It's the guns, stupid
Yael T. AbouhalkahDon’t get distracted. When it comes to controlling U.S. gun violence, one thing matters more than most: It’s the guns, stupid.
Yes, America needs better treatment for mentally ill people, as many Republican members of Congress are suddenly claiming.
But that won’t do much to solve the nation’s gun violence problem. The majority of gun crimes are not committed by mentally ill people.
Yes, America needs to take some steps to make its schools safer.
But that won’t do much to solve the nation’s gun violence problem. The majority of gun crimes are not committed at schools.
Yes, America needs more people who have strong religious faith.
But that won’t do much to solve the nation’s gun violence problem. The majority of gun crimes are not committed by atheists.
The Republicans, Democrats, gun lovers and others who embrace America’s gun culture claim they want to talk about all these things and others while trying to prevent future tragedies like the brutal slayings of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday.
But it’s the guns, stupid.
Banning assault weapons - all of them - will help.
Banning the production of anything that allows a person to shoot more than six bullets will help.
Banning all gun shows will help.
Taking steps to buy back guns, to confiscate illegal ones from the homes of Americans, to putting people in prison for disobeying gun laws - all of those would help control gun violence in America.
George Hunsucker
Northland
5 months agodrum, drum, drum, we want your guns….
We know better, we will take your guns…
drum, drum, drum, we want your guns…..
Greg McFarland
5 months agoOh Yael, next you will tell us the shy is green. Since you want to void the 2nd amendment, I was to void the 1st. You need to be removed from writing about guns since all you do is lie abou them. Please show us when gun control works. Chicago? DC? The UK? Australia? They had lower murder rates than the US before their ban went into effect but I guess you are a little right, the murder rates went down. Now every thing else went up. Did you know violent crime rates in the UK are 10 times higher than the US? Most of the EU is way higher too. Canada is about twice. In Australia, a woman is three times more likely to be raped. But I guess you are ok with her being more likely to be raped. Why don’t you suggest banning blacks since there are disproportionally more black shooters (my guess is it has much more to do with education and poverty than race but Yael won’t look that far.) Now why don’t we all talk about things that might or are already proven to reduce gun violence. Lets get radical and fix the inner city schools, maybe raise the dropout age to 18 so those kids aren’t out on the street and at least have a high school diploma and stand a much better chance of getting a job. Lets get more cops on the street. Lets get longer prison sentences since most shooters already have a rap sheet. Maybe the country needs a 3 strikes law. Maybe the one legal administrative thing Obama can do is let private sellers use the NICS background check system. Come on Yael, stop spouting things that have been proven to not do anything to reduce crime and may actually increase the number of dead kids.
Phil Cardarella
5 months ago“Did you know violent crime rates in the UK are 10 times higher than the US? Most of the EU is way higher too. Canada is about twice. In Australia, a woman is three times more likely to be raped.”
OK, I’ll bite. Where do those stats come from? Western Europe and the UK have traditionally been WAY safer than the US — and Canada? And, it seems strange that the epidemic of rapes in Australia has gon un-noted.
The CONSERVATIVE government of Australia banned semis after a series of mass murders. That was in 1996. Since then? ZERO mass murders.
Greg McFarland
5 months agohttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196941/The-violent-country-Europe-Britain-worse-South-Africa-U-S.html
Note that the article notes that some of the difference may be in exactly how things are recorded but I was shocked that rates are so much higher. I will have to dig up Austrailia’s.
Greg McFarland
5 months agohttp://m.sodahead.com/united-states/australia-more-violent-crime-despite-gun-ban/question-3401255/
Not sure how unbiased this page is as the one I originally was using was a newspaper (not that they are unbiased). I just noticed in the first link that it had Australia at like 92 but the second link seems to show it much higher. I don’t know why the difference.
Lay Sertag
5 months agoMore liberal bleating from one of the sheep.
You cannot argue with a tree or a rock or the sky, and you cannot have a logical discussion with a liberal.
Jonathan Porter
5 months agoEvery law I’ve seen proposed would have done nothing to stop this tragedy. The shooter broke dozens of laws including stealing the guns. The only thing that would have stopped this tragedy is if someone was allowed to be armed in the school and take the shooter down. But because Schools are a “Gun Free” zone none of the guards, staff, or teachers could legally be armed and were easily gunned down. Almost all mass shootings have happened in “Gun Free” zones. The only law that will stop the next mass shooting is one that repeals these “gun free” zones. Call your senator and representative and tell them this before the next mass shooting at a “Gun Free” zone.
