Sta.sh
by Charles E. Kunkle Jr. (aka fraterchaos)
We've all been very saddened and shocked at the latest round of mass murder which has taken innocent lives in yet another American City. The deaths in Colorado are horrifying to say the least, and I am sure we will be hearing all kinds of back and forth arguments about it in the days and weeks to come.
It's really a very tough issue and one that I believe we SHOULD be looking at, but at the same time, I also believe it's time for a little more calm, a little more consideration, and a lot more logic.
The right wing, and NRA and those who support gun rights will argue strenuously that there is no need for stronger laws, and even argue that if the law was less strict, there would be less gun violence. I think I have to come down on the opposite side from that extreme point of view.
On the other hand, I have no wish to see people have their hunting rifles, and even handguns that they might own for personal protection to be taken away. We DO have a constitutional right to bear arms. But I also tend to agree with those who now say that none of the founders ever intended such a law to cover high powered assault weapons. I highly doubt George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin or any others intended people to be carrying these weapons.
But just for a moment, let's table to entire idea of banning any type of gun or any type of ammo, and look at something else.
We could institute a policy which simply monitors who is buying weapons, what they are buying, and in what quantities. That would in no way infringe on any legal owner's rights, but would allow the authorities in charge to have a much better idea of the possibility of these sorts of tragedies. The ATF SHOULD have a means to monitor all gun sales, and all ammunition sales, and when any person who is not a registered dealer purchases guns or ammo above a certain limit, that person would be "red flagged' and could then be watched. if we were talking about prescription drugs, nobody would say monitoring that would infringe anyone's rights... if it were dangerous poisons, nobody would be complaining. We already monitor many other things less dangerous. Hell, we have agencies that monitor whether or not products could be misused by the public and cause unintended harm, why can't we watch who's buying something that has only one purpose, to kill?
Perhaps this person has a valid and legal reason for buying four guns in a one month period, and if the ATF becomes aware of that valid reason, the watch could be ended. But if, like the shooter in Colorado, he's buying these weapons for the purpose of participating in a mass homicide, then the fact that he's being watched might stop him before he can achieve his nefarious ends.
Now, personally, I would favor a ban on these high powered assault weapons, as there is no valid reason whatsoever for an average person to have one. They have one purpose, killing humans... no sane hunter would use a semi-automatic assault weapon for hunting.
The only argument I have ever heard that tries to validate the reason for allowing these weapons is the "protect us from our own government" argument... but that argument is plainly incorrect. I do not care if you have a barn filled with these guns, and another barn filled with ammo for them, you will not be able to threaten the government or resist them if they truly wish to "take over" as so many thoughtless people seem to think.
Unless you also have a constitutional right to own Apache helicopters, F15 Fighter jets, Stealth Bombers, Drone Aircraft with Sidewinder missiles, and yes, nuclear weapons, you are no match for the government should they decide to suspend or abolish the constitution and turn the USA into a totalitarian state. If the people in power decide to take away all of our freedoms we cannot resist that, we simply do not have the capability!
So what can be done? Well, first and foremost, we need to be able to discuss this without having some special interest group dictating the contents of the conversation. As long as fear of the NRA controls politicians, and as long as they can set the terms of the debate, nothing will ever change. People will keep being gunned down by crazed lunatics with access to the wrong kinds of guns.
I would also like to add one thing. I think that, in many ways, it is shameful of all of us that we need to see things like this before we even consider taking some action... each and every day, people are killed in ones and twos all over this country by gun violence, and it seldom gets more than a simple mention on local news... we might hear, "two killed in altercation overnight" in such and such a section of the city... and we say "oh that's terrible"and move on with our daily routine... but there are probably more people murdered every single day than this one killer killed in that theater. I do not mean to take anything away from the horror of that event, or belittle the pain of the victims and their families... but what about the victims and families of each and every random killing? If there are 20 people killed on average each day in this country (I do not know what the real figure is, but if it is as low as 20 I'll be surprised) why is that any less a tragedy than 12 being shot at one time, other than the fact that the 20 happen scattered all over while the 12 happened all in one place?
