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Monday, November 9, 2009

Gun laws in the US?

I've written, time and again, about our looney gun culture and our obsession with them and the shootings we end up with.

For more information on the subject, and in a rare case of re-posting, I put up the following, from Bill Mann and The Huffington Post, today:

Fort Hood Reminds Us: Our Gun Laws Are a National Disgrace

Our current lack of health insurance for all is a national disgrace. But so are our handgun laws -- or lack of them.

You'd think you might have heard a bit more about our heedless national pistolero mentality in the wall-to-wall TV coverage of the tragic shootings at Fort Hood this week. But no such luck. How many times have we seen this movie before? It's only the locations that change.

There was only scant mention in all the coverage that suspected mass murderer Nidal Hasan had bought his lethal cop-killer handgun at "Guns Galore" in nearby Killeen, Texas. How charming.

Why is it that comic Stephen Colbert seems to be the only one on national TV who regularly reminds us about this country's twisted love of handguns? (Colbert keeps his piece, "Sweetness," under his anchor desk, occasionally taking it out to smooch its barrel).

Something I've written in my newspaper columns about for years bears repeating here:

Any country with as many mentally ill people as the U.S. that allows virtually unlimited access to handguns is on a suicide mission.

Gun sickness is our most pressing national illness.

I live within sight of the Canadian border, and Americans who visit Canada are often surprised at how serious Canadian customs officials regard guns -- specifically, bringing them into relatively handgun-free Canada. Where are these people's priorities, they seem to be saying?

(Note: Canadian customs can -- and does -- turn people back at the border who have a DUI conviction. Again, different national priorities).

Canadians recognize handguns as a direct threat to civilized society, unlike here, where the NRA and the gun-toters evidently believe we're living in Tombstone, Ariz., circa 1885.

How many more mass shootings and troubled-loner gun sprees (what the New York Post calls "Slayfests") can we afford before we finally get serious about gun control? How much longer will network TV news continue to soft-peddle and play down this most basic issue?

I don't really care that much about what drove Hasan to apparently murder all those soldiers, which has been the prime focus of nonstop cable news. The fact is, he did. What I DO care about is how easy it was for him to get the means -- a lethal gun -- to do it.

Not to belabor the Canadian issue -- we Americans are, after all, the noisy, gun-toting downstairs neighbors -- but re-entering the U.S. after living in Canada for several years (which we did) was a maddening experience.

We lived a major metropolitan area, Montreal, for seven years. And even in the more disadvantaged parts of that city, you feel safe. You never feel you might get shot, either by a handgun-toting robber or a troubled loner.

Coming back into the United States you lose that peace of mind. It's like a slap in the face.

Don't believe me? Ask anyone else who's lived in a developed country in which handguns are restricted and can't be bought as easily as cigarettes.

We have millions of sick Americans who need health insurance. But there are even more of us who live in danger of being shot by an easy-to-obtain weapon. It's way past time for the media to pay attention to THIS life and death issue.
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Great writing, Mr. Mann. Thank you for the logic, information and unimpassioned input.

(Side note to "Top of the Chain": We don't agree on this issue. You know it. I know it. I appreciate your reasonably calm writing but let's not go on about this. Let's agree to disagree. Thank you for reading, absolutely. In the meantime, several more people were shot and killed this weekend in Kansas City alone, on top of the Fort Hood slaughter and the shooting in Orlando last week).

12 comments:

Sevesteen said...

It is probably a good thing that the killer used the ineffective "cop killer" gun he did, had he used any of the common handgun calibers, more would likely be dead.

Mass shootings happen disproportionately in areas where legally-carried guns are banned. Like most military bases. It is a disgrace that servicemen especially were not trusted with the weapons that would let them fight back.

We have a criminal problem--the crime rate among those licensed to carry is many times less than the general population. The problem isn't availability of guns, it is when they are only available to people willing to break the law.

Mo Rage said...

to repeat my adage:

Guns don't kill people.

True.

People with guns kill people.

Top of the Chain said...

Let's say I take your argument and disarm. I follow some future law and relegate my safety to the state. Will you call for still tougher laws for gun control when the criminal is arrested for harming me with his illegal gun?

Mo Rage said...

No one--including me--is suggesting we take all guns away from people. I'm not advocating that at all and never have.

I do think we in the US have too many guns, yes, but that Pandora's box is already open. What I am advocating is that we register and do checks on all gun purchases, including gun shows, at which too many guns are bought and sold with no registration.

And please don't say that's not so. I'd be happy to document the truth of that.

We need to keep more guns out of the hands of criminals and people of documentally provable mental instability.

But I'm sure that's all too much for the NRA.

After all, they want them in our National Parks and our churches, etc., etc.

WWJS

"Who would Jesus shoot?"

Mary said...

Thank you for this post. I happen to be a Canadian living in the U.S. and for me a lot of the love of guns feels like a kind of insecurity to be honest.

While still pretty new to this country I struck up a conversation with a couple of guys at a bar while watching the Habs win their last Stanley Cup (this was '93 and my cable was out) and the subject of guns came up.

I offhandedly said something about not really liking guns and they both looked at me flabbergasted! They couldn't believe that I'd said that. They went on to incredulously demand of me, "What, do you only want the government to have guns then?!" This was western CT, not exactly what I thought would be so gun-loving.

I imagine that they're teabaggers now, voting for Ron Paul and listening to Glenn Beck.

Mo Rage said...

Mary,

First, you're welcome, of course and second? You're no doubt right about them going for Beck and the Teabaggers.

But that's probably an easy guess, too.

Top of the Chain said...

Mary,

It is not insecurity. It is known that the Supreme Court has stated the police are not responsible for my safety. Now that is fine. But don't take away a means to self defense.

PFL0W,

Please show me your documentation. I hope it isn't Michael Bloomberg's videos. The ATF is pissed enough at him as it is. By the way, the Bureau of Justice Statistics show that less than 1% of guns linked to crimes originate at gun shows.

Top of the Chain said...

Also,

I take offense at being called a teabagger. I find the thought of anyone for some sick amusement shoving their testicles in another human beings face disgusting. The people who attend these events are rightly called tea party attendees. But certain elements of the progressives use this word to describe tea party attendees.

Mo Rage said...

Okay, TotC, duly noted.

It probably won't change what Mary and I and the rest of the moderates and lefties call you people--we sure aren't going to call you "tea party attendees". That shouldn't surprise you. You wanted your "Tea bag rebellion", you got it. So you're teabaggers. Deal.

Mo Rage said...

Some research on unregistered guns purchased at gun shows, TotC:

http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9017469

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091008/NEWS01/910080364/TN+gun+show++loopholes%E2%80%99+exposed+in+undercover+investigation

http://www.gunshowundercover.org/

Full report here:
http://www.gunshowundercover.org/images/FE/chain266siteType8/site226/client/Gun_Show_Undercover_report.pdf

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-gunshows16-2009oct16,0,1223539.story

http://www.spectacle.org/599/columb.html

Happy reading.

Sarah said...

The problem isn't with people who are legally allowed to carry guns. If you feel you need a gun for self defense, then we are in a sad, sad state. It's the ease in which people who should not have guns are able to get them.

Mo Rage said...

I agree, Sarah. Thanks for your note.

MR