Erik Martin
5 months ago“The majority of gun crimes are not committed by atheists.” — That is an interesting statistic… do you have a source for it?
“Banning assault weapons - all of them - will help.” What a load of nonsense! Less than 4% of murders are committed with rifles, and only a small percentage of rifles are considered “assault weapons”. The idea that assault weapons should be banned is the idea that we should only do political acts for show and do nothing of substance!
Thomas Struble
5 months agoWe all know that criminals follow the laws, not. Disarming the citizens only set us up to be targets for the aggressors and for government control….
Nate Bennett
5 months agoI’m going to have to state something here. You did not define what gun culture is. I’m willing to bet that’s because you are not a member of the NRA or even own your own firearm. Therefore you’re giving a knee-jerk reaction and putting out buzz words like I do in IT meetings to make the higher ups feel better about themselves.
What we’re truly seeing here is that the city and suburban dwellers that have never had to be on their own are freaked out because some people grew up rural and had to fend for themselves. Yes, those of us that grew up on farms had to grow food, take care of critters, shoot critters for food and most of all live dirt fucking poor.
Here’s another point about that. Those that did not grow up rural need those of us that did. We’re the ones with the resources. We’re the ones that have knowledge on how to provide the basics. You know basics like food, water and being a moral human being. We’re not out to rob your ass because we can’t survive because of a lack of real knowledge.
Now please, one of you, including the author, that agrees with this article tell me why that the true gun culture is a bad thing? There are many of us that own firearms out in the middle of bum fuck egypt and don’t shoot people randomly. We’re not who you should be afraid of. We’re who you should support because we’re the ones that will defend liberty and promote freedom.
Bryan Sheasby
5 months agoI like how the author wants to call everybody stupid but refuses to use any facts or logic whatsoever in his argument. I truly doubt he even looked up statistics on how many mass shooters were atheists plus only God can know a man’s heart. They ONLY thing that would stop mass shootings is to allow the idea of the “Gun Free Zone” to die. People who have permits to carry, should be able to carry everywhere and in all 50 states. We need reciprocity.
If we want to solve other types of gun violence, we need to look into what is causing it to happen and attack that instead of just having a reactionary police force. The culture is a big problem too. No, not the “culture of violence” but the “culture of stupidity”. We have a culture that encourages people to be ignorant and uneducated and then we are shocked at the results.
Sean Bell
5 months ago“confiscate illegal ones from the homes of Americans”
I agree with Greg. For the authors own safety we really do need to remove his 1st Amendment rights. Nah, we wouldn’t do that, because it would be almost as stupid as his idea of destroying the 4th Amendment in order to trash the 2nd Amendment.
These kinds of discussions is why the 2nd Amendment is in the Constitution. A democracy is 2 wolves and a sheep deciding what is for dinner. The 2nd Amendment is there for the sole purpose of making sure that the sheep is well armed and can ask for a recount.
David Hineline
5 months agoYael
If you were ever in a situation where people were being hurt/killed. The first thing you would do is try and call for help from a man with a gun.
You understand 911 brings a gun.
Joe Smith
5 months agoIf guns cause death, why at the 1000’s of gun shows every year that they are 10,000 guns each, 100,000’s of rounds of ammo and thousands of gun people, why are they not mass slayings left and right at these? Do forks cause fatness, do cars cause DWI’s?
Sean Bell
5 months agoAnti-psychotic medication + developing brains + random and extreme side-effects = trouble
How many articles do you see discussing the common medications being taken by these shooters, or of the violent suicidal tendencies that may appear by the starting, ending or change in dosage?
How many do you see talking about “crazy” people or guns?
Gary Adams
5 months agoApparently those Australians aren’t as smart as say the “beltway snipers” when it comes to committing mass murder. The only stupid people are the ones that believe the drivel this writer puts on paper. This person hasn’t a clue about what he is talking about. No one can prevent mass killings. No amount of armed guards, no amount of mental health experts, nothing can prevent this from happening. However, an armed person in the right place can mitigate or minimize the devastation. Anyone who thinks different is just fooling themselves.
Bob Yates
5 months agoJonathon Porter — “Every law I’ve seen proposed would have done nothing to stop this tragedy.”
Really?
We can assume that Nancy Lanza was a law-abiding citizen. This means that even if her son kills her she does not have the guns or the magazines which made the events in Newtown so horrible. Likewise, the guns and magazines in Aurora, Colorado would have not have been obtained legally.
What is the next obvious false argument on why we have guns being sold in this country that can fire so many bullets so quickly and magazines that can hold up to 100 rounds?