First and foremost then, I would say, we really all need to look into our own hearts and stop allowing some other entity decide things for us. Instead of simply accepting what the NRA, or anyone else says about this (or any other subject really) all the advice I can give is the same advice I always give: think for yourself Schmuck!
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As for the oft quoted "if guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns" there is actually a few things wrong with that idea. One might make the same argument that if nuclear weapons are outlawed, then only outlaw nations will have nuclear bombs... but it doesn't follow. Just because some choose to disobey a law, that does not mean the law should be removed. If murder is outlawed, only outlaws will commit murder, so let's stop making laws against it! let anyone who wants to, kill anyone they wish.
Now, as I said in the paper, I do not want to see the government take away people's hunting rifles, nor even handguns that someone might have for protection... but allowing people to buy military weapons is simply stupid. You would not allow people to buy Sidewinder Missiles,even though, technically, under the second amendment, we have every right to own them! Every year millions, if not billions are spent to keep these powerful types of military hardware out of the hands of anyone but the military, and no one finds that an attempt to destroy our rights. So passing a ban on assault rifles and other semi-automatic and automatic weapons is NOT infringing anyone's right to own a gun. You can still buy a shotgun, a hunting rifle, a pistol.
There is another reason why "only outlaws will have guns" has nothing at all to do with the events in Colorado, the shooting of Gabriel Giffords and the others there, the Columbine tragedy... NONE of those people were criminals UNTIL they committed the crime, you can't make laws that restrict these powerful weapons from criminals only, because you never know when someone who seems normal might go insane and purchase multiple guns, piles of ammo and go on a spree... Nearly every "spree killing" ever committed was committed by people who had no criminal record...
The only real solution, in as far as the government is able to do anything, is to ban these types of weapons! Yes, if someone really wants to kill, they will find a way, but how many could this guy in Colorado have killed in that theater with a knife? Or striking people with a ball bat? The only way he could kill as many, and injure as many without his assault weapons would have been if he had a homemade bomb, or some kind of poison gas weapon, and in many many cases, people who try to make such things end up killing themselves before they ever get a chance to use them on others... yes, some might succeed... and yes, we can never be entirely safe from crazy people with weapons... but does that mean we turn our backs and do nothing about it?
If you are driving a car, and you always wear your safety belt, and have all the airbags the car can reasonably have, you can still be killed in an accident, so by the argument that we can't ban assault weapons because only criminals will have them... we might as well also remove safety belts and airbags, since they don't ALWAYS work. Banning these guns may not ALWAYS stop these crimes, these massacres, but let me ask this, if you, or someone you loved was killed in Colorado, how would you feel about the fact that this person purchased these weapons completely legally? We may not strop every single spree killing by banning these weapons, but I think if you ask the victims they will agree, it is worth it if it stops even one!
The Guardian shows some interesting stats about American gun homicides [link] and yes the numbers are over 20 per day as of 2010.
Apparently most gun deaths in Canada are suicides [link] ! I had no idea.
Generally though, gun deaths in Canada continue to decrease and mass shootings are really rare. As of last year (lost the site) there were only 173 which is pretty low even in comparison to population size - Canada is less than 1/10 the size of the US.
Gun control is stricter here in Canada. No one is allowed to even own a handgun. We've had a lot of problems with people not wanting to register their guns and the gov making a mess of the long gun registry.
Overall, crime continues to decrease in both Canada and the US - there have be no convincing explanations for this trend over the last 2-3 decades.
Canadians seem to feel safer - so safe that we don't always lock our doors and are thus often subject to property crimes of opportunity - that Americans. Even so, crime is down.
There's nothing in our constitution about having the right to bear arms but basically the average Canadian doesn't seem to feel they need guns to protect themselves - or - that they even need to protect themselves.
