It's Time to Get Serious About Guns

Like every other American, I have been thinking this week about the tragic loss of life in Newtown, Mass, including the brutal murder of 20 first graders.   I was very disappointed when Congress let the Assault Weapons ban lapse in 2004.   I spoke out about that by writing a letter to the editor of the Kansas City Star, which was in fact published.   About that time, I did some serious reading on the gun control issue.   It has been obvious for some time that many sportsmen have been quick to speak out against any form of gun control, on the theory that any form of gun control would constitute a "slippery slope" that might ultimately lead to the banning and confiscation of their shotguns and rifles.   It is beyond obvious that a hunter does not need an AK-47 to shoot at deer or pheasants or rabbits.   The only possible purpose of an AK-47 or a Bushmaster AR-15 such as was used in the Newtown shooting is to kill people.   Clearly, sportsmen do not need assault-type weapons or 30-shot magazines.   Further, the "slippery slope" parade of horribles argument can be used on virtually any subject.   If we let the government ban obscenity, the next thing they will ban will be my favorite novel.   Shades of Grey will be outlawed.   It is clear that we have now reached a tipping point in the gun debate where we cannot afford to let sophistry such as the "slippery slope" argument get in the way of taking meaningful steps to enact some reasonable controls on gun sales and ownership.   Sportsmen, nobody is going to take your shotgun or your squirrel rifle.   But we are just simply not going to let your fear of that get in the way of trying to keep automatic and semi-automatic killing weapons out of the hands of ordinary citizens, some portion of whom are mentally unbalanced.

In addition to the "slippery slope" argument, Second Amendment advocates include a significant number of folk who sincerely believe that the Second Amendment was meant to allow the citizenry of the United States to obtain and own military grade firepower sufficient to allow armed revolt against the government of the United States.   Of course, reading this into the Second Amendment's concern for a "well-regulated militia" is something of a stretch.   More practically, it seems to me that this argument is a bridge too far.   If this was the true purpose of the Second Amendment, then long-existing prohibitions on citizens owning machine guns would certainly have been declared unconstitutional long ago.   It is clear that the Second Amendment does not permit the sale and ownership of Thompson submachine guns, grenades, anti-aircraft missiles, flame throwers, or nuclear weapons.   Therefore, claiming a right under the Second Amendment to own an assault rifle (that can easily be converted to a fully automatic submachine gun) as a form of good citizenship should fall on deaf ears.   We will never satisfy the hard core Second Amendment people that ANY reasonable gun legislation is constitutional or appropriate.   It seems to me that it is way past time to worry about that.

The current argument applied to the Bushmaster AR-15 and similar weapons is that, although they look scary, they only shoot one shot at a time.   One trigger pull results in one shot being fired.    I heard this argument being made by a Republican Congressman on TV last night.   Of course, if you have 30 rounds in a magazine, you can manage to get off hundreds of shots in a short period of time, as the Newtown shooter did.   Another problem with this argument is that kits are readily available to convert these weapons to three-round, or even fully automatic weapons after they are legally purchased.   This type of kit should itself be outlawed with stiff penalties attached to its violation.   Go to YouTube and you will see dozens of videos demonstrating the firepower available with the use of these kits.   Here's an example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewnZyH3wnAw

The familiar argument made by gun advocates is that everyone should be armed to dissuade and deter potential criminals from acting.   After the Colorado theater shooting, I posted on Facebook a statement by President Obama that AK-47s do not belong in the hands of ordinary citizens, only the police and military.   A high school friend responded that AK-47s belong in the hands of everyone and that if everyone in the Aurora theater had been so armed, the mass shooting would never have taken place.   I am still seeing the picture in my mind of a movie audience sitting in the dark cradling their assault weapons in their laps.   Presumably my friend would apply this to the small children in the audience as well as adults.   Do we really want to live in a country like that?   In the Midwest we have seen a recent push to allow concealed carry and open carry gun laws enacted and legislative moves to nullify gun-free zones.   The Michigan Republican Governor, the same one who just signed the "Right to Work Law," yesterday vetoed a bill passed by a Republican legislature to nullify gun free zones in schools and day care centers, among other places.   I cannot accept the argument that we should all go around armed at all times.   Do we really want 80,000 fans all carrying guns at the big conference football game?   Would there not be more danger from accidents and careless brandishing of loaded weapons than random gun violence we are trying to prevent.   The best answer is that countries who have strong gun laws have very low death rates from firearms.   That's a good enough answer for me.


The table below compares the rate of firearm ownership in the United States with that of several other advanced countries and the number and rate of homicides by firearm.  The following chart is from Wikipedia.

Country	Civilian firearms per 100 residents[92]	Number of homicides by firearm[93]	Homicide by Firearms --rate per 100,000 population[94]
United States of America	89	9,960	3.2
Switzerland	46	51	0.5
Sweden[95]	31.6	92	1.0
France[96]	31.2	682	1.1
Canada	31	554	1.6
Germany	30	690	0.8
Mexico	15	26,757	22.7
Australia[97]	15	229	1.0
Turkey[98]	12.5
England and Wales	6	41	0.1
Japan[99]	0.6	11	0.0

Note: Statistics are for latest year available, usually 2009 or 2010.


We need immediate Congressional action to reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban, which should be expanded to include all assault grade, non-sporting weapons, and multi-round magazines.   We need a mandatory national gun registration requirement to include all types of guns.   We need to eliminate the gun show and any other loopholes to mandatory waiting periods and background checks for the purchase of any type of firearm.

In addition to stronger, clearly written gun laws, we need further funds and attention to mental health services, currently so popular for politicians' proposed spending cuts.   And we need to strongly consider having trained policemen assigned to public schools during in session hours.

All of those changes will certainly not guarantee that we never have another Columbine or Newtown massacre, but they will certainly decrease the chances of one.   It's time to bring some sanity to our gun laws and regulations.