Nate Bennett
5 months agoThe law imposes criminal penalties on people who store loaded firearms on their premises if they know or reasonably should know that a minor (person under age 16) is likely to gain access to them without the minor’s parent’s or guardian’s permission (CGS § 29-37i). A person is not criminally liable if the firearm is locked up or in a location that a reasonable person considers to be secure, or carries it on his or her person or close enough so that he or she can readily retrieve it.
A person is criminally negligent if the violation of these provisions results in a minor using the firearm to injure or kill himself or someone else (CGS § 53a-217a). A violator is strictly liable for damages if a minor obtains the unlawfully stored firearm and causes the injury or death of anyone (CGS § 52-571g). The provisions do not apply if the minor obtains the firearm by unlawful entry.
Sean Bell
5 months agoHopefully none of these idiots figures out what a good ol’ fashioned pump action shotgun can do in a crowded area. Since they never run out of ammo, if you load on the fly, the carnage would be horrible. The ghoulish press and gun-control nuts would have to cry themselves to sleep over a missed opportunity.
Jason Brooks
4 months, 4 weeks agoIn defense of the writer I would agree that banning guns is a good idea… in a world where everyone on the planet would agree to live together in peace. Sometime in the future we will have a judge who will ultimately do away with all weapons but until then who will that judge be?
I’m keenly interested in who the author would pick as the interim judge and what level of control would the author volunteer of himself to said judge to guarantee his safety from gun violence?
I’m fine with banning guns and weapons of any kind but bad people don’t get banned. All too often our government gives them every opportunity to linger on and threaten law abiding people.
What about my right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? I feel that my government has let us down and let a power vacuum develop between the law abiding and criminal factions of our society. Thus gun violence occurs. Our government is supposed to “insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity”.
The above statement is more true for those who commit crime. Our government bends over backward to make a criminals life more tranquil in and out of prison. The criminal is heavily defended in courts and made more free because they don’t need to ask for government permission to live the way they do.
I the law abiding citizen have become an enemy of the state. Its gotten to the point where I have to ask for permission to defend myself and jump through red tape to secure the blessings of liberty…
Tim Bruggeman
4 months, 4 weeks agoPeople commit crimes every day. Some of them use firearms. Many use other weapons.
There are 70 to 80 million lawful gun owners in the USA (that number doesn’t include the criminal element who unlawfully own firearms.)
35% to 45% (estimates vary) of US households have firearms in them.
These people are your friends and neighbors. None of them committed a crime with their gun yesterday. They won’t today or tomorrow either.
Do you know which of your neighbors have guns and which don’t? Would you feel differently if you did? Would you treat them differently if you did?
By and large, your ‘firearms bearing fellow citizens’ are just as moral, ethical, and law-abiding as you are. I’m a firearm owner. I’m pretty well educated. I have a pretty good job. I’m not a paranoid maniac. I believe I’m pretty representative of the general firearms owning public.
I think when tragedies like Sandy Hook happen, people lose sight of the facts and get caught up in hand wringing and the “somebody somewhere should do something” mentality. And proposing laws that ban a certain type of firearm, simply because it was used in this tragedy, is just that.
There are millions and millions of responsible Americans out there not committing crimes with their guns.
Here’s a quote from an article I read in the Kansas City Star: “And despite the tragedy at Sandy Hook, mass killings at school are extremely rare. A 2004 Department of Education report put the odds of an in-school student death by gunshot — either murder or suicide — at less than 1 in a million over a four-year period.”
It’s probably little consolation for the parents of the children who have been slain at schools. But the facts are the facts.
Here’s another fact. Access to semi-automatic military-pattern firearms and large capacity magazines isn’t the problem. The problem is, we have a culture of violence, and we have a lot of violent people out there who choose to do harm to others. Don’t expect expanded gun control laws to fix that. If you ban semi-automatic military-pattern firearms and large capacity magazines, criminals, and people intent to commit mass murders, will simply use handguns, which are more concealable and just as lethal, hold plenty of ammunition, and are easy to reload.
One more thing. And you won’t find this in the news, because it’s not sensational. Believe it or not, firearms in the hands of lawful people prevent a lot of crimes. The numbers vary widely, from hundreds of thousands of times a year to millions. I’m more likely to believe the lower numbers, but regardless, it’s still a lot. A lot more often than firearms are used to commit murder.
You may choose not to exercise your Constitutional right to bear arms. But let’s think real, real hard about putting more restrictions on that right.