Apparently outside of big cities, there are a lot of former American residents who love to flaunt and play with their guns! LOL! This is a rumour I've heard from Canadians who live outside Vancouver.
It's weird in BC since they estimate that over 7 billion dollars worth of our economy is fueled by the weed trade, there isn't more gun violence!
[After proofreading this, I came across an article about gun myths in Canada and I seem to be quite wrong in some of my perceptions! LOL! [link] . On the other hand, it was written by a self-described gun nut!]
Oddly my dad having been a manic gun nut (he owned over 19 rifles and antique replica handguns - the only ones people can legally own), made me very much more against guns and violence.
After he died, about the only thing left to inherit after my step-mum sold most of his stuff to pay off his massive credit card debts - was a few rifles. I got a 22 with a custom stock and scope. He always bragged about how amazing and unique his guns were! I finally managed to sell it for far less that it was worth - yet the concept that guns are one of the few investments that appreciate was one of his standard justifications.
I still find it odd that being such a peace loving Mennonite, he was so obsessed with guns and hunting for sport (though he did finally change his mind on this aspect when god spoke to him just a couple of years before he died!). It really gave me the creeps cuz he was always on about them. He seemed to have to clean them all the time, especially in the family room while we were all peacefully watching TV. He used to 'playfully' look through the scope at us! EW!!! I had bad daymares that he would turn out to be like the few of his patients who went insane and turned their guns on their families and themselves. (As a social worker, I was on the phone with the police and the common law wife of a guy who was rounding up his children and shooting them and finally shooting himself - AS IT WAS HAPPENING! What a horror! He killed at least 4-5 of his kids - he had quite a few from several sequential sister wives!)
Anyhow, to this day, I abhor guns and can't understand why people are so ridiculous about their RIGHT to own them when in fact, for most of us, there is no reason to do so!
Super article! Thanks for posting it!
One of the problems we have here is that statistical data is often one sided or twisted to support one or another point of view, this happens not only with guns but in nearly all aspects of our lives... it gets so that you really don't know if anything you are being told is true.
I really don't have any problem with people wanting to own a hunting rifle to use for hunting, as long as they are hunting and USING what they kill... people who hunt just to kill things and hang heads on the wall are just sick as far as I'm concerned. I personally do not hunt, I don't really like blood, guts or killing... but my family, most of them hunt, and I don't have an issue because they eat what they kill. Its not for "sport" only.
I don't even have any real issue with someone having a pistol, or two or five, to protect their homes and lives. I am sure that the TV here in the US is overblown on the subject of home invasions and that sort of crime, I highly doubt there is really as much of it as the sensationalists would have us believe... but on the other hand, such things DO happen from time to time, so the idea of owning a gun to protect oneself from some maniac strikes me as fairly reasonable. BUT, and its a big BUT... studies seem to show you're far more likely to shoot a family member than an intruder and that far too many children are killed playing with daddy's gun than thieves or murders... so maybe we need to have some law about safely storing your own guns too...
What bugs me, as i said in the article, there is absolutely no valid reason for assault rifles. And certainly no need for 100 round clips. As lawrence O'Donnel said last night on his show, the gunman with a ten round clip is going to shoot, at most 10 people (if he hits every target) and when he stops to reload because of his limited ten round clip, the other people will take him out, and do so without guns that might hit the wrong person, or that might cause an accidental killing if someone with one gun thinks someone else with a gun that is trying to kill the killer, is actually mistaken for a killer himself... the average person isn't trained... but a 100 round clip means 50, 60, 70 people are in serious danger before the gunman is forced to stop to reload...
I am beginning to side more and more with the people who say the NRA are not trying to protect freedom as they are trying to protect the profits of gun makers and ammo factories.
