It has been two weeks since the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas when 22 people died (19 elementary age students) and 18 were wounded. Since then, there have been 37 additional mass shootings (defined as 4 or more people killed or injured) in the United States, resulting in 39 people being killed and 164 injured. Yet the United States Senate has made no movement to implement common sense gun safety laws because there are not 10 Republican senators who think it is necessary.
How many more people will die before 10 Republican senators are willing to do what most Americans want, which is a ban on semi-automatic and automatic weapons, red flag laws, registration of all gun sales, a restriction on the purchase of high-capacity magazines, gun buyback programs for semi-automatic and automatic weapons, and an increase in the legal age to purchase a gun to 21? Surveys after surveys continue to support this information, yet 10 Republican senators cannot see the wisdom in implementing common sense gun safety laws.
I have talked to multiple law enforcement people recently, who have all said there is no reason for any citizen outside law enforcement or the military to have a semi-automatic or automatic weapon. Nor is there any reason for anyone outside of law enforcement or the military to have high-capacity magazines for their weapons.
As I have talked to people about common sense gun safety laws most people support them, but many people push back with the following comments. “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” “Gun laws will only infringe on the rights of those law-abiding citizens who have never, and will never, commit a crime.” “What about all the shootings that occur in our major cities every weekend. Up to 20 people are killed in Chicago each weekend, and no one is up in arms about that” “we need to enforce the laws that are currently on the books” “criminals are going to get their guns anyway”. You can find these arguments throughout the recent media reports.
Here are my thoughts on the above push back.
“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people”
This is true if the gun is sitting by itself and is not touched by a human. Unfortunately, guns were not made to be paperweights. It stands to reason that a single pull/single shot handgun with a capacity of 13 rounds before and a standard deer rifle which in most states has a capacity of 5 bullets (California allows 10) will kill and injure much less than a standard semi-automatic single pull/single discharge A/R 15 which has a magazine that holds on average 30-50 rounds all of which can be discharged in about one minute. In addition, the damage done by the bullets of an A/R 15 to a human body is much more extensive than the damage done by a standard handgun or a standard hunting rifle. The type of gun matters in situations of mass killings, or drive by shootings. The greater the capacity, the greater the damage. It is reasonable to assume if we can limit the capacity of the guns that people have access to, we can significantly reduce the deaths and damage done in situations like Uvalade or Parkland where people were killed within minutes and had little opportunity to escape. Let’s try to make it harder for people to kill people, especially in a short amount of time such as a school, nightclub, movie theater, church, shopping mall, sporting event, etc.
“Gun laws will only infringe on the rights of those law-abiding citizens who have never, and will never, commit a crime”.
This is true, but so are many other laws and restrictions we face daily.
I am a safe driver, but I am restricted by speed limit laws. I am a safe driver, but I must wear a seatbelt. I am a safe driver, but I am required to buy insurance. Having laws for the greater good to protect innocent people from getting hurt is what responsible societies do.
A large majority of people are safe drivers, wear seatbelts, and would accept responsibility for any damages they caused in an automobile accident, unfortunately, there are still some people who are not responsible, and we have laws protect us from these people. Allowing people to own guns is a right that the second amendment allows. Limiting the type of gun and the capacity of the gun to a reasonable limit is what responsible societies do. It is not a coincidence that the U.S has the highest number of guns per capita and the highest number of gun deaths per capita. The more guns we have the more likely we are going to die from gun death.
“What about all the shootings that occur in our major cities every weekend. Up to 20 people are killed on any given weekend in Chicago and other big cities and no one is up in arms about that.”
Everyone in those neighborhoods in those big cities are up in arms about each shooting. Families are devastated, just like Leah and I were when Leah’s mom was murdered in a mass shooting. The unfortunate thing is that we as a nation have become immune and desensitized to the murders in large cities, in the same way most of us are desensitized to the number of Covid-19 deaths in this country. More than 1 million people have died from Covid-19 in the U.S in less than two and a half years. We topped 1 million deaths in the last month yet there was very little media coverage, because we have just accepted it as a way of life. Covid-19 deaths is no longer a big story to our citizens. As a result, it no longer receives the media coverage it did during the early stages of the pandemic. It no longer sells.
Furthermore, institutionalized racism plays a big part in our desensitization and assuming people don’t care about the murders in our inner cities. Many people see the murders in our inner city from a racial point of view. They don’t care because it is just young black men killing other young black men. If it stays in the urban areas, it is not an issue for the white people who live in the suburbs or rural areas. If it is not a big deal to most white people, it does not get the media coverage because it doesn’t sell. It reminds me of the early stages of the heroin and the Aids problem. When it was contained in the inner city among the black community and among the gay population, most people didn’t care. It wasn’t until the white kids from the suburbs started dying from heroin overdose and high-profile rockers and artists started dying from Aids that the nation took notice that drug overdose and Aids became a priority.
“We need to enforce the laws that are on the books.”
