that they are even above research. The Centers for Disease Control, once threatened with losing federal funding, is reluctant to study gun violence even after the 20-year ban Congress imposed on such research was lifted. CDC officials say they don’t have enough money for the research; efforts to direct federal funding for that purpose have failed in Congress.

Background checks would not have prevented the San Bernardino massacre. Research could not have protected the children shot to death in Newtown, Conn. But good faith efforts of some kind, however small, are imperative to check the escalation of gun violence and mass shootings in this country. If not these steps, then what? Let’s talk about every possible solution, even the ones that concern guns.