Lawrence O'Donnel made another very good point about this... the NRA gun nuts all say we have to "protect our freedom" to own guns... that the government is trying to take away our freedom and guns are only the first step in doing away with all freedom... but they seem to forget that the government takes away much of our freedom already, over far less and they don't complain about that... the government tells you where you can park your car, and how fast you can drive it, that's taking away freedom! They tell you you can't smoke a harmless weed because somebody a long time ago felt it was bad and so far, nobody has found any proof that it really is bad, so just to be sure, we have to makes it illegal (I wish that reasoning applied to the drugs they sell by prescription!) They affect our freedoms in almost every aspect of our lives and none of these NRA types complain one bit. One great example is airport security... ALL Americans now have to remove their shoes and have their shoes searched... all because one insane pro-islamic nut job tried to smuggle something onto a plane... something HE and HE ALONE thought would be a bomb! What he was smuggling could NOT have caused an explosion! Nobody was actually in any danger at all! And yet, because of that ONE single incident, we all take off our shoes to board planes now! But people ARE dying from assault weapons and large clips... but we cannot outlaw those because it curtails our freedom? Its entirely insane and backwards... things that cannot harm anyone are searched for vigorously and we all suffer because of that, all our freedoms are curtailed over something that was no actual danger and we all agree and undergo the indignity of having to remove our shoes... but when people really are being killed, well we can't do anything to stop it because it will "take away my freedom to be a mass murderer!"
It's absolutely true that not only the NRA but many many other organizations exist solely for the purpose of protecting industries which are really of dubious value. I still can't get over how governments have been convinced to consider a CORPORATION to be a PERSON and have the same rights!!! What the hell's that all about!!?! SHEEEESH!
And your top paragraph is also a real point hitter! I mean, it's like duh!!! In trying to ascertain what the truth is, I usually go with the nicest thing - I'm sure one of those old Greek guys defined truth something like that! You'd probably know! I'm pretty sure it was Aristotle! LOL!
So I tend to believe the freely available stats that show overall crime has been decreasing in North America for at least the last three decades - however, if faced, that would force the powers that be to be "economical" and stop pouring money into all industries related to crime and whoa! - a lot of interests would lose a lot of interest that way! Haha!
It's soooo stupid though - I just read in one of the local free rags around here (haha paid for newspapers have been losing money several decades now too but that doesn't stop them!) that the horrifying, statistically very unusual murderous incident in Colorado has caused both Americans AND Canadians to increase their gun buying by a TON! What's up with that? DUH!!!
Personally I hate and loathe all guns and do not understand HOW people can be that obsessed with them! What is their real problem and what are their REAL fears!??!
Though I have my own paranoias and phobias, I just can't understand this need to arm oneself to the teeth for these mostly imaginary dangers!
For my dad, I'm sure it was all about having the guns and playing with them, cleaning them and reloading his own bullets (nice hobby for a good Menno doctor, eh? Talk about inconsistencies!) and of course the hunting and killing.
I always remember being annoyed that my dad spent so much time with his native friends out in the massive bush of northern Saskatchewan etc, hunting and killing innocent animals. It wasn't until he was near death at the ripe old age of like 52 that he heard from god, who told him that he was only allowed to hunt for food not trophies! ARG!!!
It's a wonder I have any remaining sane cells in my brain!
Something else that has recently occurred to me on this... the gunn uts keep saying "if you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have gins" and they try to use this whenever one of these massacres occurs, but its actually faulty reasoning... the ones who usually walk into a building with a gun and start shooting as many as they can, seldom have any criminal record at all... the guy in Colorado didn't... so you can't "regulate" guns by making them illegal for criminals, criminals aren't the ones causing these shootings. We have to get rid of these damned assault weapons, all there is to it.
The biggest problem as I see it is that people who have a good reasom to keep everyone buying guns. gun makers, and ammo manufacturers, have to make money, and they spend a LOT of money basically brainwashing people with this fear and hatred so they all keep buying guns. And its the same in so many areas of life... people go around brainwashing the masses just to get more than they should... more and more I think the root of the problem is money and power, not guns or viewpoints or criminals... wouldn't be any criminals if everything was free and it was impossible to steal because nothing belonged to anyone...