Monday, June 13, 2016

On Gun Rights and Regulation

I've been trying to wrap my head around the latest in a long, long, long line of mass shootings in the United States. It's unfathomable to me that someone would be so full of rage and hate that they would go out and kill 50 strangers. I don't know much about the shooter and I know even less about the victims other than the community that they are associated with. However, there is something I do know: public discourse in the United States needs to change.

We have to do something about gun regulation. We don't need to take away people's guns. We need to make sure that all gun owners are responsible. Frankly, I don't know why more gun owners aren't speaking out about how there needs to be stronger restrictions regarding who can own a firearm. After all, the more mass shootings that we have in this country without outcry from gun owners, the crazier said gun owners seem. By saying ridiculous things like, "Not all gun owners," we are allowing people to excuse the behavior of a fringe group of gun owners without doing anything to prevent more of them from getting their hands on weapons.

Seriously, if you are a responsible gun owner, why would you protest having a three-to-five day waiting period before you get to pick up a gun? After all, if you are a responsible gun owner, that won't affect you other than a short delay while you wait for verification. Why wouldn't you want more background checks and verifications? Why wouldn't you want the kinds of weapons available like the semi- and fully-automatic weapons that are so popular among mass shooters to require verification and certification and registration? How is requiring to register your weapons in any way infringing on your rights? How is registering your guns any different than registering a vehicle?

Like many of you, I have heard arguments from people that believe that it's a God-given right to own a firearm. However, in light of all of this tragedy, I can't help but wonder how these gun rights supporters can continue believing that the assumed rights of one person outweighs the importance of public safety.

"The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."


How can people keep saying this? How about we change it to, "The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is to take away the gun"?

Columbine High School had an armed deputy sheriff and 13 people were still killed. Virginia Tech had an entire police force, including a SWAT team, when 32 people were killed in two separate attacks by the same person. At the Tucson shooting where US Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot and 6 others were killed, not only was there an armed civilian present who failed to stop the shooter, but he almost shot one of the unarmed people who tackled and disarmed the shooter. The Fort Hood massacre that left another 13 people dead occurred on a military base filled with soldiers. Heck, even the Secret Service couldn't protect President Reagan and his press secretary Jim Brady when both were shot in an assassination attempt.

This has gotten completely out of hand.

"An armed society is a polite society."

According to the FBI crime report from 2013, there are only five states where less than 50% of murders were committed with a firearm. In case you're curious, the states are Iowa, Alaska (most gun-related deaths in Alaska are suicides), New Hampshire, North Dakota, and South Dakota. That means that in the remaining 45 states, more than 50% of murders involved a firearm.

If we are to believe that the better armed we are as a society, the fewer deaths we are going to see, there seems to be clear evidence to the contrary. According to the Institute for Economics and Peace, the three most peaceful states in the union are Maine, Vermont, and Utah. In Maine, 50% of murders involved a firearm. In Vermont, 56% of murders involved a firearm. In Utah, 63% of murders involved a firearm.

How could someone possibly believe that we don't have a gun problem in this country?

The United States owns more than half of the world's civilian guns. We have the highest firearms murder rate per capita in the world. In fact, we are 20 times more likely to be killed by a gun in the United States than someone that lives in another developed country.

The way we talk about and regulate guns in this country is completely absurd. It's wrong. It's harmful. It's dangerous. It's more than time for us to stop the ridiculous arguments supporting gun ownership and start looking at the importance of public safety.

I remember back in 2011, people would say things like, "You can't stop doing X or else the terrorists win." Well, what if the terrorists are my fellow Americans? I went to a movie the other day and thought, "At least I don't have to worry about getting shot here since the theatre is pretty empty. There are other theatres here that have more people right now that a shooter would probably hit before this one." Do you realize that this means that somewhere in the back of my head I was thinking, "I'm going to the movies. I might get shot," and I had to use a flimsy mental reassurance that I probably wasn't going to get shot since I was seeing a less popular movie than other people?

That is so screwed up.

I'm very lucky to have season tickets to multiple sports in my city, but when I go to sporting events I automatically look for multiple exit routes from my seat as well as any places that I might be able to utilize for cover or concealment in case something happens. It's become part of my day. It's now routine. This has become something that sits in the back of my mind whenever I'm out in public because I don't know who around me is crazy and carrying.

Maybe it would be easier if I didn't feel like I have so much to live for. If anything were to happen to me, my family would be crushed. I have close friends that would have a gaping hole in their lives. I have a job that I am good at. I have dreams that I still want to achieve. All of that could be gone in an instant. Taken by a stranger that knows nothing about me, my friends, my family, or my life.

I've never been in a situation where I have had to fear for my life other than one time in college when there was a murder-suicide on campus. I was an RA in the dorm closest to the building where it happened and it was less than two weeks after the Virginia Tech shooting. Although the police quickly determined that there was no further danger to the campus community, it was still a terrifying experience.

Is this the new normal? Is this the way that we want to live? Is this the way that we want the rest of the world to view us? Are we really satisfied with our own citizens being afraid for their lives because we are unwilling to better regulate weapons?

This is unacceptable. This must change. We are better than this. It's time to prove it.

2 comments:

  1. Part of the problem we face now is that there are so many guns in the system the laws many propose are more about punishment 'after the fact' than anything and do nothing to confront the problems with these individuals.

    There is no one law or regulation that is going to fix everything, in fact most of our laws and regulations say what you can't do, but don't keep you from doing it. They afford punishments after the fact. We all see the news where a guy has been arrested for 3+ drunk driving incidents, we can't stop that guy barring putting him in jail forever.

    I will comment on the Ft. Hood incident. Many non-military folks assume that soldier, Marines, etc have easy access to their firearms. They do not. The military doesn't trust 18-25 year olds (majority in the military system) with having all time access to their rifles. There are military police on bases, but not everyone is armed.

    My biggest problem is that this current event had a man on terrorist watch lists obtain a weapon when we have a system where the gun shop owner had to call and get authorization to sell from a federal agency. If he wasn't really on watch lists and that was falsely reported fine, but if true then it really means our current system failed and needs to be fixed.

    As far as waiting periods, those are dependent on state at the moment and some places like Michigan and California have them, whereas other places like Montana do not.

    I own many firearms and have worked in a gun shop in the past so I will say I'm a bit biased in my opinion. I try to keep an open mind on all of it because something does need to be done, but we can't just jump to something that will not work as a quick fix. I also enjoy educating people who might not know much about firearms about what they can and can't do and I do not mind logical and rational debate on the subject.

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    1. I did not realize that access to arms was so limited on military bases. I suppose it makes sense unless they are conducting some sort of live ammunition test, although I imagine that happens either at a range or somewhere far from the larger base population.

      I worry that so many people are unwilling to talk about how to fix the current broken system. I don't want to take everyone's guns away. I just want to make it harder for the crazy people to get their hands on them. Yes, this will likely mean some inconvenience to the responsible gun owners out there, but I feel like it's a more than reasonable expectation for the sake of public safety.

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