I agree. However, the current laws are not adequate when it comes to high capacity semi-automatic and automatic weapons. There is no reason for anyone outside of law enforcement or the military to have high capacity semi-automatic and automatic weapons. (See my Quote of the Day)
Furthermore, we need to make sure we have strong red flag laws that are enforceable in a timely manner without having to go through significant legal hoops. Let’s implement and enforce background checks prior to anyone owning a gun. Let’s make sure a legal gun owner can only buy ammunition for guns that are registered to the owner. There are so many things that can be done that will protect society and our children from the carnage that high capacity semi-automatic and automatic weapons inflict.
“Criminals are going to get their guns anyway.”
That is true but let’s make it harder. Let’s do everything in our power to get high capacity semi-automatic and automatic weapons off the street so they are not available to criminals. Let’s have a buyback program for semi-automatic and automatic weapons and high-capacity magazines so we can get them off the street. Let’s make sure that guns must be locked up and secure when minors live in the home. We have a lot of laws on our books that restrict access to certain things for the benefit of society. We need a prescription to purchase certain medical drugs. We need to be 21 to drink, 16 to drive, 18 to vote, and 18 to purchase cigarettes. Anyone not following these laws is committing a crime, yet it did not stop us from putting these laws in place which were to the benefit of our society.
I have learned that individuals who push back using the above arguments are not going to change their minds. They firmly believe that any additional gun laws are a slippery slope to taking away everyone’s guns. This makes no sense. Most Americans acknowledge the importance of the 2nd amendment and the right for persons to bear arms. There are 390 million guns in the U.S. That is 1.5 guns for every adult in the U.S. It would be impossible to take away everyone’s gun. Yet when it comes to practical and common-sense gun safety laws, the NRA has convinced the Republican senators and their supporters that everyone is out to get their guns, which is not true.
It is now two weeks after Uvalde, and I am haunted by the lack of progress by the U.S senate in implementing common sense gun laws. It has taken over my thoughts whenever I am idle. I wonder what it takes to get 10 Republican senators to see that common-sense gun safety laws are a good thing, that will benefit the country.
It is obvious that having to use DNA to identify some of the Uvalde victims because of the extensive damage to their young bodies made them visually unidentifiable was not enough to sway 10 Republican senators to change their minds. Maybe, we should start sharing the pictures of victims who have been shot with an AR-15 semi-automatic weapon with the Republican senators so they can see the extensive damage that is caused. Maybe we should share pictures of the crime scene of 19 elementary age students lying dead in a classroom so the Republican senators can see the carnage the semi-automatic and automatic weapons with high-capacity magazines can do. I have no idea what it takes, but I am going to continue to express my dissatisfaction.
I end with this Quote of the Day, from former Washington D.C police officer, Michael Fanone, “The AR-15 has the dubious distinction of being America’s most popular semi-automatic rifle. I’m more familiar with the gun than most people: I own one. And one thing I know for sure is that this weapon doesn’t belong in the hands of the average civilian… The bullet that comes out of the barrel of an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle can easily penetrate the target — the intruder or whatever person you are using deadly force to defend yourself or others from. But it also will go through the wall behind that person, and potentially through that room and into the next wall. That power and accuracy are useful for military purposes, which is obviously what they were designed for. But it’s far more power than should ever be in the hands of the average civilian.
The bullet fired by the AR-15 is capable of defeating the average police officer’s body armor, like a knife slicing through butter. SWAT teams and some of the more specialized units typically are equipped with level IV Kevlar or steel-plated armor, which would stop maybe two or three direct hits, but eventually body armor breaks down after being hit with multiple rounds.
A person wielding an AR-15 has a range beyond 300 yards. For an officer armed with a 9 mm pistol, hitting a target beyond 50 yards is going to be difficult, even for the most accomplished marksman. A bullet fired by an AR-15 travels at three times the velocity as one fired by a 9 mm handgun. And magazines that can feed dozens of rounds into the weapon in the space of minutes clearly were meant for use only on the battlefield.
The prevalence of these weapons means police sometimes are overmatched, as we saw with the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last month. In a situation where you have small children near the shooter, you want to remove the threat as quickly as possible.
But we all saw the tragic consequences at that elementary school, where police waited for more than an hour before engaging with the teenage gunman armed with an AR-15 who killed 19 young children and two teachers.
I have no doubt that police in Uvalde wish they had had weapons as powerful as the one carried by the shooter who snuffed out the lives of the victims in that school. But a far better outcome would have been if the shooter didn’t have an AR-15 in the first place.”
Elections Matter. Pray for peace and tolerance. What are you doing to stop the violence?
Orchid of the Day: Pat Dignan, 80, who passed away last week. His influence on kids as a teacher and coach will allow his legacy to live for many years. See my Video of the Day.
Onion of the Day: All people who think enhancing our gun safety laws is a violation of the second amendment.
Question of the Day: Why does the NRA have such hold on our Republican Senators when the majority of all citizens what enhanced gun safety laws?
Video of the Day:
Thank you, thank you, thank you.