Yesterday I wrote saying it could be dangerous to knock on the wrong door.
Today Nick Kristof wrote about it in the New York Times.
I am able to gift this article to readers, even if you don't subscribe to the NY Times. Click here.
My post was framed as a warning to readers. Americans keep buying guns, now at the rate of about two million a month. The more Democrats talk about restricting guns, the more people buy them. An idea getting increased traction among Americans is that they should have a gun handy for "personal protection." I warned that they are using these guns if they are angry or spooked. Kristof, too, gave a warning. He warns potential new gun owners that having a gun makes a person more likely to be the victim of gun violence. He cited statistics that gun violence has now eclipsed motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of death for children and teenagers. The drift of Kristof's post is to discourage gun ownership.Many of the "wrong people" will have guns. I have talked with my own county sheriff about "red flag" restrictions. They are meaningless.
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| Sheriff Nathan Sickler |
People are free to buy, own, and carry handguns [*** see note below] if they meet the minimal qualification of not being a felon, not having been convicted of a misdemeanor in the past four years, and not being the respondent in a current restraining or stalking order. That's it. Being "dangerous" or "crazy" is subjective. What constitutes a "threat" is subjective. Police departments aren't staffed to do mental health examinations and then defend them in court. In my county one can be crazy as a loon shouting gibberish at strangers in public parks, a stumble-down drunk, or a person notorious for making statements wishing the early violent death of public officials, but that person can carry a loaded weapon. Be warned.
Can Democrats do anything to stop gun violence? Possibly Democrats could make it less about the right to acquire and carry a gun and more about requiring gun owners to know the law and safe use of their guns. Kristof made the point that it is far more rigorous to adopt a dog than it is to acquire and carry a gun.
We don't attempt to prohibit people from buying or driving cars, but we do require people pass a test on driving laws, pass a vision test, and pass a driving test. Would it be impossible to require gun owners to pass a test on the legal use of their gun? Is it too much to ask that people know how to aim and fire the gun and hit what they intend to hit? Isn't there a constituency for protecting bystanders from wild shots?
Even the strongest abortion-rights advocates accept the idea that abortions should be performed by people trained to do them, not by just anyone. They accept that abortion drugs must be dispensed by licensed professionals and sold in pharmacies, not alongside candy in convenience stores. The fact that abortions are safe is part of why there is majority support for them.
If it is inevitable that Americans will own guns if they want them --and I think that is the case--then perhaps Democratic focus could be on gun safety, not gun possession. Let gun-rights advocates argue the position that citizens don't need to know anything or need to be able to hit what they aim at. It will not stop mass shootings. Bad people will get guns and use them. This is America. The guns are here. The attitudes are intrenched. It will be decades or centuries before that changes. But in the here and now it might turn the public debate from pro-gun or anti-gun into safe-gun or free-for-all. That is much stronger political space for doing something about gun injury and deaths.
It is a start.
***Note: An earlier version of this post inaccurately included the word "concealed" handgun in my report that a person needed no instruction. People can purchase and carry a handgun freely, but people seeking a concealed handgun permit are required to take and pass a handgun safety course and pay a $60 fee.
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15 comments:
In other words, give up.
The forces at work to destroy this society are not interested in compromises. The sooner moderates, "good people, on both sides", understand this the sooner we will turn around this insanity.
Did Dobbs not instruct?
A civilized society by definition does not need to be armed. We are not awash with guns because of any danger. It is because legislators are owned by gun peddlers. It's about money...MONEY! Guns do not wear out or become obsolete. The only way to make a profit is to sell more of them, and the only way to market them is fear.
The level of gun violence that people are willing to live with in this country rather than do literally anything to try to bring it down is literally insane. It's not breaking news but no other developed country has remotely near the levels of gun violence we have, ours is many orders of magnitude greater than every other first world country.
Since laws restricting access to guns seem to be unpassable, maybe a good alternative would be laws that increase penalties on the families of people who commit gun violence. Make the attempt to hold people like Ethan Crumbley's parents responsible the norm rather than the exception. If a minor living with you commits a mass shooting, YOU get charged with murder. If your spouse goes out and shoots their co-workers, YOU get charged.
Of course as I'm thinking about it a little more, there's 0 chance that the Republican gun nuts would ever approve something like that. As their big orange cult leader would say: Bigly Sad!!!
Due to a decline in gun sales, manufacturers began marketing rapid-firing semi-automatics with large capacity magazines designed for one purpose – to kill as many humans as possible as quickly as possible. By no coincidence, these are the weapons of choice for mass murderers, whack job militia groups and domestic terrorists.
There are three legal uses for a civilian-owned firearm: hunting, target shooting and self-defense. None of these require military-style weapons with large-capacity magazines. After a mass murder in 1996, Australia made these weapons illegal and bought them back from their owners. Since then, they’ve had two mass murders. The U.S. had 686 in 2021 alone.
Fake news alert.
Anyone who is considered a danger to him/herself or others can be taken involuntarily to a psychiatric facility. Obviously, the police will seize any weapons before the person is taken into protective custody.
The police routinely make these determinations. I have witnessed it personally. (I don't live in the sticks.)
It also is a crime to make terrorist threats and the police can take action.
Some mentally ill people are not allowed to purchase weapons legally.
Let's not whine about the illegal market for guns or drugs. The point is to make it more difficult and risky, therefore deterring some individuals, but obviously not everyone.
Fake News Alert #2:
"Support for Stricter Gun Control Laws Hits Record High, Poll Finds" (Forbes, June 15, 2022, on-line)
There also are more recent on-line articles from 2023 that show that a MAJORITY of Americans support stricter gun control laws.
I don't need The NY Times, I only need a search engine (I use Google) and the desire and willingness to do some research.
The majority of Americans support BOTH access to abortion and stricter gun control laws, according to public opinion polls.
Even in Tennessee, where the most recent school shooting occurred, Governor Bill Lee just recently signed a new gun control law. It may not be enough, but something is better than nothing. Gun control activists, backed by the majority of Americans, are not going away.
Correction: Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee signed an Executive Order, not a new law. My apologies.
Also, Gov. Lee announced that he is calling the Tennessee General Assembly back for a Special Session on public safety. The General Assembly had recently adjourned.
Remember, the recent school shooting in Nashville, the state capital, occurred at a private, Christian academy in the most affluent part of the city. It feels much more suburban than urban. The killer had attended the school.
Also, the substitute teacher who was killed, Cynthia Peak, was a close friend of the Governor's wife, Maria Lee. She was expected for dinner at the Lee's home the same day that she was murdered at the school.
This school shooting did not occur at some "heathen" public school on the poor side of town in another state.
Nick Kristof said:
Above all, we must challenge the misperception that a gun in the home makes people safer. Yes, on rare occasions, a gun can avert a crime. But researchers have found repeatedly that a gun in the house makes people more likely to be murdered, not less. “People living in homes with firearms have higher risks for dying by homicide,” according to a 2022 study in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
People may choose to have firearms for hunting or target practice or to protect livestock from predators (I live on a farm with guns), but given the elevated risk, personal safety is not a good reason to acquire a gun.
This is defective reasoning. Kristof’s study combines situations that have nothing to do with each other to produce its desired result. A family consisting of sane, responsible, competent people is not at “higher/elevated risk” of homicide if they have a firearm.
Criminals high on something like meth can be immune to bear spray; someone like that can only be stopped via physical destruction.
The difference between the comments by Mr. Kristof and Mr. Trigoboff is that Mr. Kristof provided examples and research to support his position. Mr. Trigoboff’s is pure speculation.
Many say that nothing can be done about our plague of gun violence and mass murders. It always reminds me of a headline from The Onion: ‘No Way to Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens.
I applied something called “common sense“, Mike. Homicides don’t just happen because of the presence of a gun. The studies that Kristof mentioned aggregate all kinds of families to produce an average. There has to be a deranged person involved. In a family without someone like that, the gun isn’t going to just jump up and kill someone on its own.
I like to think I saved my son's life. I have never owned a gun, but I've handled a lot of them. I was in the Army from 1967-1973. During that time I fired the M1, M14, 16, M60 machine gun, Colt 45 pistol, and the grenade launcher among others. I even threw a grenade. (as far as I could. thankfully I had a good arm). Every one of those weapons were people killers. They were designed that way. But, that was for the Army, not civilian life.
In the 1920's the gangsters were using the Tommy gun. It could hold up to 100 bullets at a time. Perfect weapon for those guys. However, in 1931 the government outlawed those guns for civilian use. That law is still on the books.
Back to my point. I know all those weapons and what they can do. Like I said, they were specifically designed to kill people and quickly. But, I wouldn't have one in my house. Way too dangerous.
One day, about 10 years ago, my oldest son was in a severe depression. He saw no way out of it, so he decided suicide was the best way. However, since I didn't have a gun in my house, he grabbed a knife. He went outside and put it to his throat. Just one cut would do it. Then, for some reason, he thought it would hurt too much. So he came back into the house and put it away. Nobody knew that at the time.
Shortly afterwards, he met the love of his life, a nurse. She was an inspiration to his life. No more depression or suicidal thoughts. He went on to become a nurse himself and they are both happily married.
However, looking back, if I had had a gun available in my house, I would have lost my son. Nothing could be worse than that.
That's right, Michael, guns don't kill people. Sometimes it's a person who became enraged. Sometimes it's an accident. Sometimes it's even a child playing with a gun in the house. "Common sense" is no substitute for data.
Peter C’s story is particularly touching and relevant because over half of gun deaths in the U.S. are due to suicide. If you have a gun handy, it’s too damn easy to shoot someone you’re mad at, or yourself.
The data shows we have far more guns per capita than any other developed nation. We also have by far the highest rate of gun violence. Common sense tells us that’s no coincidence.
Sorry, but I don’t want mentally deranged kids shooting at other humans to be able to hit their targets. Better that they miss. Miss the teacher. Miss the students. Miss the cops. Miss the admin.
Guns are not the solution. Guns are the problem.
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